The Atlanta Falcons are about two weeks into training camp, and that seemed like a good time for me to share my most pertinent thoughts. Let’s dive in.

Quarterback questions

I tried to come up with a sunnier way to say this, but quarterback is a mess at the moment. Tua Tagovailoa is coming off one of his worst professional seasons and was limited for the first seven practices by back tightness he began experiencing for the first time in his career shortly before training camp. You can’t question Tagovailoa’s toughness. In his career, he has had a high ankle sprain that required surgery, a hip dislocation that also required surgery and multiple concussions. He’s the strong favorite to start Week 1 at this point, but his injury history is not comforting.

Michael Penix Jr. (left ACL) still hasn’t been cleared for 11-on-11 work in practice, and he told reporters Wednesday he did not have a follow-up appointment scheduled with the surgeon who will sign off on his full participation. Penix, who has a tattered injury history of his own, is improving but trying to remain patient, he said.

“I’m running my own race,” he said. “I just have to take it one day at a time and focus on what I can control. Right now I can’t control not being out there.”

Meanwhile, training camp addition Cooper Rush seems to be slowly nudging out Jack Strand in the rotation, which was expected considering Rush is an eight-year NFL veteran. Rush and Strand split reps with the second team in 11-on-11 work during Saturday night’s practice at Lanier High School.

Overall, the quarterbacks’ results on the practice field are as smooth as you would expect, considering the jumbled rotation, intermittent availability and four quarterbacks learning a new offense. Saturday night, at least, provided some optimism as Tagovailoa was sharp and had nice throws for big gains to Olamide Zaccheaus and Drake London.

Get well (really) soon

The Kansas City Chiefs may be about to start an undrafted rookie free agent, Kahlil Benson, at right tackle. Why does that matter for the Falcons? Because both of Kansas City’s right tackles from the last two years are in Atlanta. The Chiefs allowed Jawaan Taylor to leave via free agency and then traded Wanya Morris to the Falcons in June for a late-round pick swap. That Kansas City didn’t want to hold on to either player is not comforting, given its current state at the position.

The worst part is neither guy is playing right tackle for Atlanta right now. Taylor has not practiced with the team since signing because he is recovering from elbow and triceps injuries suffered last season. Head coach Kevin Stefanski said Taylor is attending all the team’s walkthroughs and meetings and is “close” to returning. Morris, who has missed several days due to a lower-body injury, has worked mostly at left tackle so far, although Stefanski said he will train on both sides.

So who are the Falcons’ right tackles right now? Michael Jerrell, a third-year sixth-round pick with three NFL starts; Brandon Walton, a fourth-year former undrafted free agent with two NFL starts; and Ethan Onianwa, the Falcons’ seventh-round pick this year.

General manager Ian Cunningham and his staff are almost certainly scouting the other 31 training camps for right tackles who might get cut when rosters are trimmed to 53 later this month.

This could be fun

There might be hope we won’t have to watch one of the worst screen games in the NFL this year, so that’ll be nice. Under Stefanski and offensive line coach Bill Callahan, the Falcons seem committed to improving. They are at least putting in the time at practice.

Atlanta is dedicating 10-minute chunks of practice to screens during some practices, left tackle Jake Matthews said.

“Callahan always says, ‘Every screen is different.’ You are never going to get two of the same. It’s really important to practice every type of look you can get,” he said. “You can run the exact same look, and it can play out three different ways.”

The Falcons ranked 26th in the league in EPA per pass play on screens (minus-.25) the last two years, according to TruMedia. It’s not that they didn’t try them. They were 13th in that span with 80 screen completions. They just didn’t work. Atlanta got only 5.8 percent of its passing yards from screens, a mark that ranked 29th in the league.

“The more you get confidence with the guys next to you, those plays can pop and they can be really, really explosive,” Matthews said.

With Bijan Robinson and Zachariah Branch, the Falcons seem well suited to heavy use of screens.

Waiting on the league

I’m worried many Falcons fans aren’t prepared for the length of suspension James Pearce Jr. is going to get. I would expect the league to announce his punishment under the personal conduct policy before rosters are trimmed at the end of this month. It’s going to be at least eight games, in my opinion. Based on the league’s previous rulings in similar situations and the details of Pearce’s February arrest and subsequent three felony charges, I wouldn’t be shocked if it was more.

Atlanta doesn’t appear to be planning on having Pearce early in the season. He has worked mostly with the third team so far, although Saturday night he took some snaps with the first and second units.

The deal maker

I’m good with Cunningham being aggressive on new contracts to lock up the team’s young offensive players. The Robinson and London deals were no-brainers. The Kyle Pitts and Matthew Bergeron contracts can be debated, but Cunningham looks like he got ahead of the market (or at least not behind it) on both deals.

One day after the Falcons made Pitts the third-highest-paid tight end in the league ($18 million), the Jaguars paid Brenton Strange $12 million a year. Strange has 986 receiving yards in three seasons. Less than a week after Atlanta made Bergeron the highest-paid guard in the league ($24 million per year), the Titans topped it with Peter Skoronski’s deal ($25 million per year), continuing a trend of skyrocketing salaries for the position in the last year.

If Pitts and Bergeron don’t perform at the level expected of players making that kind of money, Cunningham will get dinged for it. Right now, these are sensible deals.

The London, Robinson and Pitts contracts have a combined 15 void years tacked on the end, according to OverTheCap.com. The full details of the Bergeron deal aren’t available yet, but it’s likely similar. Void years are essentially extra seasons added to the end of contracts, allowing the salary cap hit to be spread out. Bryce Johnston, Atlanta’s senior vice president of football administration (cap guy), came from Philadelphia, which has used void years liberally to build its roster.

Those void years are one reason Atlanta is projected to have the second-most available salary cap space in the league in 2027 even after all the new deals.

Bright spots at linebacker

Christian Harris is not quite a lock to start at middle linebacker. Rookies Kendal Daniels and Harold Perkins Jr. each got more time with the starters in practice last week. That may be the coaching staff getting a good look at them before they have to start making depth chart decisions, but it could mean more.

Harris, a third-round pick of the Texans in 2022 who has 27 career starts, is still the favorite to start Week 1 simply because of experience, but it’s good news for Atlanta that the young guys are coming along.

Pads popping

The live tackling at Falcons practices is new, and probably a preview of a change in the preseason plan. Atlanta did not have any live tackling in its training camp practices under previous head coaches Arthur Smith and Raheem Morris, but Stefanski has a different philosophy.

“I think there is a way to work hard and work smart and practice live because that’s what the game is,” he said. “I think there’s a way to do it safely. I think the guys understand how to do that the right way. You’re still not taking a shot on one of your teammates, but like I’ve said before, to get ready to play football, you have to play football.”

Stefanski also plans to play starters in the first and third preseason games, another break from tradition in Atlanta. Penix only threw 16 preseason passes in his rookie year and did not play in the preseason at all last year.

London believes the more physical preseason approach will pay dividends.

“Callousing our body up to go in and play an actual game is really good for us,” the wide receiver said. “I’m excited we’re doing it.”

Cash money

Cash Jones still looks like one of those undrafted free agents who is hard to get rid of. After working with the wide receivers in the spring, he’s at his natural position, running back, this fall.

“Playing running back and wide receiver, what we’re doing there is testing the limits of what he can handle mentally, and he passed all of those,” Stefanski said.

“Cash is smooth,” London said.

Mixing and matching

Especially now that the versatile Jalon Walker is lost for the season, I expect Atlanta’s front seven personnel to be very situationally dependent this year. Every defensive coach would love to have defenders with a varied enough skill set to do everything, but that’s not how this team is built at the moment.

What does that mean? On run downs, I’d expect to see a lot of guys like Cameron Thomas and Bralen Trice at outside linebacker with guys like Da’Shawn Hand and Maason Smith, and a heavy dose of Brandon Dorlus, Samson Ebukam and Azeez Ojulari on passing downs. Smith blew up a red zone play Saturday in what was probably the defensive highlight of the day. (Also, keep an eye on tackle Chris Williams, a former UDFA who had a couple of breakout seasons the last couple of years in Chicago.)

Extra points

Avieon Terrell has some ground to close to earn a starting job in the secondary. With Billy Bowman still on the physically unable to perform list, Darnay Holmes, Sydney Brown and A.J. Woods have all gotten more work as the first-team nickel so far. … It’s notable that Corey Levin appears to be on the first-team field goal unit. Levin has gotten some work at second-team center recently, so his spot on special teams may be a tell. Levin is a six-year vet with a lot of versatility. … I’ve enjoyed seeing DeMarcco Hellams getting some first-team work at safety with Jessie Bates out. Hellams is not a threat to Bates or Xavier Watts, but it’s fun to watch him hit people. … Matt Ryan has filed his retirement paperwork. I checked just to be sure. … It might be time to give up on sixth-round defensive tackle Anterio Thompson being a Falcon this year, or maybe ever. He’s still not with the team due to an issue Stefanski said the team is “working through.”