The Atlanta Falcons have three quarterbacks on the roster. Two of them are hurt, and the third one woke up Saturday with back spasms the day before he is supposed to start in Pittsburgh.
Cooper Rush is still expected to go on Sunday, per Adam Schefter and the team itself. He is dealing with back spasms but Atlanta says he will be out there against the Steelers.
You want to believe that. You also want to keep an eye on it, because “expected to start” the day before kickoff with a back issue is not the same as healthy.
How Atlanta got here
Tua Tagovailoa was the guy. Then he suffered an oblique injury in practice and got ruled out for the opener. That is the second time already that Tagovailoa’s body has been an issue in Atlanta, since he also dealt with back spasms during training camp.
Michael Penix Jr. is still working his way back from a torn ACL and is not available. So the Falcons went from their starter, to their veteran backup, to praying the veteran backup’s spine cooperates for three hours.
If Rush cannot go or gets knocked out early, the job falls to Jack Strand, an undrafted rookie out of Minnesota State-Moorhead. That is a Division II program, and Strand went from that to being one snap away from starting an NFL game in Pittsburgh.
Jack Strand is not a total unknown
To be fair to the kid, he earned his spot. Strand had a preseason that made people notice, completing 24 of 36 passes for 305 yards and a touchdown while adding 29 rushing yards and two rushing scores.
Those are good numbers. They are also preseason numbers, produced mostly against guys who are not on rosters right now. Asking him to walk into Acrisure Stadium in Week 1 and handle a Steelers defense would be a completely different exam.
The Falcons did not plan for this. Nobody carries three quarterbacks expecting all three to be injured or unproven by the opener. But this is where they are, and the margin for error is gone.
What this says about the Falcons
Atlanta invested heavily in the quarterback position over the last few years and still cannot get a healthy one to Sunday. Penix was supposed to be the future, and the ACL pushed that timeline back. Tagovailoa was supposed to be the bridge, and he has already had two separate physical issues since arriving.
Rush is the definition of a professional backup. He has started games, he does not panic, and he will manage an offense without wrecking it. He is not going to carry a team, and he was never signed to. Now he might have to, with a bad back, on the road, in Week 1.
The realistic ask for Sunday is that Rush protects the football, leans on the run game, and keeps Atlanta in a game it can win late. Anything beyond that is a bonus.
Longer term, the Falcons need Tagovailoa’s oblique to be a short absence and they need Penix to come back all the way from that knee. If both of those things go sideways, this season gets ugly fast, and an undrafted rookie from Minnesota State-Moorhead is going to learn the NFL the hardest way there is.
For now, watch the injury report Sunday morning. If Rush’s status changes, everything about Atlanta’s opener changes with it.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.