Falcons’ Raheem Morris: ‘Feeling really good about where we’re at as a team’

FLOWERY BRANCH — The Falcons started ramping up their practice Monday with their first exhibition game in mind.

The Falcons will host the Lions in their exhibition opener at 7 p.m. Friday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium with Easton Stick as the starting quarterback.

Quarterbacks Michael Penix Jr. and Kirk Cousins will not play in the game. The team will use Emory Jones in relief of Stick.

“Penix won’t get out there, and Kirk won’t get out there,” Falcons coach Raheem Morris said Monday. “So, we’ll see Stick. We’ll see Emory. That’s probably the most definitive thing that I’ve got to tell you right now. There’ll be a lot of guys playing, and there’ll be a couple that won’t.”

Penix was fine with the decision.

“I feel like he feels confident with the three games that I played last year,” Penix said. “If I didn’t play in any of those games last year, maybe we would be talking about (exhibition) games. He feels confident about what I can do come (the regular season). ... I’m good (with practice). I’m going to be ready Week 1.”

The Falcons had two days off from practice before returning to the field Monday during a light rain.

“It reminded me of my Seattle days,” said Penix, who finished his college career at Washington. “It was cool. It was good.”

Morris is pleased with where the team is in training camp.

“I’m feeling really good about where we’re at as a team and where we’re going to go,” Morris said. “That gets us right into our (exhibition) games to get some guys out there and get some of that healthy, active competition going against somebody else, that will be nice.”

The Falcons had a helmets-only practice Monday. They’ll return to a padded practice Tuesday.

“Then we’ll get to a nice little scrimmage for us,” Morris said. “Then that obviously works us into our (exhibition) games.”

Morris used the two days off to review how the team has been progressing.

“Actually, we got the numbers where we wanted to get into,” Morris said. “We got the guys ramped up at a nice level last week. I know you guys can tell that last practice we had was our highest number, amount of reps.”

How the scrimmage unfolds Wednesday will help determine how many players will play against the Lions.

“We’ve got a young football team, so there’ll be a lot more people playing than we had last year,” Morris said. “We have a couple of young guys who have to go out there and show some competitive things. We’ve got some positions that are up for battles. We want to see some of those things happen.”

The Falcons are nearly set on the offense. But with wide receiver Darnell Mooney out with a shoulder injury, one of the receivers likely will need to step forward early in the season.

On the defense, the Falcons could have as many as six to eight new starters. The key position battles are at defensive tackle to replace Grady Jarrett, inside linebacker and safety.

Players will have several opportunities to land those open jobs under new defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich.

“Obviously, that’ll happen within our own scrimmage,” Morris said. “That’ll happen within the (exhibition) games. And obviously, we’ve got the (joint) practices coming up the following week (with the Titans). So, I’m really feeling good about that. Feeling good about some of those healthy competitions.”

The Falcons had another fight at practice. Rookie outside linebacker James Pearce Jr. was in the middle of this one with backup offensive tackle Tyrone Wheatley Jr.

“I know the word of the offseason has been ‘edge,’ to bring some of that edge to our defense, to bring some of that edge to our team,” Morris said. “Just in general, kind of like our (offensive) line has already had an edge.”