The Falcoholic
Darnell Mooney. Troy Andersen. Kaleb McGary. Storm Norton. Carlos Washington. Clark Phillips. These are all players who are currently hurt, and because of that, the Atlanta Falcons are in a position where they must make tough decisions as they shape their 53 man roster in the days following the final preseason game.
For some players, the decisions are relatively easy. Norton will have to go on short-term injured reserve, more than likely, given that he’s out for six-to-eight weeks. Andersen will probably hit the reserve/Physically Unable to Perform list, where he’ll be required to miss the first four games. Andersen has not seemed particularly close to being ready to hit the field, so it makes sense to free up a roster spot and give him some time to get ready, especially with Divine Deablo running away with the starting inside linebacker job next to Kaden Elliss.
Others pose more difficult questions. Is Mooney close enough to returning that you would feel good about carrying him on the 53 man roster with no injury designation, counting on him being back in a week or two? Is McGary going to be able to play any time soon, or does he require the use of that second short-term IR slot? Can Washington and Phillips be ready in time to play Week 1, or are their roster spots better used on other, healthy players? Who handles punt returns if Jamal Agnew is slowed by injury, to add another name to the pile?
As Tori McElhaney at AtlantaFalcons.com wrote recently, these injuries complicate the picture in a major way for the Falcons, who only have a small handful of starting jobs up for grabs but a lot of depth roles on the table and no surfeit of roster spots available for them. As McElhaney notes, the team only has two available short-term IR slots, but given Raheem Morris’s quasi-mystical injury updates, we genuinely have no idea if McGary and Mooney need them. If both did, the Falcons would then have to make a decision about carrying, say, Norton on the active roster for several weeks while he recuperated, an unideal situation compounded by the lack of capable tackles on the roster. And so on.
Roster construction is not easy on the best day, but the dreaded host of summer injuries make it that much tougher. Last summer, it led to the Falcons trading for Matthew Judon and signing Justin Simmons to make up for losing Bralen Trice and DeMarcco Hellams, and this year, it may force a move at right tackle owing to McGary and Norton both being hurt. For guys like Washington and Phillips, meanwhile, it comes down to whether experience with the team outweighs summer strength and availability from potential replacements Nate Carter, Jashaun Corbin, and Natrone Brooks. These are decisions that must be weighed very carefully, to say the least, because of their potential to jam the Falcons up later when they need IR slots or need to call on their depth...
