With all these injured players set to return soon, are you concerned about how quickly they can get back into the flow of the game. Will the defense need some time to jell? Given the opponents they're facing, starting with the 49ers, the Dallas defense can't afford much ramp-up time. – Jeffrey Rogers/Atlanta, GA
Patrik: That's a rightful concern to have whenever you have a player that's missed significant time, such as DaRon Bland, or even a solid bit of time, such as Micah Parsons. It's less of a worry when talking about a guy like Eric Kendricks who, thus far, has only missed one game; but I'll readily admit he's in rare air on this topic because most players in Dallas who are sidelined by injury have been on the worse side of the scale. So whether you're talking about Bland or even Caelen Carson at this point — a rookie who has now missed more games than he's played this season — there's going to be an added component here in, as you said, how quickly or slowly they ramp up to game speed. That is, of course, assuming anyone I've mentioned (or haven't) taking the field on Sunday in Santa Clara because, as of Thursday morning, none who were absent recently are guaranteed to return in Week 8, and that would be an even bigger issue than presumed rust following the potential return.
Tommy: Naturally I think every player needs some time to get accustomed to the speed of the game, but a lot of it comes down to how much time they've missed and how healthy are they. I think in Micah Parsons' case, if he were to come back, it would be an easier transition back to the speed of the game because this is the first time he's missed time in his entire career. How fast that happens though depends on how recovered he is. For DaRon Bland, I actually think this San Francisco game might not be the worst game for to take some ramp up time because of the injuries to the 49ers skill players, some of whose status is still in the air. Let's say for example that Brandon Aiyuk, Deebo Samuel and Christian McCaffery can't go, there might be some less stressful matchups for Bland in his return, allowing him to get back to speed before facing an Atlanta offense that has thrown the ball well next week.
