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We finally know who the Atlanta Falcons are starting at quarterback.

And I guess we felt this is how we were going to start the season earlier in training camp.

But the Falcons have officially named Tua Tungabailoa their week one starter.

Michael Penix Jr. still not all the way back from that knee injury that he suffered last season.

as it'll be Tua against the Steelers Sunday afternoon in Pittsburgh.

Yeah.

And I don't think either of us are surprised by that family.

I think that, listen, when you go into camp and you have a quarterback battle between a veteran and a rookie or a young quarterback, the young quarterback has to win outright win that competition by a lot.

And now you add the fact that Michael Penix is recovering from the ACL and they want to give him as much time as they can.

This really wasn't a surprise at all.

And, you know, I look back since Matt Ryan is their final decision maker.

And I think he played when he was with Atlanta, he played against Tua Smith.

in 21, I believe it was.

And Tua was like 32 of 40, 80% completion, 109 quarterback rating, four touchdowns, two interceptions.

So he played well.

And listen, as a decision maker and evaluator, when you get those visual pictures in your head, I guarantee you that through this process, as the Falcons were talking through it throughout training camp, when Matt Ryan talked about Tua, he probably somewhere in the back of his head he had that game because his eyes saw it.

So not a surprise at all that the veteran won.

Every competition between a veteran and a rookie quarterback, this training camp, the veteran will be starting in week one.

That's usually the way it goes.

Coaches like the experience and like to know that their guy has been there in the mental situations that it's going to take to be successful.

Yeah, and we kind of talked about it last week when discussing the Falcons quarterback conversation.

It's like Tua was the insurance policy.

And what is it about insurance? Like, you don't really need it until you need it.

And for the Falcons, they actually need it.

Since Penix, he wasn't cleared to do 11 on 11s in practice until August 22nd.