Falcons stick with Cooper Rush as Week 2 starter — for now

It’s almost incomprehensible, but the Falcons haven’t immediately made a change to their starting QB plans. Cooper Rush remains QB1, though, the door is still open for things to change before we get to Sunday, according to ESPN’s Marc Raimondi.

This is nothing short of brain-dead from the Atlanta Falcons, and while everybody wants to give the new regime the benefit of the doubt, decisions like this will lead to the fan base turning on them quickly.

Cooper Rush was historically bad in the Falcons’ season opener. He finished with a 2.6 QBR, yet somehow, that number really doesn’t do justice to the type of horrific quarterback play that was on display in Pittsburgh. Rush quite literally was incapable of throwing the ball past the line of scrimmage. By the end of the first quarter, the Falcons had pretty much put themselves in a box of running the football and tossing a pass out to Bijan Robinson in the flat.

That’s straight-up unacceptable, yet somehow Rush is not only still on the roster, but the Falcons are actually considering starting him again?

Everybody should be concerned with that kind of decision-making from the coaching staff, and they should also be quite pissed off that Michael Penix Jr. isn’t taking a bit more initiative to start under center against the Panthers. He’s a miles better option than Cooper Rush, someone who actually gives the Falcons a chance to win the game, and he’s healthy — yet he’s going to sit out again because he’s not quite ready mentally.

That doesn’t sound like a football player, and it certainly doesn’t sound like someone Atlanta should make the face of their franchise. If he’s not on the field against the Panthers, he might as well have one foot out the door.

Then there’s the Jack Strand aspect to all of this. He starred in the preseason, enough that the Falcons placed him on the 53-man roster, yet they don’t want to start him over Cooper Rush?

I’m not saying Strand is going to lead the Falcons to the playoffs. It’s a lot to ask of an undrafted rookie to come in and start immediately. But what I do know is Strand can at least throw the football further than five yards and also offers a ton with his legs that could help the Falcons offense at least keep defenses honest. He could play one of the worst games in the history of football this Sunday, and it still would be marginally better than what we saw out of Cooper Rush.

We’ll see what happens the rest of the week, but this is quickly becoming a stain for everyone involved — a terrible look for a new regime that sparked some confidence when they were hired, mainly because of Matt Ryan rejoining the organization in an executive role. Unfortunately, that’s only going to buy the organization so much grace from a restless fan base.

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(Photo by David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire)