Robert Griffin III. Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
By Tyler Lauletta on

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The start of the NFL season has not gone according to plan for the Atlanta Falcons.

There was supposed to be an offseason quarterback battle between second-year draft pick Michael Penix Jr. and newly acquired Tua Tagovailoa to see who would take the starting job. But after injuries to both of those first options, suddenly the Falcons had third-stringer Cooper Rush starting in Week 1 and being backed up by fourth-stringer and undrafted rookie out of Minnesota State–Moorhead Jack Strand.

It was not pretty. Rush turned the ball over three times in Atlanta’s Week 2 loss to the Carolina Panthers, and was benched for Rush, who threw a pick-six on the first pass of his NFL career.

The scene was bad enough that former quarterback and current commentator Robert Griffin III chimed in, arguing that he should still have a place in the league.

“When Cooper Rush and Jack Strand are stinking it up in Atlanta it makes zero sense that QBs like Cam Newton, Jimmy Garoppolo, Ryan Tannehill and myself aren’t the veteran presence in the room to stabilize teams when their QB goes down,” Griffin wrote in a social media post. “These guys were playing for Carolina today.”

While it is true that the Falcons quarterback play awful bordering on tragic, that’s just what happens when you’re down to your third-string quarterback before a single snap of the NFL season.

And as many on social media pointed out in response to Griffin’s message, sure, the idea of Tannehill,  Garoppolo, or Newton maybe would serve as a veteran backup, the way that Joe Flacco and Jameis Winston remain in the league, but Griffin himself probably didn’t belong in that company.

Luckily for the Falcons, Penix is set to make his season debut on Thursday night against the Green Bay Packers, so hopefully their quarterback play can at least start to trend in the right direction.

Penix’s return is lucky for the football watching public as well, as Atlanta is about to start a run of three straight games in primetime, standalone national television windows. If there’s one thing you can say about Falcons football so far this year, it’s that it can’t get any worse.

About Tyler Lauletta

Tyler is a editorial contributor at Awful Announcing, with previous stops at Sports Illustrated and Business Insider during his career covering sports in digital media. He is, begrudgingly, a Truster of the Process and general Philly sports sicko.

View all posts by Tyler Lauletta