CHARLOTTE — It may be early in the season, but it's time to dive into divisional play. The Panthers (0-1) travel to Atlanta this weekend to take on the Falcons (0-1) in a Week 2 game that could already have postseason implications.

The Falcons are coming off a 20-13 loss to the Steelers, and the Panthers are looking to rebound from a 59-37 barnburner loss to the Bears. The Panthers have won the last three matchups against the Falcons, with Bryce Young setting career highs in two of those wins (total touchdowns with 5 in Week 18 of the 2024 season, and total yards with 448 in Week 11 of the 2025 season).

The Panthers are 25-37 all-time against the Falcons. Carolina is 15-16 at home and 10-22 on the road. Carolina is 2-4 in overtime against Atlanta. Those two overtime wins came in the previous two trips to Atlanta.

Every team is different year to year though, so get to know the 2026 Atlanta Falcons.

Quarterback questions persist

The Falcons' current quarterback situation is anybody's guess. Truly, take your best guess. The club would love to have Michael Penix back after tearing his ACL in Week 11 last season. There's always a possibility he'd be ready and available for this week's game, but after only returning to practice in mid-August and not playing any preseason games, he wasn't quite ready for Week 1; his status for Week 2 remains unclear.

The QB did practice as a full participant all of last week.

Penix's backup, Tua Tagovailoa, was ruled out for Week 1 with an oblique injury. The third quarterback up was Cooper Rush. He had back spasms on Saturday but pushed through and played Sunday. He finished with 143 yards, a touchdown, and two interceptions on 12-of-22 passing.

With all three passers dealing with various injuries, the next man up, should it come to that, would be UDFA rookie Jack Strand.

Coach Kevin Stefanski told reporters on Monday he didn't have an update on the status of any of the quarterbacks, but would hope to know more in the next day or two. The Falcons' first injury report will be available Wednesday afternoon.

Whoever is taking snaps on Sunday against the Panthers could potentially be without a huge piece of their protection. All-Pro guard Chris Lindstrom left Sunday's game and is now in the concussion protocol. His status will become clearer on Wednesday's injury report as well.

It's still all Bijan

Regardless of who the quarterback is for the Falcons, Atlanta's offense is always going to run through Bijan Robinson. That's only exacerbated by the QB uncertainty and available personnel.

Against the Steelers, Robinson accounted for 73 percent of the Falcons' total offense (173 yards from scrimmage, part of 238 total yards). The Falcons ran 57 plays in Pittsburgh, and Robinson — who was on the field for 44 plays — touched the ball on 29 of them. According to Next Gen Stats, Robinson forced 12 missed tackles and averaged 4.7 yards after contact on his 21 rushing attempts.

According to Robinson, it's only the beginning.

"I think we can even be so much better," Robinson said after the game. "This is just our first time running it together. But even the increases that they made, that the O-line made, that we took advantage of, we still have so much more. We just got to keep on getting used to it and keep on running it in practice so we can get it ready for the game."

The only blight on Robinson's otherwise stunning Week 1 performance was two fumbles.

Za'Darius Smith has ignited the front

The Falcons pass-rush took a huge hit in the offseason when Jalon Walker suffered a season-ending ACL tear in training camp, and the NFL suspended James Pearce Jr. for the first eight games. The duo dominated as rookies, with 16 combined sacks as the Falcons set a franchise record with 57 total sacks (second in the league).

Furthermore, of the 12 guys who registered 2.0 or more sacks for the Falcons last season, only three were on the active roster Sunday against the Steelers.

So it was easy to assume the pass-rush would take a hit. But even while playing the escape master Aaron Rodgers, the group got after the quarterback. There were six quarterback hurries from four players and 2.0 sacks, both from Za'Darius Smith.

The veteran Smith retired from football in mid-October last season while dealing with unspeakable tragedy in his family. He returned this offseason and signed with the Falcons in mid-August. Through at least one game, the signing proved fortuitous for both sides. He had three tackles total, all for loss, and did all of his work on only 16 snaps.

The defense held the Steelers to 264 total yards and 3-13 on third down. The group also lost defensive lineman Da’Shawn Hand for the rest of the year to a quad injury. He played in just seven defensive snaps before suffering the injury.