{"id":51509,"date":"2018-10-16T16:17:10","date_gmt":"2018-10-16T20:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=51509"},"modified":"2018-10-16T16:17:10","modified_gmt":"2018-10-16T20:17:10","slug":"devonta-freeman-injured-reserve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2018\/10\/16\/devonta-freeman-injured-reserve\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlanta Falcons Place Devonta Freeman on Injured Reserve"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/F\/FreeDe00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Devonta Freeman<\/a><\/strong>&#8216;s 2018 season is all but over.<\/p>\n<p>Per Fox Sports&#8217; <strong>Jay Glazer<\/strong>, the 26-year-old running back will undergo groin surgery and is subsequently being placed on injured reserve by the <a href=\"http:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/falcons\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Atlanta Falcons<\/a>. Though he&#8217;s eligible to return in eight weeks, it&#8217;s unlikely he&#8217;ll do so should the Falcons not be in the playoff hunt. They currently stand at 2-4 after Sunday&#8217;s 34-29 win over the <a href=\"http:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/buccaneers\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Big loss from Falcons as they are going to place Devonta Freeman on IR today <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NFLonFOX?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@NFLonFOX<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JayGlazer\/status\/1052256786663653378?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 16, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h1><strong>Devonta Freeman Placed on Injured Reserve by Atlanta Falcons<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>Freeman has appeared in just two games in 2018, the season opener against the <a href=\"http:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/eagles\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Philadelphia Eagles<\/a> and Atlanta&#8217;s Week Five contest against the <a href=\"http:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/steelers\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a>. During that time, he tallied 14 carries for 68 rushing yards in addition to adding 23 receiving yards on five catches. None of those reps resulted in touchdowns.<\/p>\n<p>Head coach <strong>Dan Quinn<\/strong> provided details on Freeman&#8217;s injury while remaining cautiously optimistic he&#8217;ll be back later in the year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Following the game against Pittsburgh, where Devonta injured his foot, we thought he was just having general soreness in his groin area,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atlantafalcons.com\/news\/falcons-place-devonta-freeman-on-ir-hopeful-he-can-return-later-this-season\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Quinn said in a team release<\/a>. &#8220;As the week went on it continued so we decided to have him get some tests. It has been determined that he will need a procedure that will result in us placing him on injured reserve. We are hopeful he will be able to return this season, but we will have a better feel for that in the coming weeks.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The fifth-year running back out of Florida State has totaled 3,316 rushing yards over the course of his career. That puts him seventh in Falcons franchise history. He exceeded the 1,000-yard threshold in both 2015 and 2016, making the Pro Bowl in each of those seasons.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/C\/ColeTe01.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tevin Coleman<\/a><\/strong> is likely to see an increase in usage as a result of Freeman&#8217;s absence. His 71 carries and 260 yards leads the team and he&#8217;s also an important element of Atlanta&#8217;s passing game. He boasts two receiving touchdowns which puts him in a tie for fifth among NFL running backs.<\/p>\n<p>Another player who should see a boost in reps due to Freeman missing time is rookie <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/S\/SmitIt00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ito Smith<\/a><\/strong>. The Southern Miss product, who the Falcons took in the fourth round of this year&#8217;s draft, owns a rushing touchdown in each of the last three games. Against Tampa Bay, Smith eclipsed 100 yards rushing for the season. Like Coleman, he&#8217;s also a reliable pass catcher, having caught 10 passes on 11 targets thus far.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"XJ-CI7BERAVso2m5ww74SA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1051919740\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'XJ-CI7BERAVso2m5ww74SA',sig:'AncuocOgHBMlCYkhHpLx5JiJathg4wwJh-opmvMG5BI=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1051919740',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script>;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jay Glazer reported on Tuesday that the Atlanta Falcons are placing running back Devonta Freeman on injured reserve, potentially ending his season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":742,"featured_media":51516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27,36],"tags":[115,657,61,4219,40,851],"class_list":["post-51509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-falcons","category-nfl-news","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-devonta-freeman","tag-football","tag-ito-smith","tag-nfl","tag-tevin-coleman"],"modified_by":"John Bava","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/742"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}