Atlanta Falcons vs. Arizona Cardinals: Friday Injury Report

Injuries are going to play a huge part in the Atlanta Falcons and Arizona Cardinals game. Both teams are dealing with some struggles on the injury front.

The Falcons and Cardinals both are dealing with some injuries, but the Cardinals are dealing with the worse overall situation for sure. Atlanta has only a couple of key guys on injured reserve while the Cardinals have quite a few players on their injured reserve. The Cardinals are a more talented team than their record indicates, but they are a completely different team with these injuries.

For the Falcons to have a true edge in this matchup, they will need to take advantage of the issues caused by the Cardinals poor injury situation. Atlanta has the players to attack the holes that Arizona has this week. The Falcons just have to use those players in the prime situations.

Arizona Cardinals Injury Report

The Cardinals are much, much more banged up than was even realized a few weeks ago. They are missing multiple starting offensive linemen on injured reserve and even have some of their replacements as questionable this week. This could be a great match-up for the Falcons to exploit. On top of that, the Cardinals are missing Troy Niklas who is arguably their best run blocking tight end, so their run blocking won’t be as good as it has been.

If they are missing Michael Floyd and Earl Watford as well as the players on injured reserve, the Cardinals offense will be essentially neutered of it’s efficacy. So the Falcons defense would have to key on David Johnson and Larry Fitzgerald in order to stuff the Cardinals completely. The Cardinals also have their inside linebackers banged up, and Corey Peters, their starting NT, is also hurting. The Falcons should be able to create something in the run game if they stick to inside zones.

Atlanta has a lot of advantages over a banged up Cardinals, but the biggest loss that the Cardinals could have would be if they are missing Tyrann Mathieu—who is listed as questionable. Mathieu is the ideal guy to help bracket Julio Jones and matchup with Taylor Gabriel in the slot. Also, if Patrick Peterson is hurting from his illness this past week, then Jones might be able to dominate him like he did back in 2014.

Atlanta Falcons Injury Report

Outside of the loss of Derrick Shelby and Sean Weatherspoon early, the injured reserve hasn’t seen many casualties added to it. That is, until this week. Jacob Tamme got added to the injured reserve, and the Falcons will have to get better performances out of Austin Hooper and Levine Toilolo than they got from them during the Philadelphia Eagles game.

Without factoring in the injured reserve injuries, the Falcons are relatively healthy. There are some guys banged up like Tevin Coleman and Julio Jones, but they’ve already been marked as healthy for the game. Past them, the Falcons have both Matt Bosher and Desmond Trufant listed as questionable. Bosher is dealing with a hamstring, and Trufant is dealing with a shoulder/pectoral injury. Bosher would be replaced by Matt Wile, which while not ideal, isn’t the end of the world.

However, Trufant would have to be replaced by Jalen Collins for the second straight game. With Larry Fitzgerald starting to play like prime Fitzgerald again, the Falcons will have to make sure they cover him with the best possible match-up. Robert Alford just might have to step up and be the guy who shadows Fitzgerald this week if Trufant misses the game. If Trufant plays, the Falcons defense is going to be at full strength for one of the few games it has been there all year.