The Falcoholic
The Atlanta Falcons will gear up to play the Detroit Lions Friday night without several players, as the team figures to park a significant number of starters and has a handful of injuries that will keep others out. We’ll still get to see three of the Falcons’ prized rookies, however.
After announcing earlier this week that James Pearce will make his fightin’, quarterbackin’ flusterin’ debut on Friday night, Raheem Morris told us Wednesday that Jalon Walker and Xavier Watts will also be out there. For what could be just a series but might be a half, then, we’ll get to see three significant building blocks of the Falcons defense in action against another NFL team. If nothing else, that should be fun.
For Walker, it’ll be a chance to see what kind of role the Falcons are envisioning for him, with some clues coming from where he lines up in the limited look we’re likely to get. For Watts, it’ll be an opportunity to separate himself from Jordan Fuller and DeMarcco Hellams in what seems to be a genuine battle for starting duties. And for Pearce, it’ll be an opportunity to hit a quarterback in a “real” game, something I have no doubt he’s been itching to do.
The team likely won’t expose the prized rookies to anything approaching a full game or maybe even a full half, but it will be good to have them out there. That’s particularly true because we know we won’t be seeing a handful of others, including Troy Andersen (who is on the PUP list with no return timeline) and fellow inside linebacker JD Bertrand. Storm Norton is also working through a mild injury, meaning rookie Jack Nelson might be getting an extended look.
We won’t have to wait that long to see the rookies in action, as Falcons-Lions kicks off at 7 p.m. EST on Friday night.
