Elijah Wilkinson out against Seahawks due to personal matter

The team’s new starting left guard had gotten off to a quality start, so he’ll be missed Sunday.

The Falcons looked to be going into their Sunday matchup against the Seahawks at full strength, but it was not to be. Elijah Wilkinson, who appeared on Thursday’s injury report as absent with a personal matter, will not be playing against Seattle.

That report comes to us from The Athletic’s Josh Kendall:

We don’t know what’s going on with Wilkinson and I don’t care to speculate, but I’m hopeful everything’s alright with him. Wilkinson had joined Atlanta as a free agent and did an impressive job this summer of sewing up the left guard job early on, and through the first two weeks of the season he’s been pretty good as a starter. The Falcons are going to miss him against the Seahawks, who have a capable defensive front.

Colby Gossett is the obvious option to get the spot start, given that he’s already on the roster and started the 17th and final game of the 2021 season at left guard in place of an injured Jalen Mayfield. Either Ryan Neuzil or Justin Shaffer will likely be elevated from the practice squad to serve as depth in case the team needs it, but we’ll have to hope Gossett once again does a solid job of filling in when called upon.

We hope that Wilkinson and his family are okay and that we’ll see him back for Week 4.