Atlanta Falcons roster perfectly set up for Patterson to take his time returning

Cordarrelle Patterson has joined a growing list of Atlanta Falcons players dealing with an injury. Patterson's week one status is in question with the veteran shut down for at least the rest of the preseason unless something were to drastically change.

Patterson has been vital to the Atlanta Falcons offense in both of his first two seasons with the franchise. However, with the off-season addition of Bijan Robinson Atlanta can have Patterson take his time returning to the field.

Obviously, you want the veteran on the field in week one against Carolina, however, with Robinson and Tyler Allgeier in the backfield the team can feel comfortable if Patterson needs to miss time early on in the regular season.

Cordarrelle is expected to take on more of a utility role as he did in the 2021 season with Robinson taking a lot of the carries and Allgeier being last season's leading rusher. Patterson should be expected to play at receiver far more often and be moved around the field to hunt mismatches and allow Robinson to share snaps with the veteran.

Patterson joins Mike Hughes and Jeff Okudah as key Atlanta Falcons players that now have their week one status in question. It seems likely that Okudah is out for at least the first two weeks of the season while Hughes and Patterson will both be re-evaluated as we get closer to week one.

While their depth has been severely hurt throughout camp and the early pre-season Atlanta's starting lineups still should be good enough to compete with both the Panthers and Packers in the first two weeks of the regular season.

With the injuries continuing to pile up it will be interesting to watch how Arthur Smith managed the rest of the preseason balancing getting his players into game shape while attempting to keep the rest of his players healthy heading into a pivotal 2023 season.