{"id":842913,"date":"2026-03-30T13:39:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T13:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/842913\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T13:39:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T13:39:15","slug":"why-falcons-stefanski-believes-he-tagovailoa-can-prove-doubters-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/842913\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Falcons’ Stefanski believes he, Tagovailoa can prove doubters wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before the Miami Dolphins<\/a> officially parted ways with former starting\u00a0quarterback Tua Tagovailoa<\/a> this offseason, the\u00a0Cleveland Browns<\/a> fired head coach Kevin Stefanski<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Atlanta Falcons<\/a>\u00a0eventually hired Stefanski to be their head coach, and Atlanta later signed Tagovailoa to a team-friendly one-year contract to have him\u00a0compete<\/a>\u00a0with 2024 first-round draft pick Michael Penix Jr.\u00a0for the starting job.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During a Sunday conversation with\u00a0NFL<\/a>\u00a0Network insider Mike Garafolo, Stefanski touched upon how he and Tagovailoa are going through similar experiences with their current employers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKevin Stefanski, Tua Tagovailoa both know what it’s like to be fired<\/p>\n

“There’s something to be said when you’re fired,” Stefanski explained, per Bobby Kownack<\/a> of the NFL’s website. “I can attest to that. You want to prove people wrong. You have a chip on your shoulder. I think where I’m coming into this, where Tua’s coming into this is, listen, this is not exactly how you thought it would go, but guess what, that’s the reality, and how are we gonna respond? I think that’s what he’s made of. You look back his career, you look back at his college career, he’s responded.”<\/p>\n

Former Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel benched Tagovailoa due to poor play this past December. Additionally, some<\/a>\u00a0have\u00a0suggested<\/a> that Tagovailoa won’t be a good fit for Stefanski’s offense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That said, Penix is spending portions of the spring recovering from surgery he underwent this past fall to\u00a0repair<\/a> a partially torn ACL. It’s unknown when he will be cleared to resume full football-related activities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Tua was a good fit for us,” Stefanski added about Tagovailoa. “I think the football fit, the personal fit, I think he’s looking for a place where he can go and compete for a starting job, and that’s what we are offering to him. I think he’s somebody that has always competed in career, look back at his time at Alabama, so him coming in, and he wants to do what’s best for this football team, we’re excited to have him.”<\/p>\n

Falcons still excited about Michael Penix Jr. despite adding\u00a0Tua Tagovailoa?<\/p>\n

One March report\u00a0claimed<\/a>\u00a0that the Falcons still view Penix “as the starter once he’s healthy.” It’s unclear if Stefanski feels that way, but he indicated he is hyped to see what Penix will do coming off his latest setback.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Penix previously suffered<\/a>
\ntwo ACL tears before he entered the NFL.<\/p>\n

“I’m excited for Mike to get back out there,” Stefanski insisted. “He has the right attitude. He is in the building every day, all day, rehabbing to get ready to go. I don’t have a timeline on what that looks like or when that will happen, but he’ll be ready to put his best foot forward. He’s focusing on what he needs to focus on right now, which is the main thing, which is getting healthy.”<\/p>\n

Stefanski should want to give Tagovailoa and Penix equal opportunities to sink or swim if both are healthy come the start of the August preseason games. Tagovailoa may be seen by many as the favorite to win the QB1 job, but Penix also seems<\/a> to want to prove doubters wrong.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before the Miami Dolphins officially parted ways with former starting\u00a0quarterback Tua Tagovailoa this offseason, the\u00a0Cleveland Browns fired head…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":842914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2074],"tags":[223,254,2554,224,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-842913","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-falcons","10":"tag-atlantafalcons","11":"tag-falcons","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116318408887366296","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842913","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=842913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}