The Seahawks head to Atlanta this weekend to face the Falcons, and will do so with about as healthy of a roster as they have had all season.

Every player on the current active roster is available for Sunday's game, and the Seahawks are also expecting to get safety Julian Love and defensive tackle Jarran Reed back from injured reserve. Both players returned to practice this week and neither have a game status designation, meaning they are expected to play.

More on Love and Reed's status and other things we learned from Mike Macdonald's Friday press conference:

1. Love and Reed are ready to return.

With Love and Reed coming back, the Seahawks will be as close to full strength on defense as they have been since early in their season-opener. The Seahawks will have to make moves to get both players back on the 53-man roster by Saturday afternoon, but they currently have two openings on the roster to fit those two if that is indeed the plan.

"J-Reed should be good to go, which is exciting," Macdonald said. "Julian is planning on playing, and we're going to play it accordingly. We have a plan, we'll see how the game goes, but excited to have those guys back."

Asked if Love, who is coming back from a hamstring injury that has limited him to three games this season, will be on a pitch count, so to speak, Macdonald said, "We have a plan. We're going to stick to our plan."

With Reed, Macdonald said the veteran defensive tackle will "just be in the rotation."

While both players have dealt with setbacks to their injuries that kept them out longer than hoped, Reed and Love have been a positive presence around the team during while unable to play.

"Both are different circumstances, and both were unfortunate, so to be able to handle those things and stay optimistic and stay positive with the guys and keep the focus on the team is pretty awesome," Macdonald said. "We love them for it. You hate that they have to go through those type of things, but the team, we're better because of how they handled the whole situation. We're really appreciative for what they've done."

2. Other injury news.

While the Seahawks have no players on the active roster with game status designations, rookie defensive end Rylie Mills and receiver Dareke Young have both been ruled out. Mills, who tore his ACL late in his senior season at Notre Dame, returned to practice from the non-football injury list last week, and is making good progress but not yet ready for game action. Mills can practice for up to 21 days from his November 26 return date before the Seahawks have to decide whether or not to add him to the roster.

"Rylie's doing a great job," Macdonald said. "He's working hard. He's so strong. It's just a matter of, how many of how many great reps can we bank before it's time to come back. But he's doing a great job. I'm excited for him."

Veteran safety Quandre Diggs, who signed to the practice squad last week, was elevated for last week's game to provide safety depth, but may not be available this weekend due to a thigh injury, Macdonald said.

Diggs is not on the injury report because teams do not list practice squad players on the report, but Macdonald said, "Quandre's working through his thigh right now. It's going to be probably week to week."

3. Julian Love is a deserving Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year nominee.

A day after Love was announced as the team's nominee for the prestigious Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award, Macdonald gave his thoughts on that honor.

"All the stuff he's part of in the community is incredible," he said. "Obviously, he's a great human being, and he's a great dad, and he's a great football player, so we're proud to have him be our nominee. We've got a lot of guys who are deserving, but really glad that J-Love is our guy this year."

4. Devon Witherspoon is "the sparkplug behind the whole thing."

The Seahawks' captains for Week 14 are cornerback Devon Witherspoon, running back Kenneth Walker III and linebacker Patrick O'Connell, and when asked about Witherspoon and Walker, Macdonald had plenty of nice things to say about both.

On Witherspoon, Macdonald said, "He's part of the engine that makes the whole thing go. He's probably the sparkplug behind the whole thing. He could be a captain every week."

Much like last season, Witherspoon is playing at a very high level without always having the flashy numbers to support it, but Macdonald said that has more to do with the way he's calling games than anything Witherspoon is doing.

"He's playing great football right now," Macdonald said. "Great football. He's playing three positions, and he is really the energy behind our defense on a daily basis. He's playing high-level cornerback play, and you can put the lack of production on me. We have to more ways to get him involved in the gameplan, but we've got a lot of great players too, so it's a great problem to have. But it's nothing that he's doing. He's playing really, really high-level football right now for us that's really helping us."

On Walker, Macdonald said. "I think he's playing his best football right now. And he's had such a great attitude throughout the whole process. He's a great teammate, he's been a great teammate, he's got a great outlook on—you can spend a bunch of time on, how do the carries and the touches—he's just worried about playing great football. He's excited about where we're going and you can see his personality shine through, so I'm happy for Ken."

5. Ernest Jones IV impressed Macdonald with his play last week.

Ernest Jones IV has done a lot of impressive things in a little over a year with the Seahaws, but his game last week really stood out, with Jones earning NFC Defensive Player of the Week honors after recording 12 tackles and a pair of interceptions, one of which he returnd 85 yards for a touchdown.

"That's some of the best linebacker play I've ever seen in that game," Macdonald said. "The way he played the run, the way he played the pass. All the things you have to do at linebacker—he erased some bigtime plays—I'm really happy for him. He's been working his tail off. That's the EJ that we know and we expect. We love him."