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FLOWERY BRANCH John Cominsky Atlanta Falcons Jersey , Ga. (AP) — The Atlanta Falcons expect to have running back Devonta Freeman return for Sunday’s game at the Pittsburgh Steelers after missing three games with a sore right knee.Coach Dan Quinn said Freeman, the team’s leading rusher each of the last three years, would have full clearance “without any setbacks.”There was no report of a setback, but Freeman was listed as limited on the team’s practice report, just as he was late last week.Freeman was upbeat before the practice.“I feel really good,” Freeman said. “Coming back and doing something I really love to do is always a good time. I’m just excited to be back.”Freeman said he’s confident he is “comfortable enough to be back out there.”“I feel explosive and ready to run,” he said.Atlanta’s defense, meanwhile, has lost a fourth starter for at least one week. Quinn confirmed defensive tackle Grady Jarrett will be held out with an ankle sprain and knee injury he suffered late in last week’s 37-36 loss to Cincinnati .Quinn said Jack Crawford will start for Jarrett. Terrell McClain and rookie Deadrin Senat will have bigger roles.Defensive tackle Michael Bennett, who was signed on Tuesday after being cut by Jacksonville on Sept. 11, said he is “studying like crazy” to be ready for a backup role.“I plan to play, and they plan to play me,” Bennett said.The Falcons’ defense already has lost starting safeties Keanu Neal and Ricardo Allen to season-ending injuries and linebacker Deion Jones for at least eight weeks. Offensive guard Andy Levitre also is on IR.The Falcons (1-3) have lost two straight games, so the return of Freeman was embraced as rare positive news.“Free is chomping at the bit to get back and get going,” Quinn said, adding he hopes a full week of practice will enable Freeman to “feel like he can explode and do the things that he does in both the run game and pass game.“Man, we’re pumped to have him back out there.”This is the second straight season Freeman has missed time with injuries. He missed two games in 2017 with a concussion, his second of the year, and was slowed by a right knee injury late in the season.After running for more than 1,000 yards in 2015 and 2016 Cheap John Cominsky Jersey , Freeman finished with 865 yards rushing and seven touchdowns, along with 36 receptions, last season.Tevin Coleman and rookie Ito Smith combined to run for 86 yards against the Bengals. Quinn was not satisfied with the production of the ground game.“We definitely left some things out there in the run game, we felt, this past week,” Quinn said. “We challenged the offense. We think there’s a spot we can go to and we can be significantly better and the run game is one of those spots.”Atlanta running game also sputtered in a 43-37 overtime loss to New Orleans on Sept. 23. Coleman averaged only 2.2 yards per carry while being held to 33 yards.Freeman wouldn’t say he alone could jumpstart the running game.“I’m just coming in to do my part,” he said. “I just think we need to win. It’s not about individual stats or any of that.”NOTES: WR Julio Jones (hand, ankle), CB Justin Bethal (knee) and Jarrett were held out. Other players listed as limited: DE Vic Beasley Jr. (ankle), Coleman (shin), WR Mohamed Sanu (hip), DE Derrick Shelby (groin) and LB Foye Oluokun (ankle). Jones has missed practices each of the last two weeks before being removed from the injury report before games. He spent six wonderful years in Atlanta."The Atlanta Falcons went into the 2013 draft looking to bolster their secondary, after the unit got exposed in the playoffs just a few months prior. As a result, general manager Thomas Dimitroff doubled down on the cornerback position at the top, selecting Desmond Trufant in round one and Robert Alford in round two.That tandem would go on to form one of the most prolific CB duos in franchise history, spending six seasons opposite one another.The fact that Alford, a Louisiana native who went to college at Southeastern Louisiana and even had a brother who played 12 games for the Saints in 2005, told his family that they had to drop their New Orleans Saints fandom after he got drafted by Atlanta makes him forever a favorite in my book.The Robert Alford era has ended in Atlanta after its sixth year, as the Falcons released Rocky last month, and saw him sign with the Arizona Cardinals.Let’s look back at Alford’s time in Atlanta on a year-by-year basis.2013Alford was brought in as a rookie CB taken with the 60th overall pick. He signed a four-year Keanu Neal Jersey 2019 , $3.4 million rookie scale contract and more than lived up to it.Alford played in all 16 games of his rookie season, and started four of them. There were some good moments, the best one of which was him intercepting Drew Brees at the Louisiana Super Dome in his first career game, but Alford overall looked overwhelmed. That’s to be expected, however, as CB is one of the most difficult positions to adjust to going from college to the NFL.It didn’t help that the defense collapsed around he and Trufant, with no semblance of a pass rush to be found, making their lives even more difficult in what amounted to a 4-12 season.2014Things didn’t get much better for Alford in 2014, as the pass rush was still nonexistent (22 sacks ranked the Birds 30th in the league), and the struggles continued. Alford allowed an opposing passer rating of 111.6, and a career-high 17.1 yards per reception.The three interceptions and 12 passes defensed was a sign of progress, but the bad outweighed the good for Rocky in his sophomore campaign. His best game came in a Week 7 defeat to Baltimore, where he picked Joe Flacco off twice. Alford played in and started 10 games, as his season was cut short due to a broken wrist.2015With Dan Quinn taking over as the new head coach of the Falcons, things finally started to turn for Robert Alford in 2015. He consolidated his starting spot opposite of Trufant in training camp (Jalen Collins had just been drafted in the second round earlier that year, and was seen as serious competition for the role).Alford allowed a career-low 80.5 opposing passer rating in coverage and decreased his yards per reception allowed to 14.5. He allowed 550 yards in coverage in 15 games started in 2015, which was nearly identical to the 547 yards he allowed in coverage in just 10 games in 2014. This is no doubt due to the fact that the third-year man allowed a career-low completion percentage against of just 50%.Rocky registered two interceptions, 15 passes defensed and allowed four touchdowns.Of course, I can’t talk about 2015 without mentioning the overtime pick-six Alford had against Kirk Cousins to win the game against Washington and push Atlanta’s record to 5-0. That was the high point in the season before the team’s collapse down the stretch.2016The 2016 season was another mixed bag for Alford, but the negatives were masked by the team’s success Black Keanu Neal Jersey , something which was never there in Alford’s career up until now. With the offense as prolific as it was in 2016, some of Rocky’s defensive lapses weren’t as dire, and there was more room for error.Alford allowed a career-high 1,000 receiving yards in coverage and nine receiving touchdowns against, but he did so while facing a career-high 125 targets. His passer rating against was 100.1, and he committed a whopping 16 penalties throughout the year (an average of one per game). These numbers are objectively terrible, but Alford also tallied 19 passes defensed, 59 tackles, 16 run stops, started every game, and we should remember that he was thrust into the (unfamiliar) No. 1 CB role following Trufant’s season-ending injury in Week 12.Both of Alford’s regular season interceptions came in the Week 4 win over Carolina, and one was returned for a touchdown. He also registered a pick-six against Tom Brady in the Super Bowl to seemingly put the game out of reach, giving Atlanta a 21-0 lead. Had the Falcons held on to win that game, Alford returning that interception may have ended up being a statue outside of Mercedes-Benz Stadium.20172017 was Robert Alford’s magnum opus — the finest year of his career. Rocky rewarded Atlanta’s investment of a four-year/$38 million ($21 million guaranteed) contract extension from the year prior with a stellar campaign.Despite facing 112 targets, Alford held opposing QBs to a 55.4% completion percentage, and allowed just three touchdowns. His receiving yards against also decreased to 732, which is far more reasonable than the quadruple digits allowed the year prior. The quarterback rating when targeting Rocky in 2017 was 80.7, which is very good considering the number of targets he faced.Alford also tallied career-highs with 20 passes defensed, 65 tackles, and 19 run stops Womens Calvin Ridley Jersey , achieving a new level of play. He was Atlanta’s best corner, and helped lead the team back to the playoffs with a 10-6 record. Rocky was arguably Atlanta’s best player in the Wildcard win against the Los Angeles Rams, allowing just 17 yards in coverage on eight targets, and holding Jared Goff to a horrific 39.6 passer rating on those targets.2018Things came to an unceremonious end for Alford in 2018, which was statistically the worst season of his career. The fact that Atlanta lost both starting safeties and all-world linebacker Deion Jones to long-term injuries within the first three games was a blow to the defense, but the team looked to veterans like Alford to step up in their absence, and he didn’t.Rocky allowed 849 receiving yards in coverage on just 74 targets, allowing a career-high 68.9% completion percentage against and 138.9 passer rating against when targeted. Mind you, this is less than 20 points below a perfect passer rating of 158.3. The 12 penalties committed were also less than ideal.Alford pointed out via Twitter that there’s more to this story that fans weren’t aware of as it was happening. In the end, the Falcons couldn’t justify keeping Robert Alford at a $9.1 million cap hit this season after the year of regression he just had. The team saved $7.9 million in cap space by releasing him.Robert Alford spent six years in a Falcons uniform, and even though he was a frustrating player at times, I’ll always look back at his time in Atlanta with fondness. The way the relationship ended is a shame, but remember how the old saying goes: Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.It’s such a shame that the Super Bowl collapse had to happen, as Robert Alford would have forever lived in Atlanta Falcons folklore had it not.