Tua Tagovailoa’s chance to be the Falcons’ starting quarterback may have come and gone.
Tagovailoa was set to start in Week 1 before an oblique injury in the days before the game knocked him out of consideration to play against the Steelers. Tagovailoa also missed Week 2, which gave Michael Penix enough time to finish his road back from a torn ACL and move to the top of the depth chart.
Penix led the Falcons to a win over the Packers last Thursday and Tagovailoa is now in the backup slot. Tagovailoa said on Tuesday that he views his role as making “sure you’re not the reason [Penix is] failing.”
“I’m always going to look at it as a competition,” Tagovailoa said, via Marc Raimondi of ESPN.com. “But as I said, this is the job description right now. Mike’s the guy. We have to do everything we can to support him, and we’re going to support him.”
Penix has a long history of knee injuries and a short history of sustained success as a starter, so Tagovailoa’s role could change at some point in the future. For now, though, he’s going to be an observer on gameday.