In the eyes of Atlanta Falcons quarterbacks coach Alex Van Pelt, the QB competition between Michael Penix Jr. and Tua Tagovailoa has yet to begin.
"It's tough to have a competition when both guys aren't competing at the same level right now," Van Pelt said Monday, . "So, it's hard and it'll come. It'll happen at some point. Mike's done a great job of getting himself to where he is right now. Really impressive to take 7-on-7 reps and go out and compete. That's been great. But really, there's no competition until we can actually evaluate him equally."
Penix continues on pace in his recovery from the ACL tear that prematurely ended his 2025 campaign. However, he's been held out of full-team drills. Van Pelt said that Penix has taken more 7-on-7 snaps to make up for Tagovailoa taking the bulk of the 11-on-11 reps.
"We split the reps as evenly as we can without Mike taking team reps," Van Pelt said. "It gets a little lopsided towards Tua."
Penix missing full-duty offseason work gives Tua a leg up when the competition inevitably gets underway. However, the club has insisted that come training camp, Penix will be on equal footing.
Coach Kevin Stefanski deflected when asked if Penix would be cleared when the Falcons hold their mandatory minicamp practices next week.
"He's hitting every milestone that he's supposed to hit," Stefanski said. "We're in constant communication with our medical team and Mike, and I think he's doing everything he can do and certainly when he may want to do more, we have to hold him back from certain things potentially. But not going to put any time frames out there just yet, just going to focus on what's in front of us."
If Penix isn't ready for full team drills next week, then the highly anticipated QB competition in ATL will have to wait for training camp in July.
