{"id":1019865,"date":"2026-10-06T05:03:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T05:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1019865\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T05:03:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T05:03:22","slug":"falcons-de-zadarius-smith-questionable-to-return-after-being-kneed-in-the-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1019865\/","title":{"rendered":"Falcons DE Za&#8217;Darius Smith questionable to return after being kneed in the head"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Falcons defensive end Za\u2019Darius Smith took a knee to the head with 12:57 left in the first quarter.<\/p>\n<p>He remained on the ground, and after the Falcons\u2019 medical personnel checked him out, they called for a cart. Smith, though, waved it off and walked off the field.<\/p>\n<p>Smith is in the training room being evaluated for a concussion and a neck injury and is questionable to return.<\/p>\n<p>He was blocked to the ground by Saints left tackle Asim Richards, and while lying on the ground, Falcons defensive end Brandon Dorlus\u2019 left knee connected with Smith\u2019s helmet.<\/p>\n<p>Smith leads the team with 2.5 sacks.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts did not start and has played only one snap in two series. The team told ESPN sideline reporter Laura Rutledge that Pitts is healthy.<\/p>\n<p>Charlie Woerner, Nick Muse and Austin Hooper have played more snaps and Pitts so far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Falcons defensive end Za\u2019Darius Smith took a knee to the head with 12:57 left in the first quarter.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1019866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[223,254,2554,224,7,6],"class_list":["post-1019865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-atlanta-falcons","tag-atlanta","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-atlantafalcons","tag-falcons","tag-football","tag-nfl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117392218742136510","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1019865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1019865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1019865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1019866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1019865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1019865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1019865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}