Last year it was Harry Douglas. This year it’s Kerry Meier. The Falcons just can’t buy any preseason luck at the wide receiver position.
Douglas suffered a torn ACL during the first week of August last year and missed the entire season. Almost exactly 12 months later, Meier suffered a season-ending knee injury in last Thursday’s game against the Patriots.
Fifth-round draft picks are rarely expected to contribute immediately (if ever), but Atlanta had high hopes for Meier in 2010. The former University of Kansas star had been one of the surprises of training camp and showed signs of being a factor not only on special teams, but even on offense. Now, of course, an instant impact will have to wait until 2011.
“It is very tough for both Kerry and the team,” head coach Mike Smith said in his interview after Saturday’s practice. “Kerry had a very solid training camp. He was on track to be a contributor in a number of areas.”
“It’s brutal,” Brian Finneran, who knows from experience what it’s like to miss considerable time with a torn ACL, said in an interview with AtlantaFalcons.com on Saturday. Finneran was sidelined for two consecutive seasons in 2006 and 2007 due to multiple ACL injuries in his left knee. “As soon as he came over to the sideline, I knew.”
Meier joins starter Michael Jenkins on the injury report, although Jenkins is not out for the year. The former Ohio State Buckeye sustained a shoulder injury at practice earlier this month and is expected to miss four to six weeks dating back to August 7.
Nonetheless, hope is not lost in the locker room. Far from it. “That’s why we have young guys come in here and free agents and things like that,” Finneran added. “Somebody’s gotta show up and step up at the receiver position and help us out a little bit.”
So far that somebody looks like Troy Bergeron, who is not young (by NFL standards) and not a free agent. Bergeron, on the other hand, is a former Arena Football League star (with the Georgia Force) trying to make a transition to the NFL. He made an incredible touchdown catch in last week’s scrimmage against the Patriots, hauling in a bomb from rookie quarterback John Parker Wilson. The improbable duo also hooked up during the real thing on Thursday night, as Wilson hit Bergeron with a 19-yard scoring strike in the fourth quarter for the Falcons’ only touchdown of the game.
The good news for the Falcons is that they have a deep wide receiver corps in the form of Bergeron and company. Roddy White (who held out until the third week of August, adding to last summer’s training camp woes) is looking good, Douglas is back from his torn ACL, and Finneran is armed with a rare clean bill of health.
“We feel good where we are at with our wide receivers,” Smith noted after Saturday’s practice. “I don’t anticipate us doing anything with our roster.”
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