Michael Penix: I can't afford to have someone trip and fall on me right now

Published July 29, 2026 11:21 AM The big news from the first day of Falcons training camp involved the team’s quarterbacks.Head coach Kevin Stefanski said that Tua Tagovailoa is not practicing after suffering a recent injury — Tagovailoa reportedly has back tightness — and that Michael Penix has not been cleared for team drills. There was hope that Penix would be ready for that work at this point in his ACL rehab, but the quarterback said that everyone is taking a cautious approach to the final steps in his recovery. “To be honest I’ve been feeling really good,” Penix said, via Josh Kendall of TheAthletic.com. “I feel like I can do everything, but I have to still be smart about it. I can’t afford to have somebody trip and fall and land on me right now.”This is the third time that Penix has torn his ACL and he said he’s been cleared earlier in the process in the previous cases, but that the repeated injuries have led to the current approach. He said he was told that it could be “another four weeks possibly” before he moves to the next stage and that timeline will likely need to speed up if Penix is going to have a real chance of opening the season as the starter in Atlanta.