This is actually a good sign. Atlanta's roster is deep enough now that the players on the practice squad are getting signed away by other teams. It happens more frequently near the end of the season, when a two week injury is enough to be called "season ending". Put the player on IR, open the roster spot, and go shopping for a prospect that you would want to put through the paces in practice as an early audition for the following year. But we're now in week six, and the Falcons have already seen THREE players from the practice squad get poached by other teams. So first and foremost, congratulations to the players: Zion Logue, DT - Atlanta's final pick in this year's draft had little chance of making the roster this season, as the interior defensive line group is much deeper than in past seasons. (The team had already drafted Ruke Orhorhoro in the second round and Brandon Dorlus in the fourth round.) So Logue began his professional career on the practice squad. He was only there for the month of September, as the Bills poached him for their roster on October 1. This was an outright theft rather than a direct injury replacement. Linebacker Von Miller was suspended for 4 weeks on that same day, and Buffalo used the open roster spot to grab the 1T/NT Logue. Basically a free extra draft pick for the Bills, if they find a way to keep him around after Miller returns. Andrew Stueber, OT - started 20 games at RT and 2 at RG for Michigan before being drafted by New England in the seventh round in 2022. He missed his rookie year due to an injury and spent 2023 on the practice squad. The Patriots released him in June of this year and Atlanta scooped him up off of waivers. The Falcons had him play both RT and RG in the preseason games. He played well, but Atlanta also resigned veteran free agent G/T Elijah Wilkinson, initially to the practice squad but quickly bumping him up to the roster instead of Stueber. The Bengals lost OG Jaxson Kirkland for the season with a biceps injury on October 8 and snagged Stueber. My first reaction in preseason was that he needed a little more time to improve his consistency, but the upside was unmistakeable. I'll be rooting for him to get playing time and show his stuff for Cincinnati. John FitzPatrick, TE - this was a simple case where a player was drafted for one offensive coaching staff and didn't quite fit the mold after a coaching change. In 2021, Arthur Smith had veteran blocking tight end Lee Smith, who retired after the season. In 2022, Atlanta drafted blocking TE prospect FitzPatrick. New coaching staff and very different offense for 2024, signing Charlie Woerner and Ross Dwelley as free agents to join Kyle Pitts. That left FitzPatrick back on the practice squad. Packers TE Luke Musgrave suffered an ankle injury and was put on IR on Friday. On Friday, Green Bay signed FitzPatrick for depth. Musgrave isn't out for the season and will be eligible to return after the Packers bye week, so we will have to see if FitzPatrick sticks. Falcons coach Raheem Morris reportedly praised the big guy in a phone call with Packers coach Matt LaFleur and said that Atlanta was disappointed to lose him. But you can only fit 53 guys on the roster. Since these are practice squad players rather than actual roster players who were lost, there is no immediate negative impact for Atlanta. But I'm big on the developmental pipeline. Some current examples of developmental Falcons include linebacker Nate Landman and center Ryan Neuzil. Fortunately, the practice squad is still loaded, with a mix of prospects headed by WR Chris Blair and CB Natrone Brooks plus veterans such as LBs Rashaan Evans and Josh Woods. But there's no doubt that the pipeline has been hurt the last two weeks with the loss of three prospects.
Nate Landman is back to active status on the regular roster (off of IR). To make room, the team released CB Kevin King and resigned him to the practice squad. To make room on the practice squad, they released veteran Rashaan Evans. At ILB, Josh Woods is still on the practice squad for available experienced depth, and he has already been activated once. He started 7 games for Arizona last year, but prior to that he was pretty much purely a backup or special teams player. New additions to the practice squad: welcome aboard Junior Aho! I know virtually nothing about him. He played nose tackle for SMU (though listed at just 272 pounds) and went undrafted in the US in 2023 - though he was apparently drafted as an international player (he was born in France) for the CFL. He spent time on Minnesota's practice squad last year, but the Vikings didn't keep him. Carolina signed him for camp but he got hurt and released with an injury settlement. So now he's healthy and he's getting an audition on Atlanta's practice squad. Good luck to him... And welcome aboard Matthew Cindric! The undrafted center from Cal went to camp with Minnesota but didn't make it. We're his first stop as a practice squad player. That doesn't sound too promising, and the fact that he got hurt in the opening game of his senior year and was out for the season doesn't help. But he had 35 games played, 34 starts between RG and C in college. Team captain, Campbell award semifinalist, blah blah blah (sudden flashback to CBS here...). In other words, actual upside here - but also a lot of rust after missing his senior year. Being on a practice squad this season is likely to do him wonders for 2025. Former Atlanta third round pick C Matt Hennessy is also back. He's had a rough go of it... in his second season (2021), he barely beat out then-rookie Drew Dalman for the starting center role. A year later, Dalman took over. Hennessy filled in at guard when Elijah Wilkinson got banged up but promptly got banged up himself. He then missed 2023 on IR to wrap up his rookie contract, and the team chose not to resign him in free agency. He signed with Philadelphia but didn't make it. With Dalman currently on IR, Hennessy is a solid choice for emergency depth as he already has experience working next to RG Chris Lindstrom and LT Jake Matthews. All in all, I was more impressed with the strength of the group before they lost Logue and Steuber. But at least the current blend fits the immediate needs. With two standard activations allowed per week and veteran players allowed, the league has turned the practice squads into a new version of the old "taxi squads". These guys are already in place and getting familiar with their teammates and coaches. Hennessy is a perfect example... I can't say I see much hope for the future for him here, as he's clearly behind Dalman, Neuzil and Gwyn at C/G and Hinton and Wilkinson as backups at G. But you need someone capable of stepping in for depth at a moment's notice if Neuzil gets banged up before Dalman returns. Hennessy fits the bill, and that's what the taxi squad is all about.
The Falcons signed offensive lineman Matt Hennessy to the active roster, the team announced Tuesday. He takes the roster spot of safety Micah Abernathy, who went on injured reserve with a left knee injury.
I'm a little surprised that he was the choice to bring up to the main roster rather than resigning King. Lose a safety, call up a ... center? I'm wondering if there's more to the story that we'll learn tomorrow when the injury reports begin. And to fill the practice squad opening, the team has signed OT Coy Cronk. Does the name sound familiar, Willie? He's yet another practice squad addition whose last team was, yes... the Vikings. He finished last season on Minnesota's practice squad and was resigned to a futures contract, but somehow he got hurt early in the off-season and was released for the non-football injury. He's now 26 and has only 2 or 3 game appearances for his career so far. Plus side... he has bulked up a bit, as past bio references on him had listed him at 305 or 318. He's now listed at 325. He played at Indiana and then moved over to Iowa. He wasn't invited to the Combine, and he missed his pro day because he got COVID-19. So large school experience, though not enough to get him drafted. And he has shown enough to keep sticking around. That gives me the general impression that he's being signed here because Atlanta sees him as a potential "system fit". A perfect Falcons example... Harvey Dahl was also 26 and still couldn't crack the roster in San Francisco when then-GM Rich McKay brought him to Atlanta to fill an opening due to yet another OT injury (we had no less than four left tackles go on IR in that 2007 season). Dahl wasn't even active for the rest of that season, but he won the starting RG job in camp the following year because he was a perfect system fit for new line coach Paul Boudreau. If Cronk is an obvious flop, he'll be released from the practice squad in like a month and the next candidate will be brought in. Until then, a 325-pound OT who has managed to stick around a few years on practice squads is worth a look. And with that in mind, welcome aboard Coy Cronk!
And the rest of the story has arrived... in addition to Coy Cronk, the team has also resigned safety Dane Cruikshank for the practice squad. Okay, now it all makes more sense. Since they brought him back, the team had already used two standard practice squad activations on Matt Hennessy. With starter Drew Dalman out, they opted to make Hennessy the active backup at center rather than Jovaughn Gwyn. I missed it earlier since he didn't play, but Hennessy was indeed the active player with Gwyn as one of the designated inactives. So if Hennessy really is ahead of Gwyn (a natural guard) as the choice for backup center, it makes sense to have him on the roster now that the Micah Abernathy injury has created the opening. The other part that wasn't initially announced is the simple fact that they actually had a second opening. I missed it, but they released the designated international practice squad player Kenny Oginni. Junior Aho (born in France) took over that international spot, which left an extra "regular" practice squad spot open. So Hennessy got called up to the roster, and Cronk and Cruikshank got signed to fill the two openings.
Apparently he flopped, as he was released from the practice squad with OT Tyrone Wheatley Jr signed the same day to take his place. The son of the well known former RB was most recently with the Patriots. He ended 2023 on IR with a knee injury and got hurt again in training camp. New England gave up and waived him from IR, and now Atlanta has signed him. The team has had several other moves in the last two weeks, and there's still an opening. I'm waiting to hear the latest addition to the practice squad, as LB Rashaan Evans has been moved up to the regular roster to fill the spot of DT Ruke Orhorhoho, who is now on IR. The other additions are LB Tyreek Maddox-Williams, who spent most of 2023 on Arizona's practice squad but was called up to the Cardinals roster to finish the season, and WR Philip Dorsett II - yes, the Colts first rounder from 2015. He's now 31 years old and essentially extending his career by joining practice squads. I don't get that one at all, as there are now four WRs in the group. I'm still big on Chris Blair, and Dylan Drummond and Jesse Matthews are still here as well. Along with Coy Cronk, OL Matthew Cindric, LB Milo Eifler and LB Monty Rice have been released from the squad.
