FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan had a simple response when asked when he wanted to settle on five starting offensive linemen to run his outside zone blocking scheme.

"The first day of (offseason) OTAs, you would like it," Shanahan said with a laugh. "Rarely does it happen. We're still not there yet, because guys are coming back from injury and we're trying to be smart with them and ease them in. Hopefully we come out in Week 1, and it's our group. And hopefully, it's not the first week they've been playing together.

The Falcons hope Jake Matthews can anchor an offensive line that has been in flux in training camp. Brett Davis/USA TODAY Sports

"My whole career, there's only probably been one year for me that the whole line stayed healthy, so you're going to have to play with a group of guys as it goes."

The starting group appears likely to be Jake Matthews at left tackle, Chris Chester at left guard, Joe Hawley at center, Jon Asamoah at right guard, and Ryan Schraeder at right tackle. Matthews (foot) and Hawley (ACL/MCL) are coming off major surgeries, and Schraeder suffered a right hamstring strain at the beginning of training camp. Asamoah was sidelined during the offseason with a severe ankle injury and missed the Wednesday and Thursday of this week with a stomach illness.

James Stone, Tyler Polumbus, Mike Person, and rookie Jake Rodgers have worked with the first unit. Stone had been at center while Hawley recovered, but now has seen time at right guard for Asamoah. Person, who had been playing left guard, worked at center Wednesday while Polumbus, a tackle, worked at left guard Thursday. Polumbus took some snaps off Wednesday and Person did the same Thursday as both appeared to be nicked up.

Shanahan wouldn't single out one group as better than any other combination.

"I don't want to get into specific players, but the quicker you can get your starters out there, the better," Shanahan said. "We have some obvious guys that have been hurt that are obvious starters. But then we've got some competition at a lot of those spots, too.

"We don't have anybody penciled in yet. We've got about 15 guys out there. We had a couple guys got hurt yesterday and a couple today. We'll keep rolling them all in, and we'll see how it ends up."

A few quick-hitters from the sixth practice of training camp: