{"id":291894,"date":"2026-07-12T13:00:01","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T17:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=291894"},"modified":"2026-07-11T19:11:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T23:11:06","slug":"michael-penix-tua-falcons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2026\/07\/12\/michael-penix-tua-falcons\/","title":{"rendered":"Latest Report Spells Trouble For Michael Penix; Trade Possible"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Penix was supposed to be Atlanta’s long-awaited heir to Matt Ryan, but the Washington product may be on his way out of town after just two seasons. Selected in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft<\/a>, Penix began his career on the bench behind free-agent signee Kirk Cousins. However, he earned the starting job by the end of the season and showed some signs of life as a rookie. Appearing in five games while making three starts, the quarterback finished the season completing 58.1% of his passes for 775 yards, three touchdowns, and three interceptions.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Michael Penix could not carry this success into 2025. He started and appeared in nine games, going 3-6 while completing 60.1% of his passes for 1,982 yards, nine touchdowns, and three interceptions before tearing his ACL. The Falcons fired head coach Raheem Morris, replaced him with Kevin Stefanski, and brought in former Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa<\/a> for competition.<\/p>\n

Stefanski and offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt, who have no ties to Penix, recently said that the team would “like to have a starter picked ‘weeks’ before the season opener,” per Josh Kendall of\u00a0The Athletic<\/em><\/a>. This suggests the team isn’t interested in a legitimate quarterback competition and that this job is Tagovailoa’s to lose. While Michael Penix will probably stick around as the backup, Atlanta could try to shop him to one of the following quarterback-needy teams.<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

Falcons Could Trade Michael Penix If He Loses QB Competition<\/h2>\n

Arizona Cardinals<\/h3>\n

It’s hard to think of a team with a worse quarterback situation than the Arizona Cardinals. Jacoby Brissett is the presumed starter, but the career journeyman is using his leverage to try to get more guaranteed money. At the moment, this leaves Gardner Minshew and third-round rookie Carson Beck<\/a> battling for the starting job. This is underwhelming, to say the least, and Brissett isn’t enough to fix this mess. Michael Penix doesn’t look like he’ll ever justify his top-10 draft status, but he’d likely be the best quarterback in this room. First-year head coach Mike LaFleur has nothing to lose, so why shouldn’t he add a young passer with some untapped potential?<\/p>\n

New York Jets<\/h3>\n

The New York Jets had a disastrous first season under head coach Aaron Glenn, and the former Lions defensive coordinator must win games in 2026 if he wants to keep his job. While the team attempted to address the quarterback position with old friend Geno Smith and fourth-round pick Cade Klubnik<\/a>, neither one of these players is likely to be a long-term answer. Smith is coming off a disastrous season with the Las Vegas Raiders and can’t stay out of legal trouble, while Klubnik probably won’t be ready to contribute for at least a year or two. Michael Penix might not bring this team to the Super Bowl, but his presence would allow for a base level of competence at the position. Quarterback is the most important position in the game, and Glenn will not return in 2027 if he can’t find at least a competent short-term option under center.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh Steelers<\/h3>\n

Aaron Rodgers is not the player he once was, but the former four-time NFL MVP is still better than Michael Penix. However, he’s not a long-term solution. The one-time Super Bowl champion and eventual Hall of Famer is playing on a year-to-year basis at this stage in his career and will almost certainly hang up the cleats after the 2026 season. Pittsburgh has some intriguing young talent in Will Howard and Penn State’s Drew Allar<\/a>, but Penix could add some competition to this room. If nothing else, he’d be an upgrade on Mason Rudolph, the team’s current veteran backup.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo: Dale Zanine – Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Penix and Tua Tagovailoa are fighting for the Atlanta Falcons starting job, and the latest report doesn’t look good for the quarterback<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":291897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,33,27,6,6431,9],"tags":[7727,32318,4443],"class_list":["post-291894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-cardinals","category-falcons","category-jets","category-nfl-teams","category-steelers","tag-atlanta-falcons-news","tag-michael-penix","tag-tua-tagovailoa"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291894"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":291927,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291894\/revisions\/291927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}