Jason Spriggs, Colby Gossett in mix for right tackle gig if Kaleb McGary is out Sunday

Atlanta’s looking much healthier heading into Sunday’s matchup with the Dolphins, which is great news. At this point we’re just waiting to see if Jaylinn Hawkins and Dante Fowler can go, given that Russell Gage, Calvin Ridley, Erik Harris, Marlon Davidson and Avery Williams all were back and practicing on Wednesday. Oh, and Kaleb McGary.

We don’t know if McGary will be cleared and off the reserve/COVID-19 list in time for Sunday. If he doesn’t, Jason Spriggs is in line to start, but Arthur Smith threw out an unexpected name on Wednesday when talking about who might step up.

Spriggs has some starting experience at tackle in the NFL, mostly with the Packers, and given that he’s listed as the team’s top reserve tackle it made sense to me that he’d simply step in to the starting lineup with McGary potentially out. Gossett was the team’s lone post-cuts waiver pickup, has ties to offensive line coach Dwayne Ledford from their shared Appalachian State days and has starting experience as well, albeit at guard. The coaching staff obviously likes him and perhaps Gossett will wind up getting more run at tackle in the future, but I’d still be pretty surprised if it’s not Spriggs out there Sunday.

Again, though, that’s only if McGary doesn’t play. Given the progress this line has made to this point as a quintet, we’ll keep hoping McGary will be out there when all is said and done.