The Atlanta Falcons are preparing for a critical matchup against the Miami Dolphins, who enter Week 8 with only one win this season. The Falcons’ latest developments include roster changes, injury updates, and statistical highlights as they aim to improve their standing.
This week, the team released wide receiver Ray-Ray McCloud. Head coach Raheem Morris addressed the move by saying: “Just got to do what’s best for the team every single week. Every move you make is in order to get you better, in order to have better results. That’s what we came to the conclusion as. Wish Ray-Ray nothing but the best, provided us a lot last year. Had a great time with him. We had an opportunity to be together, and I wish him nothing but the best.”
Injury news focuses on quarterback Michael Penix Jr., who has been managing a knee issue but is expected to play despite being listed as questionable for Sunday’s game. Inside linebacker Divine Deablo will be out for an extended period due to a forearm fracture and could be placed on injured reserve; his status remains “week-to-week.” Defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich discussed how the defense plans to adjust: “As we all know, he’s very unique in the fact that he is, 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 some DBs at times, and we’ll replace him with some linebacker at times. We’re fortunate that we have a JD Bertrand here who is insanely intelligent, understands our scheme at the highest level, so he’s going to get a great opportunity to play some more, and there’s some other guys, too, that are going to step in and do something with what Divine does.”
The Falcons’ secondary continues its strong performance this season; entering Week 7 they led the NFL in pass defense by limiting opponents to 141.2 passing yards per game and are currently the only team not allowing any quarterback over 200 passing yards in a game.
Offensively, Atlanta ranks among the top ten teams in several categories such as rushing yards per game (136.3), average time of possession (32:15), sacks allowed per pass (4.46%), total yards per game (364.3), third-down efficiency (42.31%), and passing yards per game (228). However, they rank lower when it comes to points per game (18.3) and red-zone success rate (44.44%). Offensive coordinator Zac Robinson acknowledged these issues: “We’ve had two just clunker games,” he said about recent performances where scoring was limited. “You look at a zero (against the Panthers) and a 10 from last week, and we’ll be fighting an uphill battle with just points per game for the whole season based on those two bad games. We’ve got to get those things off the tape. We’ve got to score more points. We’ve been a big reason why we haven’t won those games.”
Tight end Kyle Pitts reached his 25th career game with at least 50 receiving yards last week against San Francisco—tying him for fifth-most among NFL tight ends since 2021—and joins three other Falcons tight ends in franchise history who have achieved this milestone.
Bijan Robinson is one rushing touchdown away from tying Michael Vick for ninth-most rushing touchdowns in club history while both Pitts and Tyler Allgeier can surpass 3000 career scrimmage yards if they meet their respective yardage targets this weekend.
The upcoming contest against Miami marks another closely watched chapter between these teams; their previous three meetings were each decided by four points or fewer—matching Atlanta’s second-longest active streak of close results versus any opponent.
