The Atlanta Falcons have named Tua Tagovailoa their Week 1 starter over Michael Penix Jr. against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Penix has been cleared to play, but he is not yet ready to start NFL games after tearing his ACL last November. Penix will be inactive, with Cooper Rush dressing as the backup QB.

Tagovailoa posted a 67.7% completion rate, 6.9 yards per attempt, and a mere 12.6 fantasy points per game in 2025.  He is a low-end streaming QB2 for Week 1. Once fully ramped up and active, Penix will be a mid-tier QB2 with significantly more long-term appeal than Tagovailoa. Monitor this situation as Penix is PlayerProfiler’s QB33 for fantasy football dynasty leagues.