Of course, Falcons start camp with both quarterbacks sidelined

So the first 11-on-11 snap of the first practice of Stefanski’s first training camp with the Falcons was taken by an undrafted rookie free agent by the name of Jack Strand, a Division II All-American from Minnesota State Moorhead.

It was a proud moment for Dragons fans everywhere and another confounding one for those who’ve faithfully stuck by the Falcons.

If the list of undrafted rookie quarterbacks who ran the first-string offense on the first day of an NFL training camp doesn’t begin and end with Strand, it can’t be very long.

The franchise that has some sort of allergy to standard procedure has had its latest episode.

Stefanski said he was not fazed, even joking that the team had some options to sub for Tagovailoa and “Matt Ryan’s not one of those options.”

(The Falcons added free agent QB Cooper Rush, although the new president of football and Falcons legend was seen throwing passes to tight end Kyle Pitts on the sideline.)

“NFL, brother,” Stefanski said. “We were just talking about this. This is the NFL. You cannot predict what’s coming.”

In fairness, the sky is not falling.

Stefanski said that Tagovailoa had a “flare-up” of an injury a few days ago and should be cleared “sooner than later.” He did enough work in the offseason learning the offense that missing the first few days of training camp won’t matter greatly.

And it was not a surprise that Penix wasn’t cleared. It has only been eight months since his ACL tear.

If Tagovailoa is back in the next few days, this won’t matter in a week.

But it’s not great. Who wants to start training camp without either potential starting quarterback, particularly when the competition is being overseen by a new coaching regime and both competitors are not proven commodities?

And while ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that Tagovailoa’s flare-up was in his back and not considered serious, it was obviously serious enough to keep him out of practice, and there’s no telling if it might return at a less opportune time.

These practices aren’t the most important, but it’s not like a quarterback who is learning a new offense and getting connected with wide receivers couldn’t benefit from each rep.

This isn’t how a first-year coach taking over a franchise that hasn’t made the playoffs for eight consecutive years, and doesn’t figure to have much margin, would prefer to get things started.

You can’t pin this on the Falcons or even on Tagovailoa, unless maybe he was sumo wrestling last week. But it’s like bad luck never strays far from 4400 Falcon Parkway.

And, actually, perhaps the more significant development from Wednesday was that Penix may not be cleared for another four weeks, a detail that the third-year quarterback revealed to media after practice.

“It’s more seeing how my body is feeling with these practices, but I know I was told another four weeks possibly going into that next stage,” he said. “But at the same time, it could be earlier. It just depends on how my body is doing throughout this whole camp process.”

Four weeks from Wednesday is Aug. 26, which would be two days before the team’s final exhibition game, Aug. 28 at Miami. More importantly, that would be four weeks without any reps in 11-on-11 drills, which would seem to render the competition with Tagovailoa to be the Week 1 starter all but moot.

As quarterbacks coach Alex Van Pelt said in June, “there’s no competition until we can actually evaluate (Penix) equally.”

The encouraging news for the Falcons is that, even if he’s not cleared, Penix said he was feeling “really good,” and that his doctor said he was further along in his recovery than he expected.

“I feel like I can do everything, but at the same time I’ve got to still be smart about it,” he said.

In the meantime, keep an eye out for that Strand fellow.

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