{"id":839527,"date":"2026-09-07T13:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T13:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/839527\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T13:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T13:44:10","slug":"falcons-name-tua-tagovailoa-starting-quarterback-for-week-1-vs-steelers-latest-nfl-news-analysis-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/839527\/","title":{"rendered":"Falcons name Tua Tagovailoa starting quarterback for Week 1 vs. Steelers | Latest NFL News, Analysis & Updates"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former first-round pick of the Dolphins, Tagovailoa signed<\/a> with the Falcons in March following his unceremonious release<\/a> from Miami, offering the Falcons an experienced signal-caller with the capability of handling the starting job. With Penix still working his way back from a season-ending ACL injury<\/a> suffered in 2025, Tagovailoa\u2019s history — and even his handedness — became especially valuable to Atlanta, setting up a potential path that could see Tagovailoa begin as Atlanta\u2019s starter before ceding the job to Penix.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a decision that comes with the utmost confidence. Tagovailoa struggled<\/a> mightily in preseason action and only found a bit of a rhythm in Atlanta\u2019s final game, a contest in Tagovailoa\u2019s former home of Miami in which he also fumbled away possession<\/a> and only displayed minor improvements.<\/p>\n

The situation grew dire enough to shift the main focus toward Penix\u2019s health status and his race against time to improve enough to be available for Week 1. With desperation in the air, Stefanski delivered optimistic comments<\/a> regarding Penix, who said his goal was to be mentally and physically ready to handle the job despite spending almost all of preseason practicing in limited fashion.<\/p>\n

Instead of rushing Penix back onto the field too soon, Stefanski is taking the more cautious route by going with Tagovailoa for Week 1. Judging by his preseason performance, there\u2019s no guarantee he keeps the job beyond the opener. But for now, he\u2019s the Falcons’ top option as they head to Pittsburgh to face the Steelers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former first-round pick of the Dolphins, Tagovailoa signed with the Falcons in March following his unceremonious release…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":839528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[6255,1327,4,31117,3,349,36315,99,1835],"class_list":["post-839527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-around-the-nfl","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-breaking-news","tag-michael-penix-jr","tag-news","tag-nfl","tag-regular-season","tag-sports","tag-tua-tagovailoa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839527","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=839527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}