Cooper Rush will start Week 1 for the Atlanta Falcons after Tua Tagovailoa was ruled out with an oblique injury, while Michael Penix Jr. remains inactive as he works back from last year’s ACL tear.
The Falcons’ quarterback situation turned again Friday at Flowery Branch. Coach Kevin Stefanski confirmed Tagovailoa will miss Sunday’s season opener at Pittsburgh after the former Dolphins starter grabbed his side during a Thursday throwing drill, sat on the grass, and never returned to first-team work.
Tua Out; Cooper Rush To Start for Falcons vs. Pittsburgh
Rush took every first-string snap Thursday and Friday. Undrafted rookie Jack Strand will back him up.
Tagovailoa had been named the Week 1 starter only Monday after a short competition with Penix. The 28-year-old signed a one-year deal in March following his release from Miami. He missed the first week of training camp with a back “flare-up,” then won the job once Penix said he was not yet ready for live snaps. The oblique issue is separate from that earlier back tightness, Stefanski said. Tagovailoa is listed as week-to-week.
Penix, the 2024 first-round pick, tore his left ACL in Week 11 of 2025 against Carolina and started nine games that year (3-6, 1,982 yards, nine TDs, three INTs). He was cleared for 11-on-11 work in late August and has practiced fully this week, but he told coaches he is “not where I want to be” and wants to be 100 percent before playing. He will be inactive Sunday. Stefanski said Penix was never an option even after Tagovailoa went down: “Mike will be ready when Mike’s ready.”
Rush, 32, was signed July 29 on the first day of camp precisely because both Tagovailoa and Penix were limited. The former Cowboys and Ravens backup has started 16 career games (9-7 record) and appeared in 42. Last season in Baltimore he threw for 303 yards, zero touchdowns, and four interceptions in four games. He had taken only one series with Atlanta’s starters during camp before this week. “Every throw you throw to Drake (London), every throw you throw to Kyle (Pitts) matters,” Rush said. “The game prep doesn’t change mentally.”
For Falcons fans, this is a familiar kind of opening-week curveball. A new coaching staff under Stefanski, a veteran stopgap signed after Miami cut Tagovailoa, a young former first-rounder still rehabbing, and now a journeyman who spent seven years behind Dak Prescott taking the first snap of the season on the road against Mike McCarthy’s Steelers. Atlanta opens at 1 p.m. Sunday at Acrisure Stadium.
The hope in Flowery Branch is that the offense—Bijan Robinson, Drake London, Kyle Pitts—can stay on schedule while the quarterback room sorts itself out.