The Falcons quarterback competition has been uniquely sad throughout the preseason.

Michael Penix Jr. still hasn’t been cleared for 11-on-11 work after tearing his ACL last season. He says he can essentially do everything from a physical standpoint with the knee, but there’s a mental side that’s sometimes more difficult to overcome.

“I want to start,” Penix said. “I want to start the first game of the season. But at the end of the day, it’s about how I feel. So there’s not really a timeframe on it…

“A lot of it is mental. Physically, I got a good ACL. The doctors did what they needed to do. I can go out there and do anything. But mentally, you hesitate, and it’s like do I trust it?”

You’d think essentially missing all of training camp and most of the preseason would put him behind the eight ball, but this might be the first quarterback competition ever won simply on the basis of how horrendous the opposition has performed. Tua Tagovailoa really struggled in the Falcons’ initial preseason game, and the reports from practice haven’t been much more encouraging.

The sample size is small, so it’s fair to say Tagovailoa still has the edge. But it’s starting to feel like this is Penix’s job to lose whenever he’s fully cleared. This was always going to be a competition where if it’s close, Penix gets the nod. He’s the unproven guy on a rookie deal who could conceivably be the organization’s first franchise quarterback since Matt Ryan — who, ironically, is now the team’s President of Football. The number one goal should be finding out what they have in Penix, unless Tagovailoa very clearly gives the Falcons a better chance to win.

None of that can happen until Penix is fully cleared, though, and that could be right around the corner. The third-year quarterback said following joint practices on Thursday that he has a call scheduled with his doctor soon, where they’ll figure out the next steps.

“I know that call will be coming up soon,” Penix said, via the Falcons’ official website. “Talk to my doctor, see where he thinks I am, see how he feels about everything and then we will go from there.”

Some credit should be given to Penix for his honesty with the media throughout this process. He’s been extraordinarily vulnerable, but it’s also created some confusion about who’s actually making the decisions. Is he the one holding the timeline back because he’s not mentally ready to take hits on the surgically repaired knee? Or is it the doctor’s call?

None of this is how Atlanta drew it up. But the outcome might end up being the right one anyway. The Falcons need to know whether Michael Penix Jr. is a franchise quarterback, and they were never going to find that out from the sideline. That call with his doctor might be the most important thing that happens this entire preseason.

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(Photo by Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire)