FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- Wide receiver Laurent Robinson expects to be at full strength for Sunday's game against Carolina. The rookie had been nursing a hamstring injury he suffered on his last play in the season opener at Minnesota.
"I know I'll be ready," he said. "In fact, I will be ready."
Robinson, who missed time with an ankle injury in college but never worked through hamstring problems before this year, said he was "frustrated" to miss time after a productive -- and sometimes impressive -- preseason. He also had three catches in the season opener.
Robinson is listed as probable on the team's final injury report of the week.
INJURY NEWS AND REPLACEMENTS: In other injury info, left tackle Wayne Gandy took part in practice for a second-straight day Friday as he recovers from a pulled hamstring that sidelined him for much of the team's game at Jacksonville in Week 2.
Tight end Dwayne Blakley (pectoral) will not play Sunday against the Panthers.
Head Coach Bobby Petrino said earlier in the week that if Blakley could not play he would be replaced in the lineup by rookie tight end Martrez Milner. Milner, a product of Georgia that grew up just 12 miles from the Falcons practice facility, was inactive for the team's first game of the season and did not catch a pass in last week's game.
"He will rotate with Alge Crumpler and he will play some of our movement tight end and on-the-ball positions," Petrino said. "Martrez is a guy that I have a lot of confidence in because he started training camp on a good note. He has hit the wall a little bit since then, but I think he is coming on strong."
Milner, 6'4", 250 pounds, caught 30 passes for 425 yards and three touchdowns as a senior at Georgia last year.
NEW TECHNOLOGY: Fans have long been accustom to coaches wearing Motorola headsets on the sideline for communication between each other and quarterbacks on the field. That hasn't changed in 2007.
Coaches did get a style and technology upgrade, however.
The NFL and Motorola unveiled newly-designed coaches headsets and sideline communication centers this season in an effort to upgrade in-game communication across the league.
The new headsets are lighter, thinner and more ergonomically advanced in comparison to their predecessors. The series of headsets range from the traditional over-the-head style which has improvements in ear comfort, acoustic sealing and microphone performance to the new "behind head" style which allows coaches the ability to wear a variety of hats while using the headsets.
"The Motorola headsets have become a signature in-game tool of NFL coaches, so we had to create a design that communicated power, confidence and high performance," said Jim Wicks, corporate vice president, Consumer Xperience Design, Motorola. "This headset, which the fans will see each game day, is a result of a year and a half of tight collaboration between our design team, coaches and NFL officials."
The sideline communication cetners feature a bank of phones that are used for communication between coaches' booths and the sideline. The new communication center, which replaces a table of seven to 15 traditional phones, looks like a large black box behind the sideline. It holds 16 phones that can easily be transported around the field.
