The Falcons are considering starting Feleipe Franks over AJ McCarron in Saturday’s exhibition game against the Dolphins.
“They are on different levels,” Falcons coach Arthur Smith said of Franks and McCarron. “We’ll assess it at the end of the week and then we’ll see who’ll take the first half and who will take the second half assuming that we don’t play Matt (Ryan). Right now, the plan is to play both of those guys again Saturday.”
Smith left himself an opening to play Ryan, who didn’t play in exhibition opener against Tennessee.
“We may say hey, we want to see a couple series out of Matt Ryan,” Smith said. “But we’ll let you guys know Thursday night.”
Both McCarron and Franks struggled passing the ball behind the backup offensive line against the Titans. McCarron, in his first season with the Falcons after six seasons with three different teams, completed 5 of 12 passes for 36 yards and an interception while playing the first half. He finished with a 14.6 passer rating.
Franks, an undrafted rookie free agent who played at Arkansas last season after three seasons with the Florida Gators, completed 2 of 9 passes for 16 yards and finished with a 39.6 passer rating. Franks had four rushes for 76 yards, including a 52-yard scamper.
“He made some plays,” Smith said of Franks. “He proved that he can escape. He’s got some natural ability and now there are some things that we need him to clean up operationally, pass protection wise.”
Smith hopes the performance of both quarterbacks can be assisted this week with a stronger running game — Franks had 76 of the team’s 117 rushing yards against the Titans.
“You can’t blame it all on just one guy,” Smith said. “You can sit there, convert a third down and it’s called back because of pre-snap alignment. Just continually put you behind the sticks. You have to see how they react. It snow balls on you. So, we anticipate it to be much better this week from AJ.”
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