Martrez Milner returns to Falcons practice

Flowery Branch — A day after the Falcons signed 14-year veteran tight end Marcus Pollard, injured tight end Martrez Milner returned to practice on Monday.

Milner, who suffered an injury to his right toe, ankle and knee during a team event Aug. 2, is the most athletic tight end on the roster and figured to have the inside track to play the H-back/tight end position coming out of the backfield.

“The first day back was all right,” Milner said. “I had limited reps, but it feels good to be back out here.”

Last season, Milner, a fourth-round pick from Georgia, made two starts and played in eight games. He suffered a season-ending left ankle injury that required surgery and was placed on injured reserve.

Milner is not fully recovered, but the pressure to impress the new staff and Pollard’s addition can’t be overlooked.

“I don’t feel great, but it felt good to be back out there,” Milner said.

With Alge Crumpler gone, Milner had an opportunity to step in and become the team’s top pass-catching tight end.

“I don’t feel any pressure,” Milner said. “I just want to prove to the coaches that I’m still dependable. I’m still one of the guys that can make plays and help the team get better.”

With tight ends Ben Hartsock, Jason Rader and Pollard, Milner and Keith Zinger could be fighting for the last roster spot at the position.

“He’s missed time so he doesn’t have the number of opportunities for us to make an evaluation,” Falcons head coach Mike Smith said. “Martrez was on the football team last year, so we had an opportunity to evaluate him coming in, knowing about his athleticism.

“It’s going to be a tougher decision for us in terms of what direction we need to go because it’s going to be a limited number of snaps that we are going to have to evaluate.”

Pollard studying

Pollard and tight ends coach Chris Scelfo have been working around the clock to get him ready to play on Thursday against Baltimore in the final preseason game.

“When we haven’t been meeting, they’ve been getting together trying to get him up to speed so that he can do some things in the game on Thursday,” Smith said.

Jennings inches ahead

Punt returner Adam Jennings, who muffed a punt against Indianapolis, came back with returns of 28 and 23 yards against Tennessee.

“I think that Adam has separated himself with the performance that he had on Friday night,” Smith said. “I know that Harry (Douglas) has got the skill set and could do it as well. It’s a two-man race, but I think Adam has pulled out in front in that area.”

Jennings won the punt-returning job last season, but has a penchant for fair-catching returnable punts. He had 19 fair catches on 30 returns last season and averaged a meager 6.2 yards a return. He had no touchdowns with a long return of 23 yards.

Jennings said that special teams coordinator Keith Armstrong didn’t order him to stop making fair catches.

“No, that’s something coach leaves up to me,” Jennings said. “If I feel that there are some people around me and it’s not safe to return the ball, I’ll fair catch the ball.”

Stepanovich recovering

Backup center/guard Alex Stepanovich, who suffered a back injury two weeks ago, is expected to be ready for the regular-season opener on Sept. 7.

“We are anticipating that he will be able to get on the field next week,” Smith said. “We are being a little bit precautionary with that as well. We just want to make sure that his back is feeling good before we put him back out there.”

Dahl not declared

While Smith has picked in winner of the quarterback competition, he’s not ready to declare Harvey Dahl the winner at right guard over six-year starter Kynan Forney.

“I think right now that Harvey is the leading,” Smith said. “Again, that’s another one of those battles. I think there are a number of battles going on, from the very beginning we’ve talked about putting these guys in competitive situations.”