The Falcons bye week had the desired outcome for the team’s health

The Atlanta Falcons needed a Week 5 bye week, as it turns out. Had they been playing a game this past weekend, they likely would’ve been without Julio Jones, Ryan Schraeder, Ricardo Allen, Mohamed Sanu, and Courtney Upshaw, and that would have been a lot to overcome.

Now, per Dan Quinn, the Falcons are pretty damn close to healthy, minus the unfortunate loss of Jack Crawford. As far as we know, only Mohamed Sanu wasn’t ready to practice today, which means Schraeder, Allen, Julio and Upshaw were all back in action, and Vic Beasley must be getting close. I’d bet on all four of the first names playing, with Beasley likely looming as a gametime call.

If you’re going to suffer a metric buttload of injuries—that’s the scientific term, I have a doctorate—you want to do so when the bye is coming up. The Falcons are relatively healthy now with a critical stretch against the rest of the AFC East, where they have two cakewalk games on paper (Miami and New York) and one tough road test (New England). I like their chances in all three games, and if Beasley’s back sooner than later, they’re going to be an even bigger problem.

So as Quinn said, the bye came at just the right time. Now let’s see if it helps this team translate health into sweet, sweet wins.