The Atlanta Falcons finally play real football on Sunday and “the people” want to know if No. 1 wide receiver Drake London will be active or not.
The Falcons drafted London eight-overall in the 2022 NFL Draft and we have yet to get a good glimpse of him due to his knee injury at the start of the preseason back in August.
Since then, the club has been taking it easy on him.
And it looks like they will proceed with caution as head coach Arthur Smith made it clear that he doesn’t plan on making a decision until they absolutely need to on Saturday, September 10.
“We’re just going to have to keep seeing,” Smith said before practice on Wednesday, via D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “He practiced Monday. We’ll see what it looks like the rest of the week, and then we have to make a decision on Saturday, if he’s playing or if he’s not, how much to put on his plate. We won’t know until the end of the week.”
Falcons’ CB AJ. Terrell Remains Optimistic About London
London was seen working out during individual drills at Wednesday’s practice and despite the leg sleeve of his knee, he appeared healthy.
Drake London going through individual drills at Falcons practice.
While coach Smith gave reporters the runaround on London, per usual, cornerback A.J. Terrell provided a much clearer and optimistic update.
“He looks good,” Terrell said, via Josh Kendall of The Athletic. “I don’t have any doubt he’s going to be ready.”
More footwork from #Falcons WR Drake London @MBStadium practice today.
The Falcons released their first injury report of the week on Wednesday and London was listed as “limited.”
Cornerback Darren Hall was also listed as limited due to a quad injury and tight end Parker Hesse didn’t practice due to the birth of his child.
Falcons Take on the Saints in Week 1
In order to better prepare for Week 1’s home opener against the New Orleans Saints, the Falcons took practice from Flowery Branch to Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Wednesday.
“A big thing for me is to be a part of this city. It’s important to us to be really good at home,” Smith said. “You just want to get familiar with the building.”
Smith hopes the better preparation will help them not repeat the same mistake twice when they lost 32-6 to the Philadelphia Eagles during last season’s home opener.
“It’s not just Week 1, you go back and assess the whole thing,” Smith said Wednesday. “I’m a hypocrite if I don’t look at myself first and say, ‘What could we do better?’ That’s what they pay me to do.
“You go back and you look at it, and we felt like with this team, where we’re at, the youth, lessons learned last year, learning from certain failures, what can we do better? That may change next year, but we felt like this was the best for us and we’ll see where it goes.”
The Falcons currently lead the all-time series rivalry vs. the Saints, 54-52. Atlanta split last year’s two games with the Saints, beating them in their first outing and then losing to them towards the end of the season.
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Falcons’ CB A.J. Terrell Gives Update on WR1 Drake London