FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — The Atlanta Falcons kept four quarterbacks on their initial 53-man roster because the Miami Dolphins traded a sixth-round pick to the Green Bay Packers for Kyle McCord on Sunday.Let me explain.Philadelphia general manager Howie Roseman drafted McCord in the sixth round last year, but the Eagles released him before the season. This offseason, McCord signed with Green Bay, and this week Roseman saw the Packers get something in return for him.That illustrated, again, a lesson Roseman and the rest of the NFL already knew.“It’s just such a valuable position,” Roseman said. “It’s the most important position in sports.”Falcons general manager Ian Cunningham and assistant GM Jeff Scott both worked for Roseman in Philadelphia and appear to have internalized that lesson. Thus, Atlanta ends up with Michael Penix Jr., Tua Tagovailoa, Cooper Rush and Jack Strand on its 53-man roster. The Falcons and Eagles were two of the four teams that kept four quarterbacks on the initial 53-man roster this year.Will the quarterback competition in Atlanta ever end?Josh KendallThere is a cost for that, specifically the inability to keep a player at another position. Cunningham indicated Wednesday that the position that is short staffed because of the four quarterbacks is running back, where Atlanta kept only Bijan Robinson and Brian Robinson Jr. (Tyler Goodson is on the practice squad and is expected to be a regular in the game-day lineup early in the season through the league’s standard elevation rule — and probably throughout the season as natural attrition thins the current 53-man roster.)That cost is worth paying because of the value of the quarterback position in the present and the future. The Falcons still haven’t named a starter. When they do, they will be the last team in the league to make that announcement, and it will likely come on Monday.That decision will be made in collaboration with the front office, coach Kevin Stefanski and president of football Matt Ryan, Cunningham said.“We all talk about it, and we all have been talking about it forever,” Cunningham said. “We talk about every single position. When the coaches are ready, when the players are ready, we will make that decision.”Cunningham wouldn’t rule out Rush or Strand as options for the starting job, but common sense does. Barring injury, either Tagovailoa or Penix will start Week 1 against the Steelers in Pittsburgh, and while a quarterback injury is highly unlikely in practice, injuries are a major factor in why the Falcons are in the situation they’re in.Both of Atlanta’s top two quarterbacks have checkered health histories, so this team has to go into the season with a No. 3 quarterback who is ready to start at a moment’s notice. Rush, an eight-year veteran with 16 NFL starts, fits that role perfectly.“There is a little bit of an insurance policy, but also (Rush and Strand) have been productive in the preseason,” Cunningham said.Because Rush is on the 53-man roster, he can serve as Atlanta’s emergency quarterback without counting against the league maximum of 48 active players on game days. Strand will probably be inactive on game days, meaning that while the decision to keep four quarterbacks slightly affects Atlanta’s depth over the course of the season, it will not have any effect on the game-day roster.“There’s a little bit of living in the now but also living in the future with Jack,” Cunningham said.The Falcons couldn’t afford to try to stash Strand on the practice squad because he might have been picked up by another team on the waiver wire, and he showed enough this offseason that Atlanta couldn’t take that chance.The Falcons signed Strand as an undrafted free agent out of Division II Minnesota State Moorhead. Undrafted quarterbacks are long shots in the NFL. Undrafted quarterbacks out of Division II are basically akin to Halley’s Comet. They come around about once every 76 years.When Tyson Bagent started for the Bears in 2023, he was the first UDFA rookie from a Division II school to start an NFL game since 1950.Strand, though, was thrown into the fire in Atlanta because Tagovailoa, Penix and then-third-stringer Trevor Siemian were all hurt the first week of training camp.“For him to come in and work with the 1s and actually do an admirable job says a lot about him and his maturity,” Cunningham said.Without that impromptu audition, Strand might not have had the chance to prove himself, but once he did, he became valuable enough that the Falcons had to protect him.“What it showed was it wasn’t too big for him to come in and do what he did,” Cunningham said. “He has shown the ability to progress and get better ever since rookie minicamp until now.”Tagovailoa is in Atlanta on a one-year deal. Penix is halfway through his rookie contract but hasn’t played enough for the team to know if it wants to pick up his fifth-year option, much less sign him to a long-term deal. In other words, the Falcons don’t know who their quarterback will be in 2027. Given that reality, they can’t afford to let any promising player walk out the door.Even if Strand never starts a game in the NFL, he could have trade value down the road like McCord. It’s the “most important position” in sports, remember?“Anybody who made this 53 earned it,” Scott said. “It just so happened we had four guys who went out and earned it at that position. It’s a good position to have depth. I think we’re happy with where we are.”