Desperation meets anxiety in Week 3’s Thursday Night Football in the 2026 NFL season. Although Michael Penix Jr. will play and make his season debut, the Atlanta Falcons have no patience nor margin for error. As for the Green Bay Packers, Jordan Love has no choice but to deliver in the home opener at Lambeau Field.
Though the Packers are 1-1 in the 2026 NFL campaign, they’ve barely had reasons to celebrate. The overtime win over the New York Jets was nothing to pop champagne bottles over, and perhaps Jayden Reed’s positive injury update after his scary exit was the only bright note of an otherwise grim, in every sense, afternoon in the Big Apple. As many questions as there are around Green Bay, there are no questions under center, where $220 million Jordan Love will be QB1.
As for the Falcons, they were one of the worst teams in the league with Cooper Rush under center, as both Penix Jr. and Tua Tagovailoa were sidelined with injuries. Perhaps the tide will begin to turn as the former eighth overall pick out of Washington makes his first start of the season after suffering a season-ending knee injury in 2025. With Penix Jr. back as starting quarterback, perhaps Bijan Robinson, Drake London, and Kyle Pitts can have fun playing football again.
Backup QBs for Week 3 between Packers and Falcons
Carrying such an injury-prone quarterback into the 2026 NFL season, head coach Kevin Stefanski and the Falcons must keep their heads on a swivel. In Week 3 at Lambeau, the Falcons will go from having virtually no quarterback to having both starting candidates back healthy.
Tyrod Taylor (left) of Packers and Tua Tagovailoa (right) of Falcons.
Penix Jr. will get the starting nod, but Tagovailoa, coming off a back injury, will be the backup quarterback, ready to fill in if need be. Needless to say, playing a nighttime game in Wisconsin, even if it’s not that cold yet, isn’t exactly Tua’s bread and butter.
As for the Packers, Love will have a reliable veteran solution serving as his backup in case of an emergency in the form of Tyrod Taylor. The Cheeseheads are the eighth team Taylor has played for in the NFL.
Emergency quarterback
Kevin Stefanski and Matt LaFleur will employ different strategies when it comes to the third, emergency quarterback. While the Packers are rocking with a two-man QB room on the active roster, the Falcons actually have four active signal-callers.
On Thursday night, Stefanski will have to decide who will be ruled inactive and who will serve as Atlanta’s third, emergency QB between Cooper Rush and Jack Strand. Based on the team’s depth chart, Rush should get the nod over the undrafted rookie, but anything may happen.
Whoever is the emergency quarterback can only take the field if something happens to both Penix Jr. and Tagovailoa. Green Bay, with no third-stringer, will have to improvise should it lose Love and Taylor on the same night.
| Falcons | Packers | |
| QB1 | Michael Penix Jr. | Jordan Love |
| QB2 | Tua Tagovailoa | Tyrod Taylor |
| QB3 | Cooper Rush/Jack Strand | — |
Key takeaways
- Michael Penix Jr. will make his season debut as starting quarterback for Atlanta.
- The Packers will start $220 million quarterback Jordan Love for their home opener.
- Veteran backup Tua Tagovailoa returns from a back injury to Atlanta’s bench.
