Tua gets off to ‘ugly start’ in Falcons debut
Chris Simms and Mike Florio discuss Tua Tagovailoa's poor performance in the Falcons' preseason opener, examining how Atlanta could have better positioned the quarterback to succeed.
Video Transcript
I think that the 2027 week one starter isn't on the roster for the Cleveland Browns.
Wow.
And I feel even more strongly about that in Atlanta, where- Yeah Tua got the, the, the start.
And they don't even have Penix on the depth chart.
Michael Penix Jr, third year, eighth overall pick, recovering from the torn ACL.
He's not on the PUP list, but they didn't even put him on the preseason depth chart.
They put him down below as injured player.
So they don't even give him a spot, even though he's practicing.
He's not 11 on 11, but he's, he's available to practice.
It's Penix, Cooper Rush, and Jack Strand.
Or not Penix.
Tua, Cooper Rush, Jack Strand.
The, drive did not go well.
Two drives for Tua Tagovailoa.
Three for five, 22 yards, two punts, fumbled snap on shotgun formation that Tua fell upon.
It just wasn't, yeah, it wasn't, it just wasn't good.
It wasn't good.
It w- and you want, I think especially for Tua, after everything that happened in Miami, and what they're trying to do to just kind of get the, the city behind the team.
It's a home game.
You wanna go out there and look a little more crisp than the offense did, Chris.
I, I, well they w- all together.
The, that to me was like, that, that's, even though it's the preseason, that kind of preseason performance by your team in totality is actually gonna put pressure on you in preseason week number two.
'Cause the fan base is gonna go, "What?
We, I mean, the, it's a new coaching staff, new quarterback.
We looked like shit out there."
Like, them, Denver whooped their butt on both sides of the ball.
Now Denver played a lot of their starters, I got that.
No Waddell, no Bo Nix.
But there was, the majority of everybody else was out there.
And hey, the Falcons played their starting offense, and they got their ass whooped by that Broncos defense, which we know is damn good.
But yeah, I'm with you, Mike.
I don't know if I agree with you with your Browns statement that the quarterback of the team's not on the team yet for next year.
I still think Shedeur has a chance to be that guy.
In, in Atlanta, I, I do follow you a little bit with that one.
I, the Michael Penix thing is very iffy is where we stand right now, and you know I'm not really a believer in Tua.
And I don't know if this offense with Tommy Rees and what Kevin Stefanski does is really gonna fit Tua all together when it's all said and done.
I think we're all gonna see with Tua to go, man, you see how many favors Mike McDaniel did for this guy?
Now he's gotta make plays and throws, and he doesn't have every trick of the trade.
And oh, here's a five-yard throw that'll go for 70.
Here you go, quarterback.
And that's what I certainly wonder here.
But yeah, that was a ugly start for, Atlanta to, to come out and look like that.
My thinking on the Browns has changed only because I don't see Shedeur seizing the job, and I think they're trying to coax him into taking the job and making it clear that he's the guy.
Yeah.
Could be.
And he's gotta take the job, and he's gotta hold the job in order to be the guy next year.
Could just be that there's a reason he fell to the fifth round.
There's a reason he was available when he was, and it's just not gonna be in their, in the cards for him in Cleveland, and maybe he can go somewhere else with more help around him and be even better.
As it relates to Tua, here he is after the game talking about his performance in his preseason debut with the Atlanta Falcons.
What we put out there is not a reflection of the, the hard work, the hard work that we've put in the first two weeks.
For me to go out there, I, you know, I'm, I'm competing, I'm wanting to go out there and put points on the board.
You know?
Not, not go out there and, you know, we'll go three and out, three and out, you know, and, and not be able to, to perform to the level that I know I'm, I'm able to do.
So, always looking at everything as a competition.
But yeah, just gotta be better.
I, I gotta be better for our guys offensively.
The thing that I really don't like about the preseason is how many regular season games do we see, how many post-season games do we see where an offense sputters at first and then they find their groove?
Yeah.
It's just one play away.
It's one drive away, so.
Yeah.
But when you only are gonna get two drives, and both drives are not good, that becomes the narrative going into the next week.
And it does put more pressure on them moving forward.
This is one of those years where you have one preseason home game if you're an NFC team, so it's not like they're gonna be back in the Mercedes-Benz, what do they call it?
Stadium, not Dome.
That was New Orleans.
But Sean Payton, who used to coach the team that played in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, he made the crack, lot of fans dressed up as empty seats.
You know, they had an official attendance of 68,000, there were not 68,000 people there.
And there's gonna be even fewer of them that were there on Friday night if the team plays like that on a regular basis.
Yeah.
Well, a- a- again, it's not that you have to win the game, it's just the overall look.
And no quarterback played good.
And the offense really never looked good.
I'm not saying you gotta win it, right?
But like, let's say, hey, the, the, the Cardinals, first week, Hall of Fame Game.
Hey, we got a new head coach, a new offensive head coach.
The offense looked good.
People aren't gonna complain.
Yeah, they lost on the last play of the game.
Certainly.
The Raiders, Clint Kubiak.
Hey, new head coach.
Well, first team offense, a c- c- Cousins went down and scored a touchdown.
Mendoza scored a touchdown.
Yeah, we lost, but we saw some hope and some things there.
You didn't see that in, in Atlanta, and that's, that's what's gonna be concerning to people.
J- yeah, and maybe to your point, and this is where I wanted to get to, it was just a long way to get to it.
Like, yeah, the t- the, the plays are basic.
You're right.
But, but sometimes you gotta, you gotta get some fake momentum going.
I would tell you that the Bills, Joe Brady, he realized, he was at, "Oh, I'm at my new stadium.
Man, people are gonna be on me.
Sean McDermott got fired."
It looked to me when I watched that film, they had a few game plan plays where they were like, "This is gonna be an easy completion.
This is gonna get DJ Moore wide open.
We'll get the fan base excited."
You have to kind of harness and, and, and make that momentum happen for your team at times.
And that to me is where I thought Atlanta kind of dropped the ball in this one.
Yeah, if you really want to come out and make a difference in a preseason game, you can do it.
You can do it.
If you want it bad enough, because the other team typically isn't going to match your same desire to shut you down that you have- Exactly try to entertain.
And if, for these preseason games, they should be entertaining for the home crowd.
They should be fun to watch.
It shouldn't just be just drudgery and oh my God, we looked so bad.
Do something.
Give the fans something to get excited about because it looks the same as it does during the regular season, so that's a good point
