Edwards was on my list of players to "highlight" as an odd man out, but today the Falcons moved him to the very top of that list. They released him from the 53-man roster to make room for Frank Darby (late round draft pick last year) to come up from the practice squad. What makes his release a mild surprise is that Edwards still had a year left to go on his rookie contract. Before today, the only WRs on the roster who were locked in for next season were Drake London, Edwards, and rookie prospect Jared Bernhardt (who is on IR). Damiere Byrd and KhaDarel Hodge are playing on one-year contracts, and Olamide Zaccheaus is playing on a RFA tender. So with Edwards out and Darby called up, it's now London, the injured Bernhardt, and if he finishes the year on the regular roster, Darby. Bernhardt and Darby have a combined ONE career reception in 14 total games played. Lovely... I don't know for sure how much of a factor it was, but I suspect that the Proven Performance Escalator may have been part of the decision to go ahead and release Edwards now. For anyone not familiar with the PPE, the issue is that rookie contracts for undrafted guys are up to three years, and then those players are eligible for restricted free agency heading into year four. Meanwhile, rookie contracts for drafted players are four years. So a late round draft pick - or even a third round pick like Edwards was in 2020 - is locked into playing for league scale in year four where an undrafted guy can cash in on a RFA tender. Zaccheaus, for example, is making $2.433 million fully guaranteed this year playing on the lowest level of RFA tender, while Edwards' contract would have had him playing the 2023 season for only $1.184 million. The Proven Performance Escalator is a method of balancing the scales. It's based on playing time. For 3rd through 7th round picks, if a guy averages 35% of snaps over his first three seasons or 35% per season in any two of the three seasons, he triggers the PPE, and his base salary automatically gets jacked up in year four. Edwards is right on the cusp. He played 71% of offensive snaps for the Raiders last year after having played 24% his rookie season, making it seem almost automatic that he'd trigger the PPE. But things haven't worked out so well for him here in Atlanta. He hasn't played even 10 snaps on offense in any game since week six vs San Francisco, and he has been relegated to the inactive list in two of the last three games. That has brought his three-year total down to 36% of snaps played. And that puts Atlanta into a situation where releasing him is a courtesy move as much as anything. It's clear he's not fitting into their plans. He's not starting - that's London and Zaccheaus. He's not rotating in or playing in the slot - that's Byrd and Hodge. He's not even their top choice for special teams duty - they even used a standard elevation to call up Darby from the practice squad last week and play him on special teams instead of Edwards, who was on the inactive list as a healthy scratch. So if they keep Edwards for another year, he'd either be more expensive than he's worth under the PPE or angry because the team cost him over a million dollars by keeping him on the bench. By releasing him now, the PPE no longer applies. He's free to find a better situation and potentially a better paycheck - perhaps back with the Raiders. As for the Falcons losses on the trade, that's not really a factor. They flipped Day 3 draft picks to get him, with Atlanta sending Las Vegas a fifth rounder and getting back a seventh rounder. So it's a disappointment that Edwards didn't pan out, but it won't have a drastic impact on the team's upcoming draft. Looking ahead to the Washington game and the rest of the 2022 season, the loss of Edwards won't mean much at all. He had a mere 15 yards receiving for the season and couldn't get on the field with Byrd and Hodge ahead of him. This is also a run-happy team that also plays a whole lot of two-TE sets - possibly more than any other team in the league - and will probably continue to do so even without Kyle Pitts. And the roster has two RBs who sometimes split out wide and are capable WRs in Cordarrelle Patterson (originally a full time WR) and Avery Williams (former defensive back with speed in the low 4.4 range). So I wish Edwards well, but I doubt that most fans will even notice his absence.
The next WR contestant is... Emeka Emezie. It's okay. He's never heard of us either. Emezie was an undrafted rookie WR from North Carolina State, best known in ACC circles for a stellar game when the Wolfpack upset Clemson in 2021. He was reportedly signed by the Ravens right after the draft but instead opted to go to rookie minicamp with the Panthers. I don't see any actual transactions on him until he signed with the Panthers practice squad earlier this month. Carolina released him from the practice squad this past week, and now Atlanta has signed him to fill the open spot created when Frank Darby moved up to the regular roster. This makes FOUR wideouts now on the Falcons practice squad. Cam Batson (ex-Titans) was with the team in training camp and preseason. He was a UDFA in 2018 who spent time on Tennessee's practice squad and worked up to their roster in 2020. He got in 12 games that season, made their roster in 2021 and appeared in four games before tearing his ACL. He became a free agent in March and ended up rejoining Arthur Smith here in Atlanta. He made a respectable showing of it in preseason but didn't make the roster. Quick take on him is he's a smaller, speedy guy (sub-4.4 speed) along the lines of Damiere Byrd. I'm guessing he'll be better in 2023 as the first season back from major knee injuries is nearly always rough on wide receivers. He's potentially a slot receiver in waiting if Byrd and/or Zaccheaus sign elsewhere in free agency next spring. Josh Ali (UDFA rookie, Kentucky) is also coming back from a knee injury - he hurt his knee last October, had surgery in December, and missed the entire draft season and offseason workouts. He signed to join Atlanta's practice squad early in the season, so he's a rookie who didn't get OTAs, minicamps or training camp. This season on the practice squad is essentially an extended training camp for him, giving him a headstart towards 2023. The team doesn't hesitate to cut loose prospects if they can't cut it, so it's a good sign that he has made it all season and is still with the practice squad. Ra'Shaun Henry is an undrafted rookie out of Virginia. He went to training camp with the Panthers and spent the first week of the season on their practice squad before being released in a roster shuffle. Atlanta picked him up for their own practice squad in October. I want to make it absolutely clear: this guy is a developmental project. He needs this season on the practice squad for sure, and probably more developmental time next season as well. But I'm intrigued by the splits in his 40 time at his pro day. Here's the scoop: his 10-yard split time was a rather sad 1.57 seconds. This screams that he doesn't have strong track skills and didn't get high level training in those skills ahead of his pro day workout. Not too surprising, considering he wasn't even invited to the Combine. No agency was likely to spend the kind of cash on him up front to get him that elite level pre-Combine training. Just as two points of comparison, Bo Melton's 10-yard split at the Combine was 1.47 seconds, while Chris Olave's electronic split was 1.45 seconds. The part that I find noteworthy is that Henry still managed an overall time of 4.46 seconds in spite of the poor initial split. He was timed at 2.89 seconds for the final 30 yards after getting out of the gate. Bo Melton was 2.87 seconds for his final 30 in racking up his 4.34, while Olave was 2.94 seconds in his final 30 in putting up his 4.39. In other words, once he got off the line Henry was right there step for step with elite speedsters Bo Melton and Chris Olave. So I'll go ahead and say he has that top shelf kind of speed. At 6-3, he also has the size that Arthur Smith likes, and his 38.5" vertical also ranks him among the elite athletes in this year's WR class. But again, he's a work in progress. Can the Falcons coaching staff get him to the point where he consistently runs good routes, makes the contested catch and contribute as a blocker and on special teams? That's a tall order. But in the meantime he's only taking up a spot on the expanded practice squad, and his size and speed make him a valuable member of the scout team. Of the four, I'd say Batson has the best chance of getting called up later this season or winning a roster spot next season. He's the one who has shown in the past that he's a football player, not just an athlete. But all four are at least worth the extended tryout they're getting right now.
