{"id":793127,"date":"2026-07-30T10:20:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T10:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/793127\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T10:20:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T10:20:23","slug":"with-tua-tagovailoa-limited-by-back-injury-falcons-sign-cooper-rush-to-bolster-qb-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/793127\/","title":{"rendered":"With Tua Tagovailoa limited by back injury, Falcons sign Cooper Rush to bolster QB room"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Atlanta<\/p>\n

Free-agent signing Tua Tagovailoa will be limited through at least the first week of Falcons training camp. Dale Zanine \/ Imagn Images<\/p>\n

July 29, 2026 Updated 12:20 pm EDT<\/p>\n

The Atlanta Falcons opened training camp Wednesday morning with undrafted free agent Jack Strand as the team\u2019s only healthy quarterback after a morning full of discouraging news.<\/p>\n

The team announced Wednesday that free-agent addition Tua Tagovailoa will be limited through at least the first week of training camp by a back injury, revealed former top-10 pick Michael Penix Jr. still has not been cleared for team drills after last year\u2019s ACL tear and released third-string quarterback Trevor Siemian due to a non-football injury.<\/p>\n

To bolster the quarterback room, the Falcons signed veteran Cooper Rush, who has started 14 games in Dallas and two in Baltimore in an eight-year NFL career.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the NFL, brother,\u201d coach Kevin Stefanski said Wednesday. \u201cYou cannot predict what\u2019s coming. \u2026 Not fazed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inside a dysfunctional start for the Falcons at training camp<\/p>\n

Josh Kendall<\/p>\n

Tagovailoa, who came to Atlanta from Miami in the offseason, had something \u201cflare up\u201d and will return \u201csooner than later,\u201d Stefanski said. Tagovailoa could be back by the end of this week, a team source who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about team injuries told The Athletic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not long term,\u201d Stefanski said. \u201cHe will be back shortly. He\u2019ll be ready to roll.\u201d<\/p>\n

Penix Jr. tore his ACL last year in Week 11 but had hoped to be ready for full participation in time for training camp. He participated in seven-on-seven drills during the team\u2019s spring practices and will continue to do that, Stefanski said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll along, we have put total trust into Mike and the medical team and the doctor performing his surgery,\u201d Stefanski said. \u201cI\u2019m very, very comfortable with where we are and the plan that we have. Also, I know Mike, and he has the absolute right attitude, which is he can keep grinding every single day and get better every single day. He\u2019s working very, very hard. \u2026 He\u2019s hitting every single checkpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Connections:\"Connections:<\/p>\n

Jul 30, 2026<\/p>\n

Connections: Sports Edition<\/p>\n

Spot the pattern. Connect the terms<\/p>\n

Find the hidden link between sports terms<\/p>\n

Play today’s puzzle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Free-agent signing Tua Tagovailoa will be limited through at least the first week of Falcons training camp. Dale…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":793128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[1327,399,398,396,397,349,99],"class_list":["post-793127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=793127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/793128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}