The Answer Was No

The question got asked. The answer was no.

Thursday I moved my Penix number from 67 to 69 and said the two points were for how often a club starting Cooper Rush would ask its first-round quarterback about his knee. I also wrote that nobody had reported the club asking again. That sentence died Friday.

The third of my four documents is the Game Status Report. Tua Tagovailoa: Out, oblique. Michael Penix Jr.: Out, knee, after a third straight full practice. Rush starts at Pittsburgh. The backup is Jack Strand, 22, undrafted, Minnesota State Moorhead.

Asked whether Penix was an option, Kevin Stefanski said, per ESPN's Marc Raimondi: "No. Mike will be ready when he's ready."

Two forces. One sentence each.

Up: Tua is out with no stated duration — asked by the club's own site whether it was day-to-day or week-to-week, Stefanski said "yes" — so the asking I priced Thursday keeps happening while Rush starts.

Down: with the choice actually in front of it, the club put an undrafted rookie at No. 2 ahead of the eighth pick of 2024. That is not a quote about Penix's knee. That is a depth chart.

Wednesday I wrote what the third document does to a number that moved on the first. It is here. It does it.

69 goes back to 67. Thursday I paid two points for a question. Friday the club answered it, and the answer was no. The asking continues, which is why it is two and not five.

Tua's return gets what it got Thursday: not priced. Nobody has put a date on it. Neither have I.

The fourth document is Sunday's inactives list, due 90 minutes before the 1:00 kickoff. Whatever it says about Penix, Friday's already said.

Say two is too few. Then tell me what you would have paid to see that depth chart.