Atlanta Falcons: 3 Things to watch for in Preseason Week 1
By Derek Snyder
3. How long will the Falcons stick with their starters?
Each and every week of the preseason, fans sit at home wondering how long they’ll get to see their favorite players in action. While everyone would love to see Julio Jones and Matt Ryan for the first time in seven months, every fan dreads seeing any starting player go down with an injury in these “practice” games.
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Needless to say, the Atlanta Falcons are faced with these kinds of decisions as they prepare to play the Jets on Friday night.
Obviously, I’m not on Atlanta’s coaching staff and they definitely aren’t asking for my opinion, but if they did, I would tell them sit Julio Jones, Keanu Neal, Deion Jones, Vic Beasley, and Devonta Freeman for this first week’s game against New York. The team has bigger fish to fry this season than see any one of those five guys get hurt against the Jets.
Some may say that’s being a little over-cautious and that “football is football”, but try telling that to some fanbases who’ve lost key players over the past few preseasons.
The Dirty Birds are in a great position to compete for their first Lombardi Trophy again in 2018, which means they need to be a little more protective than normal over their stars throughout the month of August.