Ryan set to start against Titans

The Falcons announced today that rookie quarterback Matt Ryan will start the team's third preseason game on Friday against the Tennessee Titans. Ryan, along with most of the team's starters, is set to play the entire first half and a series in the second half. While the Falcons have not officially announced which of their quarterbacks will open the season as the starter, all signs point to Ryan.

Previously, head coach Mike Smith indicated that all four quarterbacks will get a chance to start one of the team's preseason games. Which means that D.J. Shockley will start the preseason finale against the Baltimore Ravens.

Quarterback is open competition

The AJC's Steve Wyche cites Falcons head coach Mike Smith as indicating that the team's starting quarterback position is up for grabs.

"We want them all to compete as if they'll be starters...It's going to be an open competition."

-- Mike Smith

From most indications, Chris Redman is the incumbent and enters camp atop the depth chart, but all four passers the team has in camp will have the opportunity to win the job. Redman finished last season strongly with four starts, passing for 1079 yards, 10 touchdowns, and a 90.4 passer rating. But the team drafted Matt Ryan with the third overall pick this past April, and he's definitely slated to be the quarterback of the future. But Ryan will have the opportunity to be the quarterback of today as well if he performs well in camp. Also on the roster are Joey Harrington who started 10 games last year and D.J. Shockley who was a seventh round pick two years ago.

Shockley healthy, Weiner not

Steve Wyche of the AJC reports that quarterback D.J. Shockley has been medically cleared to participate in all football-related team activities. Shockley suffered a torn ACL during last summer and missed all of the regular season, and has been limited thus far throughout most of the off-season.

Wyche also reports that offensive tackle Todd Weiner is still sidelined as he is recovering from knee surgery. Weiner missed 8 games last season due to injuries to both knees and underwent surgery on both. According to Wyche, Weiner indicated his hope that he would be doing some light jogging at this point in the off-season, but is not. Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff expects Weiner to be healthy by the start of training camp at the end of July.