Well, the Falcons training camp is a little more than a week old and there is some good news and some bad news……unfortunately a little more bad than good. The Falcons have their first pre-season game on Saturday at Detroit.

Let’s start the good news:

1. WR Roddy White’s short training camp hold-out is over, and it could not have happened at a better time, more on why later. The team and White agreed to a 6 year $50M contract extension. Before he signed his contract, the starting WRs were Michael Jenkins and Brian Finneran.
2. QB Matt Ryan and TE Tony Gonzalez are working hard together to build a rapport and it seems to be working. While Gonzo will not put up the monster stats like he did last year in Kansas City, he will change the Falcons offensive mindset in the red-zone. In a scrimmage over the weekend at the Georgia Dome, Ryan and Gonzo hooked up for a red zone score.

Now for the bad news:

Injuries…..

1. Slot WR Harry Douglas lost for the season with knee injury. Douglas was penciled in as the starting slot receiver in 3 receiver sets was lost for the year with a knee injury. This moves veteran WR Brian Finneran up the depth chart to number three. Finneran is not your normal number 3, slot type guy, but he has very dependable hands and, more importantly, QB Matt Ryan’s trust. To add depth, the Falcons signed veteran WR Marty Booker and WR Robert Ferguson. This also hurts the punt return game as Douglas was the main returner. That job is totally up for grabs at this point and will most likely be decided in the pre-season games.
2. Rookie SS William Moore out two to four weeks with injury. This injury will severely hurt Moore’s chances of contributing early in the season. Thomas DeCoud has been named the starter, as he and Moore were neck and neck for the starting gig.
3. LB Curtis Lofton misses a week with hamstring issues. Lofton is the unquestioned leader of the defense and tackling machine, great for IDP, but he has been out of practice since last Saturday. Not a big deal at this early juncture as we have more than a month to opening day, but hamstrings can linger, so we need to keep an eye on this to make sure that when he comes back there are no setbacks.

That’s the extent of the relevant news out of Flowery Branch for week one of training camp. Of course, there has been the mantra of getting RB Jerious Norwood the ball more, but haven’t we been hearing about that for 4 years now…..I’ll believe it when I see it….just thought I’d add that in….