There's a lot of reports swirling around about just what's going to happen to Michael Turner this weekend, and almost all of them are a cause for concern.
Pretty much everyone seems to agree that Turner has sprained his ankle, but the severity of that sprain seems to be in doubt. If you listen to Dr. Roddy White, Turner will play this weekend. Listen to Mike Smith and that's a little less specific "confident" that he'll play again in 2009. And everything in between.
I would personally put the likelihood that Turner plays this week at like 25%, which leaves us to sort through our remaining options and figure out who we'll be trotting out against the Giants. The obvious choice for a feature back is Jason Snelling, who runs like an angry bull and can even catch a pass or two. Given the health and talent level of everyone else on the roster, he's pretty much the default. It's also a really cool thing to see a former seventh round pick who has battled epilepsy his whole life getting ready to start for the Falcons. Here's hoping he has a good week.
Beyond that, health really is going to play a role. Aaron Stecker has been re-signed and is available to go, but he's not exactly an elite option and will chiefly be useful for spelling Snelling. If Jerious Norwood is healthy, he could easily get ten touches and make an immediate impact with his speed, but I'm not sure he's going to be up for the game on Sunday. Unless we're willing to drop someone else off the roster to make room for another back, we really don't have any other options.
Now that we've established that, feel free to take a crack at predicting how this will all go down and how well our rushing attack will fare against the Giants.