The Fragile, Shaky, Not-yet-feelgood Story Of Tua Tagovailoa's Next Act

Walk very gently around the Falcons’ practice fields in Flowery Branch, Georgia. You might injure a quarterback. 

Yes, while Cleveland is the site of the most controversial and misbegotten quarterback situation, Atlanta is home to the most delicate. Two oft-injured quarterbacks, Tua Tagovailoa and Michael Penix Jr., are ever-so-carefully competing for the starting job like they're trying to run across a hockey rink. 

Penix, who partially tore his ACL last November, finally received clearance to begin full 11-on-11 work on Monday, meaning the Falcons' QB competition can now begin in earnest. Good thing, too, because the regular-season opener is coming up fast, and it's probably a good idea to have a starting QB in place at that point. 

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The Falcons snagged Tagovailoa for the NFL equivalent of a scratch-and-dent bargain — one year, $1.2 million — as a combination insurance policy/camp challenge for Penix. This marks a clear new chapter for Tagovailoa, who first came to prominence at Alabama, throwing the famous second-and-26 national championship-winning pass against Georgia in the same building the Falcons call home. After going to Miami in the pandemic draft, where he sported a spectacular suit in his parents' home, Tagovailoa strung together six occasionally transcendent, often maddening injury-pocked seasons. 

Tagovailoa occupies a strangely sympathetic position in the modern NFL. No other quarterback has suffered so much, so visibly in this decade, with at least four documented head injuries, along with an assortment of other health woes. A not-insignificant contingent of NFL fandom and commentators has called on Tagovailoa to retire — not because he's hurting the team, which is usually the reason for these calls, but out of fear he's hurting himself and jeopardizing his future. 

A newly-released study which states that 25 percent of recently deceased NFL players had CTE is a stark reminder that head trauma remains a concern for NFL players, if not necessarily a headline-worthy news item. And if you're making a list of known head trauma victims now playing in the NFL, well, Tagovailoa tops the list, and there's no close second. 

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The head injuries alone are enough to proceed with caution on Tagovailoa, but this is a guy who's sustained shots all over his body — back, shoulder, knee, hip, ankle, throwing hand, foot, ribs. Point to a spot between the top of your head and the soles of your feet, and Tagovailoa has probably lost games after injuring it. He's been carted off fields all over the country, wearing both Alabama crimson and Miami teal. Even though he's now in Falcon red-and-black, the questions persist: How much more can he take of this? 

For his part, Tagovailoa leans heavily on his faith to guide him through one of the more agonizing journeys in the NFL right now. "Outside of being able to feel centered, it also gives me a lot of perspective on life, what's important in life," he said recently at training camp. "Football is just what we do. It's not who we are."

After missing time early in the preseason with a tight back, Tagovailoa has been taking first-team reps while Penix heals. The results have looked good in practice, not so good in the first preseason game against Denver — 3-for-5 for 22 yards, with just one first down in two offensive series. He's never had a big arm, and he hasn't unleashed it with any regularity in a Falcons uniform, either. 

"You have to make use of every opportunity you have, and that's not what we did," Tagovailoa said after the Broncos game, via The Athletic. "Definitely not up to standard. I have to be better for our guys."

"He's getting better every day," Falcons quarterbacks coach Alex Van Pelt insisted recently, per the team's website. "I think he's becoming more comfortable with the system and the play-calls and protection adjustments and everything."

Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski is keeping his cards close on naming a starter, waiting to see how Penix performs in full-squad drills. But as with the ongoing scuffle in Cleveland, the fact that Tagovailoa hasn't yet seized the job for himself is at least a mild indictment in itself. (Tagovailoa did not play in the Falcons' second preseason game; no starters did.) 

The Falcons backed themselves into this corner by drafting Penix just weeks after signing now-departed Kirk Cousins, and then watching as both went down with injuries and ineffectiveness. What should have been a position of excessive riches is now one of the largest question marks in the NFL. 

For a team that's suffering through the longest playoff drought outside of the Jets — eight years and counting — the Falcons can't afford any more question marks. Atlanta needs answers, and fast. Still undetermined: whether Tagovailoa is the one to provide them.