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Why Chargers' health may give Falcons the upper hand (0:42)

Kimes thinks the health of the Bolts will be their downfall against the Falcons. There is a time and a place.

4:04 PM ET

The Atlanta Falcons have one of their most dynamic players back with the return of running back Cordarrelle Patterson.

After suffering a knee injury that required a procedure to fix and kept him out the last four weeks, the running back was placed on the injured reserve list. Over the first four games of the year, he gained over 300 yards on 58 carries with three rushing scores.

In the first four weeks of the season, he set career highs for rushing, first for 120 yards against New Orleans and then 141 against Seattle.

At this time of year, no one will be 100 percent, and during his rehabilitation from injury, he posted videos of his progress.

"I try to give the fans what they want to see." I was missing for a bit. I had to show what I was up to in a video because the fans missed me on social media.

It was the continuation of a career rejuvenation for the first-round pick, who had mostly played receiver in his career. When he signed with Atlanta in 2021, he had a career year with 586 yards rushing and 548 yards receiving, after moving from running back to receiver.

He re-signed with the Falcons on a two-year contract in March after campaigning to return because of his comfort with the coaching staff, the offense and the city.

He was one of the league's top players at his position. In his absence, the Falcons have continued to run the ball well with running backs Tyler Allgeier (84 carries, 322 yards, one touchdown),Caleb Huntley (57 carries, 265 yards, one touchdown), and Avery Williams (10 carries, 58 yards, one touchdown) along with

There is a different dynamic to the Atlanta offense because of the different places Smith can put him in a formation.

Smith said in October that he thinks that will make the offense better. He should be put in multiple packages. He might be a wideout. Is he standing still? He's a quarterback. He is a tight end. When he touches the ball, he's effective and he made big plays for us in the passing game a lot last year and the run game and he was certainly having a good season so far running the football.

There are a lot of things he can do for us and that will make us better as a complete offense.

When he returns, he sees himself as a part of the group that has been one of the best rushing offenses in the league, and that is a big reason why the team is 4-4 and in first place in theNFC South. He said that he would pay attention to his conditioning when he came back.

Atlanta is trying to use all of its formations. Before the injury, he was in on 45% of the snaps. He has primarily been a running back this season, with 106 snaps in the backfield, 12 in the slot, 2 as a tight end and 7 as a receiver. A year ago, he played running back, 100 at receiver, 51 in the slot, 16 at tight end, one at quarterback and two at free Safety.

One of two teams remaining on Atlanta's schedule over the.500 mark will play the Falcons on Sunday.

The 53-man roster has a defensive linemen on it. The Falcons placed a starting left guard on injured reserve and released an edge defender.

The left guard position is expected to be filled by Matt Hennessy.

The Falcons brought in two players from the practice squad.