Falcons open first training camp under Kevin Stefanski: 5 storylines to watch

The Atlanta Falcons’ veterans report to training camp on Tuesday, joining the rookies who reported on Friday, and the full team’s first day on the practice field is Wednesday. That means we’ll finally start getting some answers about what new coach Kevin Stefanski’s team will look like.

Here are the top five storylines heading into camp, starting, of course, at quarterback.

The QB competition

The first question is whether Michael Penix Jr. will be cleared for full work. He was held out of 11-on-11 drills throughout the spring while rehabbing the torn ACL he suffered on Nov. 16. He did work in seven-on-seven drills and expressed optimism that he would be a full participant for the opening day of training camp, but Stefanski stopped short of predicting that.

Penix, who enters his third year in the league after being the eighth pick in the 2024 draft, is fighting with six-year veteran Tua Tagovailoa to retain the starting job Penix held before his injury last year. Tagovailoa joined the Falcons on a one-year, $1.2 million contract after being released by the Dolphins.

The competition “has been nothing but good since he got here,” Penix said. “We know we’re in a competition, but we’re on the same team and have the same goals, and that’s to win games. We’ve been good together.”

The Falcons have had five players start at quarterback (Desmond Ridder, Marcus Mariota, Taylor Heinicke, Kirk Cousins and Penix) since trading Matt Ryan following the 2021 season. Ryan, Falcons fans no doubt remember, was hired in the offseason as Atlanta’s new president of football.

James Pearce Jr.’s status

The Falcons’ second-year edge rusher is expected to participate in training camp despite his ongoing legal situation. Pearce, who was arrested in February and faces three felony charges in Florida following a domestic dispute with former girlfriend Rickea Jackson, skipped all of the team’s voluntary workouts during the offseason but was on the field for a two-day minicamp in June. He is enrolled in a 12-month pretrial intervention program that could result in all of his charges being dismissed, but the NFL is still expected to impose a suspension.

The league has wide latitude to suspend players under its personal-conduct policy regardless of the outcome of criminal proceedings, and situations similar to Pearce’s have resulted in multiple-game suspensions. Pearce finished third in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting last year after leading all first-year players — and the Falcons — with 10.5 sacks.

“We’ll see if we’ve got a guy here who can replace that role,” defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich said this spring. “I’m excited about the guys that we have, whether it be Samson (Ebukam) or Bralen (Trice). There are countless guys, like Azeez (Ojulari), and we’ll see what they can do collectively.”

The new right side

For the second straight year, Atlanta is making a change at right tackle. Kaleb McGary, who was the 31st pick in the 2019 draft and started 92 games at right tackle from 2019 to 2024, retired in the offseason after missing all of the 2025 season due to a knee injury. Last year, the Falcons filled in with Elijah Wilkinson, who left in free agency this offseason.

Now Atlanta is going with Jawaan Taylor, who was picked four spots after McGary in the 2019 draft. Taylor has started 120 games for the Jaguars and Chiefs over the last seven years, including nine in the playoffs. He signed a one-year, $5 million deal shortly after McGary retired in April, but he sat out the spring with a leg injury. He is expected to be ready for training camp.

Two months after adding Taylor, the Falcons traded for Wanya Morris, who was Taylor’s backup in Kansas City for the last three seasons. Morris was a third-round pick in 2023.

Finding wide receivers

The nine wide receivers on Atlanta’s roster who aren’t Drake London have a total of 317 catches in 16 NFL seasons. Most of those come from free-agent additions Olamide Zaccheaus (188 catches in seven years) and Jahan Dotson (121 in four years). That looks like the Falcons’ three-man starting lineup to start the season, at least.

Third-round draft pick Zachariah Branch will be in that rotation and could bump Dotson or Zaccheaus from the starting lineup if he has a strong training camp. After that, Chris Blair (one catch in three seasons) and Dylan Drummond (seven catches in two seasons) are next in line simply because they’ve seen an NFL field. UDFAs Vinny Anthony II, Keelan Marion, Le’Meke Brockington and free agent Antwane Wells Jr. fill out the roster heading into camp, but general manager Ian Cunningham will be scouring the league for the next five weeks in hopes of strengthening that room.

Getting back on the field?

The first few days of training camp will give us a better idea of who’s healthy and who’s not. Several players — such as Taylor, safety Xavier Watts and fourth-round linebacker Kendal Daniels — sat out the spring with what Stefanski characterized as minor injuries. All three are expected back on the field at full speed this week, and it will be notable if they’re not.

Of more interest will be players such as cornerback Billy Bowman and linebackers JD Bertrand and Troy Andersen. Bowman suffered a torn Achilles in November and was held out throughout the spring. Bertrand and Andersen were also sidelined this spring, and both are entering a critical training camp. Bertrand, a fifth-round pick in 2024 who started two games last year, could have a hard time making the 53-man roster after the Falcons added four linebackers in the offseason.

Andersen would be expected to make the roster if he were healthy, but he hasn’t been healthy in a long time. A second-round pick in 2022, he hasn’t played since Week 14 of the 2024 season. He has started 11 games in three years while missing time due to a concussion, a torn pectoral muscle and multiple knee issues.