Every injured Falcon is on track for the season opener

We’ve reiterated this before, but it’s still great news: Every single injured Falcons player appears to be on track for the 2017 season opener.

This is a mild surprise given how long the injury list got by the end of the year. To wit:

• Desmond Trufant, pectoral surgery
• Derrick Shelby, Achilles
• Ryan Schraeder, torn ankle ligament
• Julio Jones, toe surgery
• Kemal Ishmael, shoulder
• Adrian Clayborn, biceps tear

I’m probably forgetting a few, too, but there’s some extremely great, valuable players on this list. Trufant is legitimately one of the best cornerbacks in football, Julio the best receiver, Schraeder a top-flight right tackle, and the rest contributors at worst. You worry about setbacks, and I certainly was with Shelby in particular, but everyone’s progressing nicely. That’s all you can ask for at this point of the year.

The upshot is that the Falcons will be—and will hopefully stay—healthy in 2017. That will be key if they’re going to repeat as the NFC Champion this upcoming season.