Falcons turn to Tua, but Penix questions remain

Paul Pabst and Andrew Perloff react to the Falcons naming Tua Tagovailoa their Week 1 starter, debating whether Michael Penix Jr.'s health is the driving factor and what the decision means for Atlanta's future. View More Video Transcript Let's get to some NFL news. We're a day away- Yeah a little NFL news over the weekend. It's mostly college football, but some NFL news. The Falcons named Tua the starter. If this is health-related with Penix, your thoughts. If it's not health-related- Yeah your thoughts. So Michael Penix said that he wasn't quite 100%. I think it's totally health-related because there's no upside with Tua. We saw Tua played a little bit better in preseason week three, but he really struggled. You know, he was down in Miami with a great offense, and he was good. I have a number that surprised me. He's 44 and 32 as a starter in the NFL. That's good. Right. When Tua plays and he's healthy- Not- he's been productive it feels though we've seen- Yeah his best work in '23 and '24. Yeah. Yeah, I know what you're saying. so Tua is an insurance policy for Penix, and they had to go to it because Penix is not ready. You have to see what you got in Penix. It does seem like that, that it- Tua's in a holding pattern, like a high-end holding pattern quarterback. But you draft a Penix high in the draft, you change the whole direction of your franchise. Mm-hmm. And if you don't give Penix a really good look, 10, 12, 13 games, why did you draft him in the first place? I don't like anything Atlanta's done team building-wise. You know, they kept taking skill position players. They took Bijan, Drake London, Kyle Pitts, and then Michael Penix. They have a very old offensive line- Yes that's gonna be injury-prone. They haven't really built a tough defense. So I, I think that this is not a good s- situation any way around. And even though Penix is young, Paul, they might be watching college football on Saturdays like us and thinking, "That's our future quarterback." But you know what drives me crazy about the Falcons is you need 10 wins and you're hosting a playoff game. You know, I mean, you may need nine wins in that division to host a playoff game. Their schedule, i- it's not the hardest in the world. They've got a lot of winnable games there, but it always feels like the Falcons are one step away from being I like them, I love them. Yeah. You say they had 10 wins. We've been waiting for this team to get 10 wins. The last few years I've picked the Falcons almost every year- Yes for the NFC South. So I don't know why they're gonna get to 10 wins now, and unfortunately eight and nine will also get you there in the NFC South. Close