FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. (AP) \u2014 Atlanta Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski on Wednesday said starters, including quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, will play at least the first series in Friday night’s preseason opener against the Denver Broncos.<\/p>\n
With Michael Penix Jr. still not cleared for team drills as he continues his recovery from surgery on his left knee, the Falcons’ expected quarterback competition has been put on hold. Tagovailoa, the former Miami Dolphins starter who signed a one-year deal with Atlanta, has a clear path to the starting job as long as Penix is limited to individual work and seven-on-seven drills in practice. <\/p>\n
Stefanski said Tagovailoa and other first-team players will play \u201ca series, maybe 10 plays. We’ll see which comes first.\u201d Stefanski said the playing time could vary for some starters.<\/p>\n
When asked if Tagovailoa’s start means he has won the starting job for the season, Stefanski said: \u201cAs you guys know, I\u2019m not there, we\u2019re not there. … We just will cross that bridge when we get to it. Obviously, I feel very good about where Tua is, where all of our guys are.\u201d <\/p>\n
Cooper Rush, who was signed at the start of training camp to give the team another veteran at quarterback, will play behind Tagovailoa. Undrafted rookie Jack Strand will finish the game.<\/p>\n
Stefanski said Tagovailoa is \u201clooking forward to getting his first action in a game in the system. There\u2019s a lot of newness for him as well, in terms of that type of thing. It\u2019s his first time in (Mercedes-Benz Stadium) as a Falcon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tagovailoa said Tuesday he believes preseason games are important as he adjusts to the Falcons’ playbook.<\/p>\n
\u201cPreseason plays a big role, I would say, for your team collectively,\u201d Tagovailoa said. \u201cYou don\u2019t have the coaches out there. You gotta go out there, you gotta make the calls, whether it\u2019s right or wrong. You gotta live with them, and then from there you come in the next day, you watch film, you talk about it, and you go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added Tagovailoa: \u201cWith the walk-throughs that we\u2019ve had, you start to get more and more comfortable with the terminology. … So getting comfortable, but it\u2019s still something that I need to look over, need to continue to study and continue to process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Quarterbacks coach Alex Van Pelt said Tuesday Tagovailoa \u201cis becoming more comfortable with the system\u201d after being limited by lower back tightness at the start of training camp. \u201cReally the last three or four days he\u2019s really come on when you\u2019re acclimating a quarterback into a new offense,\u201d Van Pelt said.<\/p>\n
While some teams hold out starters for most or all preseason games, Stefanski’s decision to give his first-team players at least one series is consistent with the first-year Atlanta coach allowing players to be tackled in full-pads drills. Some coaches opt for \u201cthud\u201d tackles where players are not taken to the ground.<\/p>\n
Stefanski said his goal is to have players \u201cphysically ready … and mentally ready\u201d for a 17-game regular season \u201cand then more.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI just believe in making what we do out in the grass as close to football and as close to game-like as you can,\u201d he said. \u201cIn order to do that, you have to practice hard. That\u2019s just what comes with the territory of what we believe in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stefanski said Penix will continue to be held out of team drills next week when the Falcons travel to Indianapolis for joint practices with the Colts.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NFL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NFL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. (AP) \u2014 Atlanta Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski on Wednesday said starters, including quarterback Tua Tagovailoa,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":971379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2062],"tags":[81894,2910,232,231,258,2426,7,6],"class_list":["post-971378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denver-broncos","tag-ap-sports","tag-associated-press","tag-broncos","tag-denver","tag-denver-broncos","tag-denverbroncos","tag-football","tag-nfl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117084012139082221","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971378","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=971378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/971379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=971378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=971378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=971378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}