Falcons vs Steelers: Injury report for Preseason Week 2

The Atlanta Falcons and Pittsburgh Steelers will be squaring off in their second game of the 2017 preseason on Sunday, take a look at the injury report.

The Atlanta Falcons and Pittsburgh Steelers will be playing on Sunday afternoon without most of their star players. These are two franchises who expect nothing less than making a deep playoff-run again in 2017, as both teams made their respective conference championship games a year ago.

That being said, neither coaching staff is willing to lose one of their starters in a meaningless preseason match-up.

Heading into the weekend, it sounds as though Pittsburgh will be the team without most of their star-power. Take a look at their injury report from Alex Kozora from the Steelers Depot:

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"At his press conference today, Mike Tomlin announced Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown will be held out of Sunday afternoon’s game against the Atlanta Falcons. He announced Josh Dobbs will get the start at quarterback with Landry Jones (abdominal strain) still unlikely to play.Tomlin announced all other healthy players will suit up.He also mentioned that he expected James Conner to play Sunday. Conner seemed to suffer a lower body injury yesterday and did not finish practice. Tomlin said he will “give him as much as he can handle,” per Steelers.com’s Missi Matthews."

For Steelers fans, this is some extremely exciting news that James Conner could possibly play on Sunday in front of the home crowd. He didn’t have an opportunity to suit up last Sunday against the New York Giants, so there will definitely be a different feel from the Pittsburgh crowd when he takes the field on Sunday afternoon.

Also, Joshua Dobbs, the Steelers rookie quarterback out of the University of Tennessee, will get to start for the second-straight weekend. Like I mentioned before, there’s no reason to have Ben Roethlisberger play against a fast and furious Atlanta defense, especially when it’s only week two of the preseason.

On the other sideline, the Atlanta Falcons will hold out some of their best players as well. Take a look at Kelsey Conway’s tweet about some of the Dirty Birds’ top play-makers and their status for the game in Pittsburgh:

Let’s be honest here Falcons fans, do you really need to see Taylor Gabriel or Julio Jones suit up against the Steelers this weekend? While it would be great to see Jones and Gabriel back on the field together, I think every Atlanta fan would rather err on the side of caution. However, it does sound like the team’s 2017 first-round pick will be making his first appearance of the year.

If Takkarist McKinley indeed does get the opportunity to play on Sunday afternoon, it will probably only be for a few series. Atlanta needs to give him enough time to get introduced to the speed of an NFL game, but pull him whenever the Steelers starting offensive line comes out of the game.

Next: NFL Power Rankings 2017: Preseason Week 2

McKinley could significantly improve the Falcons pass-rush in 2017, but he can only do that if he’s healthy and on the field. That being said, don’t be surprised if his career debut is short and sweet against Pittsburgh this weekend.