Keanu Neal gave Desmond Trufant a concussion, and Brian Poole is day-to-day

If you needed more evidence that 2017 is a profoundly weird year, here’s a piece of it: Keanu Neal actually concussed Desmond Trufant yesterday when he wrecked him accidentally on a play where he was trying to wreck a Buccaneer.

As many of you have noted, you can’t very well ask Neal to slow up, given that he’s this team’s enforcer and any reduction in velocity is going to mean a reduction in effectiveness. Even so, this is really unfortunate, given that the Falcons are on the verge of a tough matchup, Trufant is unlikely to clear the league’s concussion protocol in time for Sunday. It’s a bad time to be short-handed at cornerback.

The good news is that Brian Poole appears to have escaped a more serious injury, and that should put him on track to be ready for Sunday’s game against the Vikings. The Falcons will definitely need his physicality and coverage chops in this one, so that is no minor bit of news. The Falcons also have a mostly healthy Robert Alford, thankfully.

The Falcons will have to paper over the loss of their best cornerback in a game against Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen, making Neal’s accidental destruction of Trufant an awfully costly play. We’ll hope Alford, Poole, C.J. Goodwin, Blidi Wreh-Wilson and/or anyone the Falcons sign off the street are up to the task of slowing this Minnesota passing attack.