Mike Smith had his regular Monday press conference this afternoon, and he frustratingly declined to give any additional info on the status of our injured Falcons, saying he'd have that information with the Wednesday injury report. Blalock and Hawley had MRIs today, so their situations may be pretty serious. Lamar Holmes had a foot injury. Note that he also had a foot injury before his draft, and he ended up missing most of that year's preseason and training camp. So his situation is also potential cause for concern. And so far we've heard nothing about William Moore, but the rumors around the locker room after the game were that his injury might also be quite serious. So we may have just seen a repeat of week two of last year, when we lost SJax for a month, Asante Samuel got banged up, starting fullback Bradie Ewing was lost for the season, Biermann was lost for the season, Weatherspoon hit the IR with the recallable designation, and Cliff Matthews was also banged up. Tuesday is typically the team's day to make roster moves so that the incoming players can be in Flowery Branch for practice on Wednesday afternoon. If any of this weekend's injuries are season-ending, we should find out tomorrow.
Joe Hawley is done. That's a huge loss William Moore is done till week 13 Lamar Holmes is done. That's not a loss at all, but does point to the weakness of the offensive line. O U C H
Yep. To fill in the details... Hawley, Holmes and Moore are all headed to IR. Moore has the recallable designation, meaning that he is out for at least eight weeks. Hawley and Holmes are done for the year. Filling in the gaps, the team signed OG Harland Gunn and S Sean Baker from the practice squad. They also signed free agent OT Cameron Bradfield, which strikes me as a very interesting move. And two familiar names - Adam Replogle and Kimario McFadden - have been brought back to fill the practice squad vacancies. I'm happy for both of them, and particularly hopeful that McFadden can continue to develop while he's here. I'd like to see him in camp again next summer.
Some info on our new tackle, Cameron Bradfield: he has decent size and strength and pretty good agility for an offensive lineman. He was an undrafted free agent out of Grand Valley State in 2011. He played the swing tackle role and had filled in as a starter at both LT and RT. He didn't play well at LT last season, but the Jags liked him enough that they signed him to a two year contract this offseason to keep him from hitting free agency. He got off to a HORRIBLE start this year, and they changed their minds and cut him after two weeks. So he's yet another reclamation project for Mike Tice. It's a case where his playing experience may be more of a negative than a positive, as the key question with him will be whether Tice can undo the damage from Jacksonville and get him back to solid fundamentals. In the meantime, I'm expecting him to be a fixture on the bench. I anticipate that Ryan Schraeder will get the nod as the swing tackle behind starters Matthews and Carimi.
