Falcons vs. Saints: Where do the Falcons stand as their Week 10 game looms large?

It’s been a rough year, Falcoholics. We appreciate you hanging in there, in spite of this team’s shenanigans. A win tomorrow won’t land the Falcons in the playoffs. Truth be told, it won’t matter much in a couple weeks. But it’d sure feel nice to smack around the Saints, wouldn’t it?

In anticipation of tomorrow’s Week 10 game, let’s take a quick look at the state of the Falcons coming in.

Health

Franchise quarterback Matthew Thomas Ryan will make his triumphant return tomorrow. Notwithstanding the fact that this team has nothing to play for but pride, Dan Quinn and his merry band of coaches feel it’s necessary to get Ryan back on the field. Fair enough, I suppose.

Meanwhile, John Cominsky (ankle), Ito Smith (neck), and Wes Schweitzer (concussion) have all been ruled out. Desmond Trufant (toe) is questionable, but I’ll be shocked if he plays, even if he was a limited participant in this week’s practices.

Because Schweitzer is out, the Falcons won’t have a lot of depth along the offensive front to work with tomorrow. Jamon Brown (foot) and James Carpenter (knee) were limited participants in practice this week but will play tomorrow.

Not that it matters, because offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter basically doesn’t know he exists, but Jaeden Graham (knee) is also ready to go tomorrow.

Standings

As you probably already know, the Falcons are dead last in the NFC South right now. At 1-7, they won’t be winning the division and their season will come to a merciful end at the end of December. But heck, look at this way: we’ll be able to throughly enjoy the Pro Bowl without having to worry about a silly Super Bowl appearance!

The Saints come into tomorrow’s game with a 2-game lead in the NFC South. At 5-3, the Kyle Allen-led Panthers will need to rattle off consecutive wins in the weeks ahead if they want to win this division. At 2-6, the Buccaneers are almost as bad as the Falcons. Not as bad, but almost as bad.

In short, our pets’ heads are falling off and everything is bad. Your thoughts, Falcoholics?