Where Falcons QB battle stands: ‘We’re not giving out any jobs in June’

FLOWERY BRANCH — Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski has no shortage of evaluation points for his team, and his quarterbacks, entering the six-week summer break leading into training camp.

Over 12 hours apiece of both team and offense-defense meetings. Ten OTA practices. Two mandatory minicamp sessions. The Falcons, Stefanski said during minicamp, are a team that works — and plenty more of it remains before they’re ready to name starters anywhere, quarterback included.

“We’re not giving out any jobs in June,” Stefanski said. “So, we’ll continue with every player at every position to bring the guys along at the pace that they’re able to. … With any competition, quote-unquote, those things work themselves out down the line.

“But as a team, we have to realize, players have to realize that we’re all working towards the same goal right now in June, and that’s building a foundation for this football season.”

Stefanski’s answer came in response to a question about recent comments from quarterbacks coach Alex Van Pelt, who said June 8, “there is no competition” currently to start under center between Michael Penix Jr. and Tua Tagovailoa.

Van Pelt’s reasoning stems from Penix’s health. The 26-year-old signal caller is seven months removed from suffering a torn ACL against the Carolina Panthers, and Penix admitted Tuesday he still isn’t 100% healthy.

“Health-wise, I’m right where I need to be,” Penix said. “Still making strides day to day.”

Penix threw passes during individual and 7-on-7 drills, and Stefanski said he was “attacking and doing a great job” in both, but he hasn’t yet been cleared for 11-on-11 team periods. Tagovailoa, meanwhile, is fully healthy and wasn’t limited during phase three of the offseason program.

It’s difficult, Van Pelt said, for there to be a competition when the two quarterbacks aren’t level in their participation.

But don’t tell Tagovailoa or Penix.

“I think competition is going to be there, whether it is said or whether it’s not said,” Tagovailoa said Wednesday. “This is the NFL. You’re either coming out there to compete, or you’re not. I think we’ve all been in this league for some time to know this isn’t something that you can walk through.

“This is something that, whether it’s in a meeting room, we all got to take our jobs seriously in whatever capacity we can do it. I look at it all as a competition.”

Tagovailoa added that the competitive nature doesn’t change his relationship with anybody on the team. At least publicly, he’s expressed a commitment to helping in any way possible.

And it isn’t hard, Tagovailoa said, to balance competitive energy with providing a helping hand to Penix and the rest of the quarterbacks on the roster.

“I’m a competitor, don’t get me wrong, but I’m also a believer, too,” Tagovailoa said. “And I believe if it’s God’s plan for me to play here, not to play here, I’m OK with it. There’s nothing wrong with that. I believe there’s a greater purpose than this being a game. It’s just a game that we’re able to play, and we’re able to take care of our families through this game.

“And I’ve been so freaking blessed, so fortunate to be able to have this opportunity and to have been blessed with the gifts that I have.”

Through their first month practicing together, Penix and Tagovailoa have forged a solid connection — though neither has lost sight of the fact that, at its root, this remains a competition for a starting job.

“It’s been nothing but good since he got here,” Penix said Tuesday. “We know we’re in competition, but at the same time, we are on the same team. We have the same goals, and that’s to see this team win football games and help do that in our way. Man, we’ve been good together, and it’s always going to be like that.”

Falcons receiver Drake London said at the start of OTAs that Penix and Tagovailoa were “getting along very, very well,” and after a month spent catching passes from the two lefty quarterbacks, London feels the Falcons have a pair of quality options.

“I think it’s really, really dope,” London said Wednesday. “Two guys who can really just flat out play. A little bit different styles, but at the same time, they’re two dogs, and I’m just happy to have them on my team regardless of anything.”

So, if the Falcons aren’t naming a starter, let alone holding a competition, when will the chips fall? The time, Van Pelt said, will eventually come.

But the team’s expectation is to have a starter by the middle to latter portion of August.