The Atlanta Falcons thoroughly dismantled the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday, bouncing back from a dreadful showing in their preseason opener with a 34-6 blowout at Lucas Oil Stadium. The top story of the game was the performance of rookie quarterback Jack Strand, who led the team with 212 passing yards and two touchdowns (one rushing).
The other big news of the week was Michael Penix Jr. being cleared for contact following his nine-month ACL recovery. Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski confirmed Penix would be back in action during Monday's press conference.
While Stefanski wouldn't say whether or not Penix would play in Friday's preseason finale against the Dolphins, he did say the third-year QB would split first-team reps with Tua Tagovailoa this week in practice.
Stefanski was also asked if Strand was realistically in the mix for the starting quarterback job, and he didn't rule it out.
"Yeah, I think with all of our guys, everyone prepares to be the starter," said Stefanski. "Now, having said that, obviously we work with our young guys and we want to make sure that we put all of them, Jack included, through a process and make sure that they are getting the proper things down when it comes to understanding systems, understanding defense or what have you so he's doing everything we're asking him to do, but we're not going to put those types of things out there for our guys to worry about. He's got to keep his focus on the day to day."
Realistically, Strand probably isn't in the mix to start Week 1 (barring injuries), but if neither Penix nor Tagovailoa run away with the starting job early in the season, it's definitely a possibility. The Falcons have a talented roster, and quarterback is the only major question mark.
We'll see if Strand can keep things going in the right direction in his final preseason game against the Dolphins this Friday night at 7 p.m. ET.
This article originally appeared on Falcons Wire: Falcons head coach confirms Jack Strand is competing for QB1 job
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