The Falcons are just a few days away from their season opener against the Seahawks and things are looking a bit rocky.
The team’s first two draft picks missed Thursday’s practice, cornerback A.J. Terrell and defensive tackle Marlon Davidson.
Terrell was listed as a started on the Falcons first depth chart earlier this week, but not he’s suffering a hamstring injury. Davidson, who has missed most of training camp due to a knee strain, was back at practice on Wednesday but did not participate on Thursday.
Here’s a look at the full injury reports for Wednesday and Thursday of week 1.
Wednesday’s Injury Report
Full Participation
DE Dante Fowler (ankle)
C Matt Hennessy (knee)
Limited Participation
WR Russell Gage (groin)
DT Marlon Davidson (knee)
Did Not Participate
CB Kendall Sheffield (foot)
DE Charles Harris (ankle)
Thursday’s Injury Report
Full Participation
DE Dante Fowler (ankle)
C Matt Hennessy (knee)
WR Russell Gage (groin)
Limited Participation
CB A.J. Terrell (hamstring)
Did Not Participate In Practice
CB Kendall Sheffield (foot)
DE Charles Harris (ankle)
DT Marlon Davidson (knee)
C Alex Mack (NIR – resting vet)
Next Man Up
Second-year corner Kendall Sheffield dealing with an injury right now isn’t ideal but it still isn’t the worst thing for Atlanta. The Falcons will look to Darqueze Dennard this offseason.
The Falcons signed on the former Bengals corner in August after the Jaguars failed to.
The former first-rounder has started 24 games in his career, all of them with the Bengals. He has recorded 3 interceptions, 22 pass deflections, and 3 sacks over the course of his career. In a total of 77 games, Dennard has had 274 combine tackles.
Pro Football Focus gave Dennard a solid grade of 72.2 last year after playing in just 9 games and 5 starts where he totaled 37 tackles and five passes defended. Dennard is well known for his quality coverage ability and speed. He had been working with starters as a nickel corner throughout the training camp.
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Marlon Davidson Moving In Right Direction
Dan Quinn said last week that Davidson’s knee strain could take time, however, he’s only feeling better day after day.
It would be a bummer not to see Davidson get some action in week 1, however, the Falcons have a fairly solid depth chart. Second-year defensive end, John Cominsky would move up the depth chart.
The Falcons traded up in the fourth round in the 2019 draft to snag Cominsky in hopes he would add some fire to the defensive line. He only played 100 snaps last season, but this year he’ll be seeing the field a lot more.
Quinn said back in May that Comnisky will be more versatile and play defensive end on early downs and switch to the interior in passing situations to play defensive tackle in their nickel package.
“[In our] base package we’re going to keep him at defensive end and then we do want to see him work some inside, we did that some last year and that was part of his progression,” Quinn told the local media on Tuesday. “First and second downs [he will play] defensive end and then on some third-down scenarios, definitely work him inside.”
The Falcons also have Tyler Davidson and Takk McKinley in rotation.
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