Atlanta

Falcons

Tagovailoa, fighting injuries for much of the offseason, missed Atlanta’s first two games with an oblique issue. He’ll return just in time to serve as backup to Michael Penix, who’s returning from a 2025 ACL injury. Penix is set to start Thursday night against a Packers defense allowing the ninth lowest adjusted yards per pass attempt.

Robinson was limited on Monday for the estimated practice session. It seems like he’ll be able to go behind Bijan Robinson in Week 3’s TNF showdown with the Packers.

With Michael Penix already named the starter, Tagovailoa will be aiming to back him up in Week 3’s TNF clash with the Packers. The 28-year-old veteran got in a full session on Tuesday.

He’ll miss at least the next four games. CJ Henderson will take over at cornerback. The Falcons used Terrell’s roster spot to re-sign Zach Harrison to the active roster from their practice squad.

Penix will make his first start since Week 11 of last season, when he suffered a torn ACL against the Panthers. If he plays well enough, Penix will have a chance to secure the starting job for the remainder of the season, but he will have Tua Tagovailoa looming in the background once he is fully recovered from his oblique injury. Penix has struggled early in his career, throwing for 2,757-12-6 in 14 career games while completing just 59.6 percent of his passes. It seems unlikely that he will hold onto the job for the remaining 15 games of the season, but he’ll get the first legitimate crack at it after the Falcons were forced to start Cooper Rush for the first two weeks of the season. Penix shouldn’t be viewed as anything more than a low-end QB2 for fantasy purposes on Thursday night against the Packers.

Stefanski said the team will “work through what that means for this week.” Time will tell whether or not that means Tagovailoa has a chance to play in Week 3 against the Packers on Thursday night, as the Falcons have a number of ways they can go at QB this week after another disastrous outing by Cooper Rush. Tagovailoa did not log a practice last week, but Michael Penix (knee) was a full participant. It would be fair to assume that Penix is closer to returning than Tua, but we’ll see where things stand when the team releases its estimated injury report later today.

With the Falcons set to play on Thursday night, Stefanski will have little time to prepare his starter for the week. It’s hard to imagine the team going back to Cooper Rush after back-to-back disastrous starts to open the season, which could pave the way for rookie UDFA Jack Strand to make the start of Tua Tagovailoa (oblique) and Michael Penix Jr. (knee) still aren’t ready to go. Strand completed 8-of-15 passes for 59 yards and an interception in his first taste of NFL action. Stefanski did say he had a “decent idea” of who he thinks he will be starting this week, so we’ll likely have our answer soon.

Zaccheaus has caught exactly one pass in each of his first two games as a Falcon. With Jahan Dotson ahead of him on the depth chart and Zachariah Branch fighting for more work, Zaccheaus is not in the FLEX mix for Week 3.

Dotson saw four targets for the second week in a row. He went for 19 yards on one catch last week and didn’t look any different this time around. Dotson is the team’s No. 2 receiver by routes, but there aren’t enough targets to go around after Drake London, Kyle Pitts, and Bijan Robinson all get theirs. Dotson is not on the fantasy radar for Week 3.

Branch’s primary duties still come on kick and punt returns, but Kevin Stefanski made it a point to get him more involved this week. He was held without a catch or even a target in Week 1. Branch isn’t on the fantasy radar yet, but dynasty managers can be pleased with his role taking a step in the right direction.