This is it... the last chance for the prospects to make a good impression and win a practice squad job or perhaps even a roster spot. For the starters, tonight is meaningless. But for many of the undrafted rookies, it's play lights out or it's all over - making this almost the equivalent of the playoffs or the Superbowl for them. When it comes to the final roster, the Falcons will keep at least 24 players on offense, most likely at least 25 on defense, and the three specialists. It's up for grabs whether the last roster spot will be a 25th offensive player or a 26th defensive player. Special teams will decide that as much as anything else. Here's my take: QB: Yates vs Renfree for the #2 spot = to be decided tonight. The team made it clear when they released Dominique Davis that there will only be two on the roster. The third QB will be on the practice squad. Davis had no practice squad eligibility remaining after being active all last year, so he didn't fit the team's plans. If Yates wins the spot, Renfree would be the hopeful #3 on the practice squad. The big question is whether he'd clear waivers or get signed off the squad by some other team. With a good performance in the preseason finale, that may be a possibility. If Renfree wins the spot, look for undrafted rookie Jeff Mathews to return as the scout team QB. FB: Patrick DiMarco. The team will only keep one. Hagens is still here so that DiMarco doesn't have to play the entire game as our only fullback. Hagens *might* be a candidate for the practice squad, but I'm not counting on it. RB: Steven Jackson, Jacquizz Rodgers, Devonta Freeman and Antone Smith are locks. Josh Vaughan's fate is to be determined. Note that he actually isn't competing with the other running backs. He's competing for that 53rd overall roster spot, meaning that he's really up against Reedy, Boldewijn, and various defensive players. TE: Levine Toilolo is a lock. Pascoe vs Shuler for the #2 spot = TBD. Here's the scoop... we've carried three tight ends throughout the Mike Smith era - and usually had all three active during games. But Dirk Koetter's offense really doesn't need the third man, and the #3 has usually been strictly a special teams player. My guess is that the coaching staff is looking really hard at going with just two guys. Among other things, the wedge on the kickoff returns has been a pretty big tipoff. The backup TEs have always played that role, but this year we've seen offensive linemen and even defensive linemen take reps in those spots. I would have said Shuler had the edge on Pascoe, but the concussion lost him a lot of practice time plus the chance to play last week. So my call is they'll keep only two, and it's a toss-up between them at this point. Shuler is a better receiver, while Pascoe has more experience as a blocker. As for prospect Jacob Pedersen, he's playing this game to try to win a practice squad spot. With the new scheme putting less emphasis on the TE role, it isn't a sure thing. WR; Roddy White, Julio Jones, Harry Douglas, Devin Hester are locks. Eric Weems vs Courtney Roby for the fifth spot. The loser of that battle vs Bernard Reedy vs Geraldo Boldewijn for a possible sixth spot. The big question is five or six. After last weekend's game, I'm leaning towards saying Weems makes it, with Reedy as a sixth, Boldewijn on the practice squad, and Roby as the unfortunate odd man out. Jeremy Ebert might have a shot at the practice squad, especially if one of the other undrafted rookies makes the roster. OL: unfortunately, the injuries to Sam Baker and Mike Johnson makes it pretty easy to pick out a nine man OL unit: Jake Matthews, Justin Blalock, Joe Hawley, Jon Asamoah, Lamar Holmes, Gabe Carimi, Ryan Schraeder, Peter Konz, Harland Gunn. Look for James Stone and Terren Jones (if healthy) on the practice squad. Unfortunately, if he isn't cleared medically, the team would have to go the injury settlement route to release Terren Jones. He'd be off limits to us for six weeks before we could then sign him to the practice squad. Carimi should see action in this game, and it will be a huge part of his evaluation. I don't expect him to win the starting RT job just from one preseason game, but he might land the swing tackle role. And if the starter struggles, we may see him in real action by midseason. DL: focusing here on the "pure" defensive linemen, which we would normally consider defensive tackles. These are the guys who play the three line spots in the 3-4 and the DT roles in the four man nickel front. Paul Soliai, Tyson Jackson, Jonathan Babineaux, Ra'Shede Hageman, Corey Peters, and Malliciah Goodman appear to be locks. I'm not 100% certain on Travian Robertson. On the plus side, he's becoming a pretty solid candidate for the backup NT role. The problem is that we'd then have SEVEN players for three active positions. If you go more than two deep within a unit, the extra guys really need to be useful on special teams. DTs usually aren't. Or to put it another way, who gives you more mileage on kickoff returns, kickoff coverage, punt returns and punt coverage - Robertson or Josh Vaughan? We could easily keep all seven, but more than likely two of them would be permanent fixtures on the inactive list. OLB/DE hybrids: Kroy Biermann, Jonathan Massaquoi, Osi Umenyiora, Stansly Maponga. There's room for all four to make it. If any of them get cut, there will be a story behind it. ILB/OLB hybrids or pure LBs: Joplo Bartu, Paul Worrilow, Prince Shembo are locks. My take is that at least one of Pat Angerer or Tim Dobbins makes it, but not necessarily both. Jacques Smith is right on the bubble. I have Tyler Starr and Yawin Smallwood pegged for the practice squad. CBs: the big question is five or six. I think we keep all of Desmond Trufant, Robert Alford, Robert McClain, Javier Arenas, Josh Wilson and Ricardo Allen. S: Zeke Motta is already on the regular season PUP list, and I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up on IR at midseason. Look for a four man unit of William Moore, Dwight Lowery, Kemal Ishmael and Dez Southward, with Kimario McFadden and Sean Baker competing for practice squad roles. There might actually be room for both of them on the expanded ten man practice squad. Specialists: do we even need to ask? Matt Bryant, Matt Bosher, Josh Harris. Enjoy the game!
Some follow-up... WR prospect Geraldo Boldewijn (aka "Amsterdam") did not play last night because of a hamstring injury. This puts the team in a bit of a pickle if they had intended to put him on this year's practice squad. The trick is that before you can sign players to the practice squad, you have to release them from the roster - and they have to clear waivers. So obviously you take the risk of immediately losing the player to another team. (This happened to the Falcons with William Middleton in 2009. The Bucs scooped him up off of waivers, but they soon released him in another roster shuffle. Atlanta then signed him to the practice squad before the Jaguars signed him from the squad to their roster.) But the other complication is that if a player is injured, he can't be released without an injury settlement. When that happens, the player can't be resigned for six weeks. It would be midseason before they have a shot at signing him to the squad. If the hamstring injury is a significant one, that wouldn't be too much of a problem. The Falcons have a bad history of trying to rush players back from hamstring issues too soon (William Moore, Laurent Robinson) only to see them get hurt even worse. The flip side is that it would increase the risk of losing him for good. He has come on strong in preseason, and every team in the league is aware of him. The alternatives would be to put him on IR or to keep him on the regular roster and make him one of the seven inactive players each week until he's medically cleared. It's possible that the coaching staff would want to keep him as a sixth wide receiver anyway. My take is that they have been looking hard at keeping a sixth man in that unit, and the two main candidates for that sixth role are Boldewijn and Bernard Reedy. Reedy was outstanding in everything up through the first exhibition game but almost unnoticeable in the final three exhibitions. Boldewijn has never flashed the way Reedy did, but he has been steady and has shown consistent improvement. Both players have tremendous upside potential, and both are worth keeping around. If the hamstring injury is significant, it would make sense to put Boldewijn on IR. They have done that with prospects in the past, particularly undrafted TE prospect Adam Nissley, who was stashed on IR two seasons in a row. The drawback is that while he would be able to attend meetings, study the playbook, talk with the coaches, view film and work with the training staff, he would NOT be allowed on the practice field. He'd lose an entire year of reps. The best course of action likely depends on the severity of the injury, which hasn't been disclosed. Another issue that I think the team's braintrust is working out today is whether to keep six defensive linemen or hang on to a seventh. Unfortunately, I think it's the end of the line for Cliff Matthews. But his former South Carolina teammate Travian Robertson bolstered his case to be the seventh man in the unit, doing excellent work at the 1-tech spot in the nickel package. The key question is whether he or Ra'Shede Hageman would be the ideal backup for Paul Soliai at the nose in the 3-4 package. Hageman is bigger, but Robertson is stronger. If they do go with the seventh lineman, the most likely odd man out is fifth running back Josh Vaughan. Another possibility would be one of the cornerbacks - possibly one of Josh Wilson or Javier Arenas, or perhaps even fifth round draft pick Ricardo Allen. And of course the big one is the backup quarterback situation. After two dismal preseason outings against Houston and Tennessee, Yates showed exactly why Atlanta traded for him. Noteworthy: since he was a late acquisition, he was starting from scratch in learning the system and playbook, and getting familiar with the team's receivers. It's not too surprising that he had a few early struggles. But he threw with accuracy in the opener against Miami (the balls weren't necessarily caught, and the receivers didn't necessarily run the correct routes - but the throws were good), and he showed laser-like precision on some of his passes against Jacksonville.
