Tua Tagovailoa lost his Falcons starting job to nobody

It’s almost impressive how terrible Tua Tagovailoa has become. Falcons training camp began with Tua locked in as QB1, and then a chasm of space to Michael Penix Jr, who hasn’t been able to practice because he’s hurt — yet somehow Tagovailoa managed to lose the job to nobody. Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network reported Tuesday that Tua has been so awful in preseason and practice that the Falcons are just waiting on Penix to recover, at which point the job is his for the taking.

Tagovailoa, who wears the No. 1 jersey, has been pure No. 2 since arriving in Atlanta. In the first preseason game against the Broncos he went 3-for-5 for 22 yards, then didn’t play at all against the Colts in game two — in which the team looked infinitely better with Jack Strand and Cooper Rush under center, rather than the guy they signed to be the starting QB.

One infamous passage of play in the Falcons’ joint practice against the Colts saw Tua give up a sack on a play where he failed to identify pressure, then fumbled a snap, completed one pass to Drake London which was a staggering overthrow the WR managed to haul in, only for Tua to follow up with a pick-six. It’s believed his performance in practice against the Colts was so terrible that it led to the Falcons choosing not to play him in preseason game two, as a way to protect the QB as much as anything else.

As a result, the only real highlight from Tagovailoa this preseason has been Michael Penix Jr. becoming a meme for clowning on his terrible performance against the Broncos.

At this point, it is what it is. We are light-years past the time Dolphins fans called themselves “TuAnon” and could fight people to the death on social media, claiming that Tagovailoa was the next great QB. There is nothing left in the tank and the Falcons’ attempt to turn him into their next starting QB has been a mess.

All signs point to Michael Penix Jr. getting the nod, and this is probably the end of the line.