Mooney suffered an injury on the first day of camp and has yet to return.
The Atlanta Falcons have stayed relatively healthy through the first week of training camp, aside from wide receiver Darnell Mooney, who suffered a shoulder injury on Day 1. Mooney is obviously a key part of the Falcons offense and his status has been somewhat of a mystery since he went down.
Head coach Raheem Morris was asked whether or not Mooney will be ready for Week 1 of the regular season but didn’t seem to have a concrete answer.
“You know, we’re going with a few weeks right now,” answered Morris. “And we’ll play it out after we get to that point. When we get to that point, we’ll figure out where we’re at and hopefully everything will be looking good for us to be ready to continue into our season and get him back.”
The Falcons relied on Mooney quite a bit last season. The former Bears wide receiver finished just shy of 1,000 receiving yards. Morris said the team had to get by without Mooney during the final week of the 2024 season and that it opened the door for other players, including former sixth-round pick Casey Washington.
“We got a chance to see a young guy, like Casey Washington, be able to accumulate more reps the other day,” said Morris. “And to be able to watch him go out there and grow and perform and to be the best version of himself.”
Atlanta is working through its first fully padded practice of training camp, but Morris expects there to be an adjustment period as the team gets used to the added intensity. Check back for updates from Tuesday’s practice later this afternoon.