Falcons offer vague updates on Matt Ryan, Cordarrelle Patterson injuries

The Falcons are banged up. No one inside or outside the organization is going to tell you they were turned into cranberry sauce the past two weeks because of who isn’t out there on the field, but those mounting injuries are making the sledding tougher than it already is, and my hope was that we’d get some positive news after last night’s game on that front.

We haven’t gotten positive news, per se, but Arthur Smith did have some vaguely encouraging words about Cordarrelle Patterson’s ankle injury and Matt Ryan’s toe injury.

For Ryan, who played out the game after getting hurt, this is perhaps less encouraging than you’d like. Josh Rosen’s short stints in the past couple of games have suggested the Falcons offense would plumb new depths if he needed to start, so we’ll hope Ryan is healthy and ready to bounce back after two straight awful games.

Patterson sounds like he should play next Sunday if he doesn’t suffer any setbacks, which is a major relief for a team that desperately needs his playmaking ability. The return of Ridley would also lift this offense, obviously—he’s one of the only receivers on this team who can consistently get even a crumb of separation—but at this point it’s impossible to know whether we can expect that in 2021. Gono’s return would also be a big deal, given that he’s a competent offensive lineman who has flashed at tackle and the Falcons could probably use someone to least push Kaleb McGary in practice, but again we don’t know if that’s something we can expect this year.

This is all very vague, but I’m hoping the most optimistic read on Ryan and Patterson’s statuses is the one that proves to be true. It would be awfully nice if the Falcons could score a touchdown or two against the Jaguars, and their chances of doing so plummet without these two.