Quarterback Michael Penix Jr. is on track to start for the Atlanta Falcons Sunday against the Chicago Bears after leaving last week\u2019s loss to the Baltimore Ravens with a rib injury. Penix was expected to practice on a limited basis Wednesday. Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski said Penix will start against the Bears “as long as everything goes according to plan.” Penix led the Falcons (2-3) to two straight wins before Sunday night\u2019s 30-23 overtime loss to the Ravens. He was held out in the overtime period after suffering the injury in the fourth quarter. Penix missed the first two games of the season while completing his recovery from a torn ACL in his left knee that ended his 2025 season. The Falcons were 0-2 with Cooper Rush as the fill-in starter. Tua Tagovailoa played behind Penix against Baltimore and threw a game-ending interception in overtime. Stefanski provided no details on the results of tests on Penix\u2019s rib. Even before the tests, Penix said he was determined to start against Chicago “because I\u2019ve sat out enough in my career. … I will work my tail off to make sure I\u2019m back out there on that field.” Stefanski said he wanted to see Penix\u2019s level of comfort on the field. “Penix will be limited in some fashion,” Stefanski said. “We\u2019ll see how he\u2019s feeling and have communication with him to see how many reps he will take off, so that\u2019s to be determined. “I want to see how he\u2019s feeling with any injury like this. You want to make sure as they move around and how they\u2019re feeling. He\u2019s feeling better.” Cornerback C.J. Henderson (groin) did not practice Wednesday. Stefanski said Henderson is improving and added, “I\u2019m not ruling him out.” The status of defensive end Za\u2019Darius Smith (concussion, neck), who was inactive against Baltimore, also may not be determined until later in the week. Reporting by The Associated Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Quarterback Michael Penix Jr. is on track to start for the Atlanta Falcons Sunday against the Chicago Bears after leaving last week\u2019s loss to the Baltimore Ravens with a rib injury. Penix was expected to practice on a limited basis Wednesday. Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski said Penix will start against the Bears “as long<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34027"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34027\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}