benched<\/a> after the team\u2019s 28-15 Week 15 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.<\/p>\nThe Dolphins revamped their leadership in the offseason, hiring Jon-Eric Sullivan as general manager and Jeff Hafley as head coach. Despite the significant cap hit that came with releasing Tagovailoa this offseason, the new regime chose to part ways and look for a new answer at quarterback.<\/p>\n
How he fits<\/p>\n
It\u2019s impossible to know whether the Falcons\u2019 new regime \u2014 president of football Matt Ryan, general manager Ian Cunningham and head coach Kevin Stefanski \u2014 views Tagovailoa as a true competitor for the starting job with third-year quarterback Michael Penix Jr. or simply a veteran security blanket. At the minimum, Tagovailoa gives Atlanta a competent starter until Penix can return from the ACL tear that ended his 2025 season in Week 11.<\/p>\n
Penix and the team have been optimistic in their evaluations of his rehabilitation this offseason. But the 2026 season opener is only nine months removed from his injury, so it\u2019s no guarantee he\u2019ll be ready for the start of the season. Even if he is, he will miss most of the offseason practices.<\/p>\n
Penix is 4-8 as a starter in his two years in the league, so he\u2019s hardly a proven commodity. But Stefanski said he is excited about Penix\u2019s \u201ctrajectory.\u201d Like Penix, Tagovailoa is left-handed, so that will make life a little easier on offensive coordinator Tommy Rees and the rest of the offensive players.<\/p>\n
2026 roster impact<\/p>\n
We know that Tagovailoa and Penix will be Nos. 1 and 2 on Atlanta\u2019s quarterback depth chart. We just aren\u2019t sure what the order will be. The Falcons still need a third quarterback, but they can use that spot on a developmental player later in the draft.<\/p>\n
Cap update<\/p>\n
The Dolphins still will be paying most of Tagovailoa\u2019s salary, so he can play for the Falcons for the minimum of $1.2 million in 2026. He will be paid $54 million by Miami this year, minus the value of his deal with Atlanta.<\/p>\n
Josh Kendall\u2019s takeaway<\/p>\n
You have to be a bit worried when your team signs a player who another team just ate $99.2 million of dead money to get out of the locker room. But the price for the Falcons is so low, it\u2019s probably worth the (low) risk.<\/p>\n
The best-case scenario for Atlanta is that Tagovailoa is competent in whatever games he starts, isn\u2019t good enough to make Penix think the team is moving on from him and doesn\u2019t cause any issues in the locker room. It\u2019s quite a delicate needle to thread.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Atlanta Falcons have found their replacement for Kirk Cousins, reportedly agreeing to terms Monday with soon-to-be former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":803141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2049],"tags":[254,217,1999,7,216,251,2087,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-803140","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-dolphins","8":"tag-atlanta-falcons","9":"tag-dolphins","10":"tag-fantasy-football","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-miami","13":"tag-miami-dolphins","14":"tag-miamidolphins","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116201600038551982","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}