Starting cornerback A.J. Terrell might have rushed his return from his hamstring injury the first time around. Now he's finally back in practice again. He was listed as a limited participant both Wednesday and today. If he's able to go on Sunday, there's no doubt he'd be back in one of the two outside starting spots. The team hasn't made it clear which of the interim starters he'd replace. We might have to wait until Sunday to find out. Newly acquired Rashad Fenton was listed fourth on the depth chart ahead of last week's game, directly behind Mike Ford and with Cornell Armstrong as the other third unit CB. But Fenton started and played 100% of defensive snaps last week. And while he's new to the team and to Dean Pees' system, he has far more overall game experience and starting experience than Darren Hall, who has been starting in place of the injured Casey Hayward. Meanwhile, Ford was once again a core of the special teams units but did not see the field at all on defense. And with Fenton ready to play, Armstrong was also relegated to special teams duty. While help seems to be on the way for the secondary, last Thursday's fiasco against the Panthers exposed the weaknesses on run defense. At least one media source noted potential issues with the linebacker play. But without even bothering to check the advanced statistics / goofymetrics, I'll throw in once again that the defensive line lost Vince Taylor and Eddie Goldman in the same week at the start of training camp and then lost former second rounder Marlon Davidson to injury at the start of preseason. So to fill out the unit along with beast Grady Jarrett and rising star Ta'Quon Graham, they've been depending on an undrafted rookie (Timmy Horne) and a handful of undrafted journeyman practice squad guys (mainly Abdullah Anderson). Since the Falcons run a base 3-4, at least one of these guys will be on the field on every base package running down. And even the iron man Jarrett (78% of snaps played) needs to rotate out occasionally, giving the line at least two liabilities. That's noteworthy because the Bears are a running team, and the two games against Carolina gave them lots of great game film on how to abuse the Falcons defense on the ground.
