White returns to Falcons' practice

By D. ORLANDO LEDBETTER

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Flowery Branch -- Falcons Pro Bowl receiver Roddy White participated in his first practice on Monday after ending his eight-day holdout.

Curtis Compton, ccompton@ajc.com

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White signed a six-year contract extension on Saturday.

"It was good," White said of his first practice. "I want to thank [owner] Mr. [Arthur] Blank, general manager Thomas [Dimitroff] and [president] Rich McKay for getting my deal done and coach [Mike] Smith for getting together and getting me back out here as soon as possible."

White said holding out was a tough decision.

"At the beginning it was rough, but that's kind of how negotiations are," White said. "After that it was smooth sailing from there. After that I knew I was going to be here on Saturday."

White looked good running his routes, but had some mistakes and dropped passes.

"I just wanted to get in the huddle and hear huddle calls and things like that," White said. "I came out here and dropped a couple of balls today. Just have to knock the rust off."

Smith was happy to have White back.

"As a team, you want to have all of your best players," Smith said. "When you don't have your best players, you are not going to be as efficient as you possibly can. That's the big thing, we probably weren't efficient in week one as we could have been."

White was worked back into the first unit quickly.

"I think anybody that misses time, it's time that you can not make up," Smith said. "Time is your most important commodity; probably more than money. You can get that money back, but you can't get that time back."

Smith doesn't harbor any ill feelings for the holdout.

"I'm not angry," Smith said. "I'm not a person who holds grudges ... This is week two and we're ready to move forward."

White will be closely monitored this week in practice in order to avoid an injury.

"We are going to monitor his reps," Smith said. "But it will be really on day two and three that you have to take a good look at him."

Smith is confident that White is in shape.

"Roddy came in [Sunday] after he signed his contract," Smith said. "The first thing that I said to him, was 'are you ready to do your running test.' He came out and he got his running test like the rest of the guys on our team. He passed his running test. He's in pretty good shape in terms of conditioning, but again it's a little bit different when you go out and run routes."