A team coming out of their bye week is almost always going to have an advantage by being healthy and well-rested, but the New Orleans Saints are catching the Atlanta Falcons at a good time. A couple of high-profile knee injuries in Sunday’s loss to the Carolina Panthers mean the Atlanta will be without starting quarterback Michael Penix Jr. and their leading wide receiver Drake London next week at the Caesars Superdome.
Penix, who has twice suffered a torn ACL and missed a game earlier this year with a bone bruise in the same knee, is feared to miss the rest of the 2025 season. London has a PCL strain that’s expected to keep him out at least this week, and potentially longer. Even if the Falcons have an experienced backup under center in Kirk Cousins, it’s going to be hard for him to work without London. The second-year receiver leads Atlanta with 60 catches for 810 receiving yards and six touchdowns. No other Falcons wideout has scored this year. Next-best to his numbers is Darnell Mooney with 16 receptions for 224 yards.
It’s all setting the Saints up for a second-half surge — if Tyler Shough’s strong performance against that same Panthers team in Week 10 wasn’t a mirage. Five of their next seven games are against teams with sub-.500 records, including two matchups with the Falcons. At the same time, those teams are looking at the Saints and their 2-8 record as an opportunity to get right. Beating up on Atlanta this Sunday is a good start to proving them wrong.
This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: Falcons injury report: Drake London, Michael Penix Jr. out vs. Saints
