Michael Penix Jr. will start Sunday against the visiting Chicago Bears despite a rib injury, as long as nothing goes wrong this week, Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski said Wednesday. Penix said he made every throw in practice and took all the first-team reps.
The injury came in Sunday night’s home loss to the Baltimore Ravens. Penix took a big hit late in the fourth quarter and left the game, then returned one play later. When the tie game went to overtime, though, Tua Tagovailoa came in at quarterback. The Ravens scored a touchdown on their first drive, and Tagovailoa threw a game-ending interception.
Penix had imaging done earlier in the week, per ESPN. Neither he nor Stefanski wanted to get into specifics. Stefanski said only that Penix is “feeling better”, and Penix called the results positive news.
“They’re good,” he said of his ribs. “They get better every day. I felt good today at practice and I know I’m going to continue to feel good. I just got to stay on top of my rehab and just make sure I’m doing all the right things.”
How much he practises this week is up to him, Stefanski said.
“I want to see how he’s feeling,” Stefanski said. “With any injury like this, you want to make sure as they move around and how they’re feeling — it could be all, some, none. We shall see.”
Penix, 26, only returned to the lineup in Week 3 after ACL surgery on his left knee last November. His absence showed. Without him and Tagovailoa (oblique) to start the season, the offense under third-stringer Cooper Rush scored a combined 16 points in two weeks. Once Penix was back, the Falcons crushed the Green Bay Packers and New Orleans Saints on the road, scoring a combined 80 points, a league high over that stretch
