Giants receiver Malik Nabers (knee/foot) returned to a full practice Thursday before getting limited work again Friday. He also was limited Wednesday.
Nabers has no injury designation for Sunday’s game, though.
Quarterback Tommy DeVito (concussion) returned to full participation Friday and will back up Drew Lock, who had another full practice Friday with injuries to a heel and his left elbow.
The Giants ruled out linebacker Patrick Johnson (knee), inside linebacker Bobby Okereke (back) and offensive guard Aaron Stinnie (concussion), and cornerback Greg Stroman Jr. (shoulder/shin) is doubtful.
Outside linebacker Brian Burns (ankle/neck) is among the players who are questionable. He has 58 tackles, eight sacks and 15 quarterback hits this season.
Cornerback Deonte Banks (rib), running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. (ankle), inside linebacker Dyontae Johnson (ankle) and offensive guard Austin Schlottman (fibula) also are questionable. Johnson and Schlottman are in their 21-day practice window as they attempt to work their way back from injured return.
Friday additions to the injury report are often bad news, but Falcons wide receiver Drake London appears to be all good for Sunday.
London was added to the report after being limited in practice with a knee injury. London has no injury designation, however, and that leaves him on track to play against the Giants.
London leads the Falcons with 78 catches, 919 receiving yards and seven touchdowns, so his presence should make Michael Penix Jr.'s first NFL start go a little more smoothly.
Wide receiver KhaDarel Hodge is listed as questionable due to injured ribs. Hodge won the NFC special teams player of the week award after blocking two punts in the Falcons’ win over the Raiders.
Linebacker Lorenzo Carter (groin) is also listed as questionable and wide receiver Casey Washington (concussion) has been ruled out.
The Falcons have benched Kirk Cousins and made rookie Michael Penix their starting quarterback, but Falcons wide receiver Drake London says that doesn’t change his job.
London said it’s on him and his fellow receivers to catch the ball no matter who is throwing it to them, and that’s what they’ll do.
“I don’t take QB changes in any way,” London said. “We did that in college a lot. Honestly, how I look at is, Just catch the ball. Whoever throws me the ball, I don’t care, just as long as it gets there and it’s catchable, that’s all that matters to me.”
London is the Falcons’ leading receiver and has already set career highs with 78 catches, 919 yards and seven touchdowns. He’s been a bright spot for the Falcons’ passing game, and the Falcons are hoping for more bright spots with a new quarterback. Even if Drake doesn’t think his job will change.
The Falcons will be making at least one change to their coaching staff after the season.
Pete Thamel of ESPN reports that pass game specialist Chandler Whitmer will be leaving the team to become the quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator at Indiana University. Indiana’s current offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri is leaving for UCLA, but will remain with the Hoosiers as long as they are still in the college football playoffs.
Whitmer spent three seasons as an offensive quality control coach for the Chargers before joining Raheem Morris’s staff this year.
Whitmer also coached at Clemson and Ohio State after playing quarterback for the University of Connecticut.
Tommy DeVito won’t be starting at quarterback against the Falcons on Sunday, but he will be available should the Giants need his services.
DeVito started last Sunday’s loss to the Ravens, but was forced out of the game due to a concussion. Head coach Brian Daboll said at a Friday press conference that DeVito has cleared the concussion protocol and will be in uniform this weekend.
The Giants previously named Drew Lock as the starter for this week, so DeVito will serve as the backup. Lock missed the Ravens loss with heel and left elbow injuries.
While DeVito is good to go, Daboll said the Giants are not likely to have linebacker Bobby Okereke (back), guard Aaron Stinne (concussion) or LB Patrick Johnson (knee) in the lineup this weekend.
Giants quarterback Drew Lock (heel/elbow) returned to full participation in Thursday’s practice. Lock was limited Wednesday.
The Giants plan to start Lock on Sunday against the Giants.
Lock started two games for the Giants before sitting out last weekend with his injuries. Tommy DeVito started in his place but was diagnosed with a concussion in the team’s loss to the Saints. Tim Boyle finished the game.
Lock went 42-of-81 for 405 yards and two interceptions in his two previous starts.
The Giants had six other changes to their lengthy injury report: Safety Dane Belton (knee), defensive tackle Cory Durden (shoulder), tight end Chris Manhertz (ankle), wide receiver Malik Nabers (knee/foot) and wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson (shoulder) were full participants a day after being limited. Cornerback Cor’Dale Flott, who had a limited practice Wednesday with a quad injury, now has a finger injury and again was limited.
Outside linebacker Brian Burns (ankle/neck), linebacker Patrick Johnson (knee), inside linebacker Bobby Okereke (back), offensive guard Aaron Stinnie (concussion) and cornerback Greg Stroman Jr. (shoulder/shin) remained non-participants.
The Falcons have elected to bench Kirk Cousins for rookie Michael Penix Jr. while still alive in the postseason race with just three weeks left in the season.
While making a rookie QB1 this late in the year certainly could be thought of as a risky move, Atlanta offensive coordinator Zac Robinson isn’t thinking of it that way.
“Yeah, I don’t view it as a risk,” Robinson said in his Wednesday news conference. ”[O]bviously hasn’t got the game reps that are valuable, but he’s been able to get a feel for the offense, get a feel for what an NFL schedule is like Monday through Sunday. And so a lot of those things, there’s just so many unknowns as a young player, knowing what an NFL week feels like and know what it’s like to win a game, to lose a game, to go through some adversity as a team. And he’s been able to see, obviously, a lot of ups and downs throughout the season, so he’s been able to absorb all that stuff from his perspective.
“The game reps are valuable, obviously, but we feel great about where he’s at up to this point and everything he’s done to get to this point.”
To that end, Robinson said he’s expecting Penix to be poised as he takes the field against the Giants on Sunday.
“I don’t think anybody’s going to have to say anything for Mike to be calm. I mean, he is about as cool as they come,” Robinson said. “I’m sure there’s going to be great, good nervous energy that you get out, and once you start playing football, though, it’s going to feel just like he was at University of Washington, just like he was in high school. I’m sure even when you go against a scout team defense — there’s no harder job in the world than being the scout team quarterback with blitzes coming … it feels a lot faster sometimes than the game even.
“And so I’m sure once he gets into it, the game will slow down for him and expect him to play great.”
Falcons rookie Michael Penix was in line at Costco, waiting to buy a hot dog when offensive coordinator Zac Robinson called to tell the quarterback he was starting this week.
“I got a lot of feelings,” Penix said, via Terrin Waack of the team website. “I don’t know what they are, but I’m just ready to play.”
The Falcons benched veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins after five weeks of offensive struggles, with Penix’s time coming before anyone expected.
The No. 8 overall pick has appeared in two games this season, playing 20 snaps and going 3-of-5 for 38 yards.
“I ain’t going to lie, I’m going to be nervous running out of that tunnel,” Penix said. “But whenever I get on the field, it’s a whole different mentality, a flipped switch. I’m ready to go.”
Penix worked solely with the first-team offense for the first time Wednesday, taking some 70 reps.
“I just got to be myself,” Penix said. “I don’t feel like I got to be anybody else. I don’t have to try too hard to be the big leader, the vocal leader. Just be myself. Trust in my preparation and bring everybody along with me.”
He has the full support of Cousins, who called Penix on Tuesday night to tell him that.
“I just let him know I’d be in his corner and supporting him and trying to help him any way I can,” Cousins said. “The quarterback room when I’m playing, it’s a working force to help us all, and it’s the same now. That doesn’t change.”
Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins said it was “stating the obvious” to say that he needed to play better after Monday night’s 15-9 win over the Raiders, so he probably wasn’t surprised to hear why head coach Raheem Morris was reaching out to talk to him on Tuesday.
Morris was calling to tell Cousins that Michael Penix Jr. will be taking over as the team’s starting quarterback and Cousins got his chance to talk about his reaction to the news on Wednesday.
“There’s a standard that I have for myself, that the team has for me,” Cousins said, via D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Unfortunately, I wasn’t playing up to that standard consistently enough and, so, it is what it is. You roll with it.”
Cousins said his turnovers — 16 interceptions and two lost fumbles — were to blame for falling short of the standard and he said he believes that “decision-making” is to blame rather than any lingering issues from last season’s torn Achilles. He also said that he “didn’t forget” how to play quarterback, but deferred any other questions about his future until the future.
Falcons head coach Raheem Morris held a press conference on Wednesday and the decision to bench quarterback Kirk Cousins in favor of rookie Michael Penix Jr. was the topic of conversation.
Among the questions that Morris fielded over the course of his time at the podium was one about whether he anticipates Penix remaining the starter the rest of the way.
“I don’t think anything is ever permanent in the National Football League, but right now Michael Penix is our quarterback,” Morris said. “We’re gonna back him and give him the utmost support that he needs.”
Morris called said it was only a football decision to make the move now, but acknowledged that there are “financial implications” due to Cousins’s contract for the 2025 season. He is guaranteed $27.5 million in salary and Morris said it is too soon to make any decisions about what his future might be in Atlanta.
It’s hard to imagine it’s a bright one with a first-round pick taking over the reins of the offense, but the next chapter of Cousins’s career remains unwritten at the moment.
