Tua Tagovailoa suffers injury during Thursday's practice, added to Falcons' injury report: Who's up next?

A look at the Falcons' depth chart if the top two QBs are unavailable against the Steelers

Sep 10, 2026 at 4:02 pm ET • 2 min read

Atlanta Falcons' starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa seemed to experience back discomfort during Thursday's practice and was officially listed as limited with an oblique injury on the team's report. During individual drills, Tagovailoa touched his back, sat down briefly, and was not seen throwing again during the portion of practice open to the media.

Atlanta Falcons named Tagovailoa the starting quarterback during training camp, beating out former No. 8 overall pick Michael Penix Jr., who was impacted by injury. Penix is also listed on Atlanta's Week 1 injury report as he continues to rehab from an ACL injury suffered last November and is expected to be inactive for Sunday's contest against the Pittsburgh Steelers. That means, if Tagovailoa is also unavailable for Week 1, quarterback duties will fall to Cooper Rush and undrafted rookie Jack Strand.

The 28-year-old Tagovailoa dealt with a back injury that forced him to be sidelined for the first week of training camp. While it could have been a short amount of time that Tagovailoa didn't throw, since only a small part of the practice was open to media, Tagovailoa's injury history paired with the injury history of the Falcons' QB room and his injury designation makes this something to monitor.

With Penix out, despite being medically cleared, if Tagovailoa goes down with a back or any injury, Rush would be at the helm. Speaking to the media after Thursday's practice, Rush said he took all reps with the first-team offense. 

The 32-year-old went undrafted in 2017 and joined the Dallas Cowboys, where he stayed until 2019. He then had a brief offseason stint with the New York Giants before returning to the Cowboys from 2020 to 2024. He played for the Baltimore Ravens in 2025 before joining the Falcons on a one-year deal this offseason.

Rush has played in 42 games in his NFL career, starting 16 and going 9-7. He has a 61.1 completion percentage with 3,766 passing yards, 20 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. 

Strand went to Minnesota State–Moorhead and was a first-team D-II All-American in 2025. 

It remains unclear if Tagovailoa is truly injured and what his status will be for Sunday's game. However, it would not be surprising for Penix to take over at some point this season, given Tagovailoa's recent struggles and injury history. Penix only participated in six 11-on-11 practices during training camp, according to head coach Kevin Stefanski, so they may want to see more from the young QB before anything else is decided.