{"id":770654,"date":"2026-06-30T20:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T20:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/770654\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T20:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T20:59:08","slug":"falcons-qb-tua-tagovailoa-finds-himself-among-dregs-in-cbs-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/770654\/","title":{"rendered":"Falcons QB Tua Tagovailoa finds himself among dregs in CBS rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"

June 30, 2026, 3:45 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

If the Atlanta Falcons<\/a> get a strong year at quarterback it’s going to take a whole lot of NFL analysts by surprise. When training camp begins in three weeks<\/a> Tua Tagovailoa will be competing with Michael Penix Jr. for the right to start for the Falcons come Week 1.<\/p>\n

While the battle is still to-be-determined, right now Tagovailoa has to be considered in the lead. Tua has taken every 11-on-11 rep so far this offseason, so he should be further ahead in his chemistry with Atlanta’s playmakers.<\/p>\n

Just because he’s their top option to start doesn’t necessarily mean he will be able to lead the Falcons back to the playoffs, though. Coming off a rough 2025 season in Miami, Tagovailoa is considered one of the league’s worst starting quarterbacks.<\/p>\n

Over at CBS Sports, Bryan DeArdo has ranked<\/a> Tua among the lowest tier of NFL quarterbacks, in the “holdovers and placeholders” tier.<\/p>\n

“Like Murray and Watson, Tagovailoa is another former Pro Bowler who is competing for a starting job. While he has shown flashes of his potential (especially in terms of his accuracy), head injuries have largely defined Tagovailoa’s career up to this point.”<\/p>\n

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n

That puts Tagovailoa in the same company as Jacoby Brissett, Geno Smith, Kirk Cousins, Deshaun Watson and Kyler Murray – veterans who have fallen on hard times.<\/p>\n

We feel this is just a little bit harsh. The rest have been inconsistent at best the last few seasons, while Tua had just one bad season. Tagovailoa had much better numbers in 2024, including a league-best 72.9% completion rate. Lumping Tagovailoa in with these bums is off-the mark.<\/p>\n

Tagovailoa belongs in the “volatile veterans” category, along with Aaron Rodgers, Daniel Jones, Baker Mayfield, C.J. Stroud and Bryce Young.<\/p>\n

Of course it may not even be Tua starting for the Falcons. While the previous regime is now gone, the franchise did invest a top-10 overall pick in Penix – and they’re going to want to give him at least one more chance to prove he can be their long-term starter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"June 30, 2026, 3:45 p.m. ET If the Atlanta Falcons get a strong year at quarterback it’s going…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[202558,64,63,593,356819,85,292906,292907,203469,292908,204523,318111,204526,203146,203142,203149,202991,203498,203139,255431,202561],"class_list":["post-770654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-accessfree","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sourcefalcons-wire","tag-sports","tag-sstssportsnflfalcons","tag-sstsnfalcons","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagatlanta-falcons","tag-tagcbs-corp","tag-tagdeshaun-watson","tag-tagmichael-penix-jr","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnfl","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagoverall-negative","tag-tagsport-scores-statistics","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagtua-tagovailoa","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}