Falcons wide receiver Roddy White didn’t practice on Friday, making it a full week without on-field work for the veteran as he deals with an ankle injury.
That won’t rule him out of Sunday’s game against the Cardinals, however. Coach Mike Smith said that White’s lack of practice time during the week isn’t an obstacle to playing him if White feels good on gameday.
“Because Roddy studies the game and understands how people are going to try to defend him. And he’s been in this league for over 10 years. We’ve done it multiple times last season in terms of him not being able to get out on the practice field,” Smith said, via ESPN.com. “He did work with our [athletic performance] people today and got good reports on where he was in terms of moving around. I feel confident, still, that he’ll play on Sunday.”
White, who is officially listed as questionable, and the Falcons had the same kind of confidence in Week Three when White missed practice time with a hamstring injury, but he wound up inactive in that game. Given the significance of this game to the Falcons, however, you’d expect White to have every opportunity to get on the field Sunday so the Cardinals can’t focus too much of their defensive attention on Julio Jones.