Falcons safety Zeke Motta will miss at least the first six weeks of the regular season as he recovers from a neck injury, coach Mike Smith said today.
Motta is on the active/physically unable to perform list for the preseason and he hasn’t made enough progress to play early in the season, Smith said. He said the Falcons will place Motta on the reserve/PUP list to start the regular season, which makes him ineligible to play for the first six weeks.
Motta had surgery on Dec. 22 to repair a cervical fracture of the C1 vertebrae. He suffered the injury during a game against the Packers on Dec. 8.
“There was some encouragement (in Motta’s progress) but he will not be coming off of PUP before the season starts,” Smith said. “He will be on PUP as the season starts and then we will have to make a decision as we get into the season.”
If Motta begins the season on the PUP list and the Falcons don’t activate him after Week 6, they’d have a six-week window to decide whether to place him on season-ending injured reserve or release him. Once he returned to practice they’d have three weeks to decide whether to add him to the active roster or place him on IR.
The Falcons selected Motta in the seventh round of the 2013 draft out of Notre Dame. He played in 10 games as a rookie and had 16 tackles and one pass defended.
Motta projected as a reserve this season behind starting safeties William Moore and Dwight Lowery. Rookie Dez Southward, a third-round draft pick, and second-year pro Kemal Ishamel have filled that role during the preseason.
