MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The Atlanta Falcons begin their first preseason under head coach Raheem Morris at 7 p.m. Friday, when they conclude a week of competition with the Miami Dolphins under the lights of Hard Rock Stadium.
But both the Falcons and Dolphins are expected to take the field without a majority of their first-team players. Morris, who spoke with reporters before practice Wednesday, foreshadowed a light day for his starters.
“Our threes will get a chance to get out there in some of our preseason work, and some of our twos as well, and we’ll play a couple of the ones,” Morris said. “We’ll have to make a pretty good evaluation as a coach’s standpoint.”
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Perhaps most prominently, Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins is unlikely to play — the soon-to-be 36-year-old passer said during training camp he and Morris spoke in June about suiting up for exhibition games, and while Cousins thought it was a good idea to see live bullets, Morris didn’t.
“I think that ask fell on deaf ears,” Cousins said at the beginning of training camp. “Raheem’s model is ‘you’re not playing.’ And I don’t know if I’m letting the cat out of the bag or anything, but his approach was like, ‘That’s just not how we want to do things.'”
With Cousins all but out of the picture, first-round rookie Michael Penix Jr. will receive extensive action under center.
“You’ll get a good look at Michael,” Morris said Wednesday in Miami. “You’ll get a chance to get him to go out there and watch him work.”
It feels safe to assume almost all of Atlanta’s starting offense — from Cousins to running backs Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier, receivers Drake London and Darnell Mooney, tight end Kyle Pitts and the offensive line — won’t play Friday night.
As such, the bulk of the workload falls on Penix, who will be joined in the backfield by running backs Carlos Washington Jr. and rookie Jase McClellan. At receiver, Penix will have several targets to hit, headlined by sixth-round rookie Casey Washington and returning practice squad members Josh Ali and Chris Blair.
Atlanta’s defense may see a few starters take the field — cornerback Mike Hughes seems a likely candidate, and with as much depth as the defensive front carries, it’s probable a few rotation players get action Friday.
Veteran defensive tackle Grady Jarrett, who only recently returned to practice at full strength after suffering a torn ACL in Week 8 last season, is highly unlikely to play, though he didn’t shed much light on the situation Wednesday.
“Friday will take care of itself,” Jarrett said. “However it goes, you know I’ll be ready.”
Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel implied during his press conference Wednesday that quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who hasn’t played in the preseason opener each of the past two years, will extend his streak to the three.
“Do I expect from past scenarios that you’re going to be surprised with, as you’d put it, a deviation from the last two years? I don’t think you’re going to be surprised,” McDaniel said.
McDaniel added he and the Dolphins staff would make their final decision on starters playing Thursday, thus not revealing his answer ahead of the game. But in a similar situation in last year’s opening exhibition contest, few first-team players saw the field.
And so, when the two teams face off Friday night, many recognizable faces figure to be watching from the sidelines — with an eye peeking ahead to their respective regular seasons, which begins Sept. 8 for both squads.
