Michael Penix Jr. is progressing in his third week of practicing without limitations but Falcons offensive coordinator Tommy Rees refused to speak out of turn regarding his return to game action.
“Over the last few weeks, he’s looked sharp without many limitations,” Rees said Thursday, detailing Penix has been comfortable moving in the pocket and when forced outside of protection.
“I think Mike looks good, man. … I’ll let the medical side handle those things, but I’m very pleased with where Mike has been.”
The Falcons are being extremely cautious with Penix, a first-round pick in 2024 who ended last season in surgery to repair a torn ACL for the third time. Penix said he’s “close” to taking the field on gameday but he’s splitting first-team quarterback reps with Cooper Rush.
Jack Strand, an undrafted rookie who played Division II football, also took practice snaps on Thursday.
Penix, who is left-handed, does cause Rees a bit of extra thinking with play calls. Many of the plays are reversed for a lefty quarterback, Rees said.
“Physically, I need to hit a couple more goals,” Penix said Wednesday.
Tua Tagovailoa was named the starter six days before the opener at Pittsburgh. But three days later, he was being replaced with the first-team offense in practice by Rush because of an oblique injury. Tagovailoa would have to return to practice Friday for a realistic chance of starting Sunday against the Panthers.
Rush threw two interceptions — one was a T.J. Watt pick-6 — and was sacked four times by the Steelers in Atlanta’s season-opening 20-13 loss. He completed 12 of 22 passes for 143 yards with a TD pass to running back Bijan Robinson. Robinson had 173 of Atlanta’s 238 total yards.
Head coach Kevin Stefanski said the Falcons are “not ruling anybody out.”