FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — Tua Tagovailoa will start for the Atlanta Falcons in their first preseason game against the Denver Broncos on Friday night at home.
Head coach Kevin Stefanski said on Wednesday afternoon that Tagovailoa and the starters will go for a series or about 10 plays. But he also made it very clear that the starting quarterback job for the regular season opener hasn’t been decided yet.
“I’m not there, we’re not there to name a starter for week one. We just will cross that bridge when we get to it. Obviously feel very good about where Tua is, where all of our guys are, and he will start on Friday night,” Stefanski said.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
Tagovailoa said on Tuesday that he approaches the preseason games as playing a big role for the team collectively.
“You don’t have the coaches out there. You gotta go out there, you gotta make the calls, whether it’s right or wrong. You gotta live with them, and then from there, you come in the next day, you watch film, you talk about it, and you go from there,” he said.
As for Michael Penix Jr., the third-year quarterback has only been participating in individual and 7-on-7 drills at training camp.
He says he’s feeling good two weeks into camp as he recovers from his ACL injury that ended his season early last year. And part of that recovery includes his mental space.
“It just more so is just having that confidence in it and not worrying about it because injuries happen in football, but at the same time, you don’t want it happening again. So it was like, I got to get out of my mind what if it happened again and just go out there and just play,” Penix Jr. said Wednesday.
The Falcons and Broncos preseason game kicks off at 7 p.m. at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
©2026 Cox Media Group
