FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — There is a chance the Atlanta Falcons have starting inside linebacker Divine Deablo back for their Week 12 game against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.
Falcons head coach Raheem Morris announced Monday that Deablo will be designated to return from injured reserve.
“Assuming everything goes well,” Morris said, “he should be back playing.”
The transaction hasn’t officially been processed. When it does, the Falcons will have 21 days to either activate Deablo or revert him to season-ending injured reserve.
Deablo was initially placed on injured reserve in Week 8 due to a fracture in his left forearm. He sustained the injury during the Falcons’ Week 7 loss to the San Francisco 49ers, leaving the game in the second quarter.
Atlanta signed Deablo in the offseason, and he quickly turned into a huge asset for the Falcons’ defense. Through the first six games, he assisted in a sack, recovered a fumble, broke up four passes and contributed 24 tackles. Deablo was a force in the middle of the field alongside fellow starter Kaden Elliss — and Deablo’s presence has definitely been missed.
“It’s going to be a kind of replace him by committee a little bit,” Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich said after Deablo was placed on injured reserve. “Because as we all know, he’s very unique in the fact that from an athletic profile standpoint, he’s very DB-ish; from a size standpoint, he’s very linebacker-ish. So, we’re going to replace him with that, with some DBs at times, and we’ll replace him with some linebacker at times.”
Though there have been others, the Falcons have primarily relied on JD Bertrand and Ronnie Harrison to fill the void. Bertrand was first to get the reps. Harrison has as of late.
“We played some really good ball with JD,” Morris said. “But Ronnie has really earned more reps and more role, and it’s kind of been increased since he’s been here. A lot of credit to Ronnie, a man that’s come here with us from training camp and really increased his role from a practice squad player to a special teams player to now being out there with that first-team defense in some situations. The way he’s playing, it’s going to do nothing else but increase.”
That may change with Deablo’s return. Or, it could alleviate any immediate pressure to do so.
Regardless, given the offensive injury news that came out — quarterback Michael Penix Jr. to injured reserve and wide receiver Drake London being week to week – the Falcons at least got one positive update Monday with Deablo.
Surely, Atlanta would be happy to have him back. The Falcons are 0-4 without Deablo on the field.
“I don’t know if he gets enough credit,” Morris said in Week 6, “for being as good a linebacker as he’s been in this National Football League.”
