While the players receive a break from practice Monday, Falcons coach Arthur Smith and his staff keep pushing onward.
The team will return to practice Tuesday for their first padded practice, while aiming toward a public scrimmage at 2 p.m. Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. About 25,000 tickets have been sold for the scrimmage. The tickets are $5 with the proceeds going to Emory Healthcare.
“It’s the next step,” Smith said. “We’ll start adding things to practice situationally and ultimately get them ready to go play a game.”
After the scrimmage, the next big day is the exhibition season opener against Tennessee at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 13.
“That’s another step as we try to get these young guys that have never been in an NFL game (ready to play),” Smith said. “Even for us as a staff, our communication and then we get ready to play the next Friday. All that stuff, it helps.”
The Falcons are shifting to a more run-centric offense under Smith. Running backs Mike Davis, Cordarelle Patterson and Qadree Ollison will be watched closely.
“Who can take over on third downs and then you get into situations,” Smith said. “The competition is good for the entire room.”
Undrafted rookie running backs Javian Hawkins and Caleb Huntley will get a lot of action in the exhibition season.
Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@
Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@
“Little Hawk. ... We have two J. Hawkins, in Jaylinn and Javian, so we call him Little Hawk,” Smith explained. “But Little Hawk and Caleb, they are competing, doing good things and making good progress every day.”
With only three quarterbacks in camp, the Falcons have them on a throw count like baseball pitchers have a pitch count.
“We try to be fair,” Smith said. “With Matt (Ryan) there are obviously things we have to get done. We are constantly monitoring throws, what routes we are running and who’s running what.”
The objective is to get Ryan ready for the season, while the team evaluates if A.J. McCarron or Feleipe Franks can be a potential backup.
“With A.J. and Feleipe you have to make sure there is some time,” Smith said. “If you’re going to try to develop quarterbacks, they need reps. That’s why the (exhibition) season will be very valuable for those guys. Everything we do, we are trying the best that we can to make sure we are giving them a fair shot.”
After each practice, the throws of each quarterback are tracked.
“We evaluate everything every night,” Smith said. “What we are calling for them. What we are running so that we can actually give them an objective opinion on how they are coming along.”
With just three exhibition games this season as the NFL moves to a 17-game schedule, Smith is not sure if he’ll used the third game as his dress rehearsal for the regular season. The Falcons play the Browns on Sunday, Aug. 29, in their final preseason game. Atlanta’s regular season opener is two weeks later on Sept. 12 against the Eagles at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
There’s enough time for rest and recovery if starters see more playing time in the third preseason game. Some teams may use the second game as their dress rehearsal.
“The biggest thing, too, is that you have to make an evaluation after all of these games,” Smith said. “I think that it is fair to make sure that everybody gets out there and you get a look at them, seeing them live in a real football game. Because those are the big decisions that you’ve got to make. The cut down after every game.”
With the Falcons set to play three teams that had winning records in Tennessee (11-5), Miami (10-6) and Cleveland (11-5), Smith should be leaning toward playing his players more to get the better evaluations that he desires.
Also, they’ll reserve some time to look at the undrafted players, like Hawkins and Huntley.
“Last year’s undrafted free agent class missed out on a lot of opportunities,” Smith said. “The guys kind of went with what they had obviously when the roster shrunk down in training camp and you didn’t have any live games to evaluate them on. It maybe was a detriment to last year’s class.”
Also, the competition at punter will extend through the exhibition season. Dom Maggio was signed to compete with incumbent Sterling Hofrichter.
“That’s where the (exhibition) season will be big at the punter spot,” Smith said.
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