Falcons pick Tua Tagovailoa as their Week 1 starting quarterback

Falcons quarterback Tua Tagovailoa will start on Sunday against the Steelers.

The Falcons finally made the choice today, just six days before the start of the regular season, according to multiple reports.

Tagovailoa was the favorite all along, but Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski decline to make the choice official. Tagovailoa was seemingly competing with Michael Penix for the job, but Penix is coming off a torn ACL last season and wasn’t healthy enough to make it a real competition.

The Falcons kept four quarterbacks on the 53-player roster, with Cooper Rush and Jack Strand in the quarterback room along with Tagovailoa and Penix. It’s unknown at this point who will be No. 2 on Sunday.

Sunday’s game will mark Tagovailoa’s second straight game in Pittsburgh, as it was also the site of his last game with the Dolphins, a 28-15 loss after which he was benched for the rest of the season.

Tagovailoa will hope he has more job stability as the starting quarterback in Atlanta, but he might not: Given how long it took Stefanski to make Tagovailoa the starter, he might decide quickly to move on if Tagovailoa isn’t working out.