Falcons QB Cooper Rush prepared to start with Tagovailoa’s health in question

FLOWERY BRANCH — Cooper Rush’s car is still “full of crap.” He’s currently living in a hotel. And on Sunday afternoon, he may be the Falcons’ Week 1 starting quarterback.

Signed by the team July 29, the first day of training camp, Rush entered Thursday having worked with the starters only once all summer, running a two-minute drill early in camp. But after recently named starter Tua Tagovailoa suffered an oblique injury early in Thursday’s practice, coaches turned to Rush with a message: “You’re up.”

Rush took all of the first-team snaps Thursday, he told reporters after practice, and he felt he had a “good day” banking reps with the starting offense.

“It’s huge,” Rush said. “All those reps matter. It’s a big advantage for me especially. If you have to go in there, at least you have some reps.”

Rush has reps, but not much else. He said when he first arrived in Atlanta he only packed a week’s worth of clothes. “Maybe two weeks now,” he said Thursday, laughing. He has to wait another week for movers to bring the rest of his things, and even then, he’s still trying to find a spot to live.

Yet for as chaotic, if unglamorous, as Rush’s off-field transition to the Falcons has been, his acclimation on the field has proven smooth.

“I feel like camp was good,” he said. “I got caught up to speed pretty quickly. I think it’s a testament to the staff, how well it’s coached, that you can follow along and pick it up pretty quickly in terms of how it’s organized, the system and all that stuff. So, that’s been really helpful. I think everyone being in their first year together definitely helps you too.”

Rush spent the summer waiting for his phone to ring. He worked out for a few teams in the spring, but nothing came of it. The Falcons called “out of the blue,” he said, and weren’t necessarily an expected landing spot. He had no prior connections with coach Kevin Stefanski aside from a pre-draft meeting in 2017.

The 32-year-old Rush has enjoyed a long career, playing in 42 games and making 16 starts. He owns a 9-7 record as a starter, though he went 0-2 with the Baltimore Ravens last season.

After a rocky preseason debut — Rush went 7-for-19 passing for 62 yards and two interceptions, including a pick-six, in a 27-7 loss to the Denver Broncos on Aug. 14 — he was steady and efficient in the Falcons’ final two exhibition games. In wins over the Indianapolis Colts and Miami Dolphins, Rush went 23-for-29 passing for 192 yards and one touchdown.

Falcons right guard and team captain Chris Lindstrom said he’s enjoyed getting to see Rush’s personality emerge over the past six weeks — “He’s a great dude to be around,” Lindstrom said — and he appreciates the communication and practice intensity the former Western Michigan standout has brought to Atlanta.

“Cooper’s great,” Lindstrom said Thursday. “He’s a pro’s pro, and I think you see the success he’s had in his career. And then every day he’s been here, he’s been awesome, embracing him and hanging out with him and then now doing the reps with him.

“His communication level is excellent, and you don’t get to that level of being a quarterback and being in the league as long as he has without being great in the details and stuff. And so, from a communication standpoint to us, he was dialed.”

The Falcons, perhaps controversially, decided to keep four quarterbacks on their active roster: Tagovailoa and Michael Penix Jr. as the competitors for the starting job, Rush as the veteran backup and undrafted rookie Jack Strand as a promising long-term developmental option.

Doubts existed surrounding Rush’s roster security. The Falcons kept him for reasons, and injury scares, like this, general manager Ian Cunningham said last week.

“A guy that has started games in this league, has been a really good backup for a number of years — for us to be able to get a player of his caliber at that point, we were fortunate,” Cunningham said. “To see ‘Coop’ and Jack continuously get better throughout while Tua and Mike were getting healthy.

“Coming in with that, thinking, ‘Alright, there’s some injury risk with those guys,’ trying to protect against that. There’s a little bit of an insurance policy.”

Tagovailoa’s availability remains in question for the Falcons’ season-opener at 1 p.m. Sunday against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Acrisure Stadium. The team listed him as limited in Thursday’s practice, though he didn’t participate after his oblique injury occurred.

One positive in an otherwise dull dilemma? As Cunningham alluded, Rush is no stranger to being vaulted into the starting position. He’s adopted the mindset of staying ready, and he said his game preparation never changes no matter his spot on the depth chart.

“I always kept it the same, whether you’re starting or not, so the transition’s smooth,” Rush said. “Where stuff comes in is if you’re going, you can talk with those (starting) wideouts, or the O-line, kind of like, ‘Hey, how’s the cadence?’ Smooth like that, in and out of the huddle.

“I thought today was good. Good for me and good for them. So, good to see.”

Lindstrom felt Rush impressed in his first practice with significant snaps.

“He was great,” Lindstrom said. “His cadence was just like picking up the rhythm of it, but the great thing about that is he does such a good job of being consistent, and consistency is the most important thing with that just to get off on timing. So that, and then being on the road with the silent cadence, you get into a little bit of both there anyways. So, he was great.”