Tom Pelissero Breaks Down the Falcons, Cardinals & Browns’ QB Competitions

Tom Pelissero walked the show through three quarterback rooms that look settled on the depth chart but are not actually settled at all.

Start with the Falcons. Atlanta is the most overlooked of the bunch because Michael Penix Jr. has the public's heart and the recent draft pedigree. The medical timeline is the problem.

"Atlanta's fun. I just don't know realistically how quickly we can expect Michael Penix Jr. to be able to compete for the job," Pelissero said. "He's coming off another ACL surgery. A repeat ACL guy who's had a bunch of other injuries in his career."

Pelissero's pick for the Week 1 starter was Tua Tagovailoa. The case is not about Penix being absent. It is about Tua being a more accurate quarterback and a cleaner fit for Kevin Stefanski's scheme. Penix and Tua share two attributes, both left-handed and both come from a specific physical archetype. Beyond that, Pelissero said, the similarities are thin.

"I think it's Tua week one," Pelissero said. "But that's as much about the availability factor. He's been a Pro Bowl caliber player when he has been healthy and on the field, which has been his biggest issue."

The Tua memory Pelissero pulled up was from a game last year against the Falcons, where Tua's eye was swollen shut from an allergic reaction and he still lit up the box score.

Then Arizona. Jacoby Brissett is not at OTAs. The Cardinals have made a series of moves around him. They signed Gardner Minshew in the offseason. They drafted Carson Beck in the third round. The official depth chart still has Brissett at the top.

Pelissero flagged this one as the room most likely to produce a real coup.

"If I'm Carson Beck and I've played like 92 college games," Pelissero said, exaggerating slightly to make the point. The actual number is 55 starts, which is near the modern record. "I've taken two college teams to the national title game. If you tell me I'm going up against Gardner Minshew because Jacoby's going to hold out, I'm all over this."

Beck's potential supporting cast is loud. Jeremiah Love, Marvin Harrison Jr., Michael Wilson, Trey McBride. The schedule is brutal early. Pelissero's read is that Brissett is unlikely to be the depth chart's QB1 by the time the Cardinals actually start playing real games. He may still be the official QB1 right up until the moment he is not.

Then Cleveland, which Pelissero called "potentially nuclear."

The Browns enter Year 4 of a 5-year, $230 million Deshaun Watson contract under which Watson has, depending on how you count, started roughly 20 games since 2020. Pelissero pointed to the offstage dynamics already in motion. Deion Sanders is reportedly flying in to meet with head coach Todd Monken about how to best use Shedeur Sanders. Shilo Sanders is publicly trading shots with Cleveland writer Mary Kay Cabot over her view that the team should give the job to Watson.

The football case Pelissero offered was clean. At Watson's peak, he was more talented than Shedeur. The question is whether he can still be that player.

"That is going to be a fascinating one," Pelissero said. "Because whoever doesn't come out of that starting, you know they're not going to be happy still being there."

The Watson contract is what keeps everybody waiting. The longer he sits, the louder the case to roll Shedeur out becomes. Pelissero left the door open in both directions, but his tone made clear which way the storyline was actually heading.