Falcons Sign Running Back Josh Vaughan To Practice Squad

It's not earth-shattering news, but the Falcons have welcome running back Josh Vaughan into the fold.

Vaughan takes a place on the practice squad vacated by safety Mark LeGree, who I was only dimly aware was even on the practice squad. It's a little bit of an odd move.

That is, until you realize the potential intelligence benefits. As pointed out by James Dator over at Cat Scratch Reader, Vaughan has a copy of the 2012 Carolina Panthers playbook from his time with the team this summer. That makes him more than a little bit useful.

The Falcons are not exactly struggling to find depth at running back, whereas the depth at safety is pretty iffy. The Falcons are carrying four running backs on the active roster right now, and while Michael Turner has struggled to tote the rock a bit through the first three games, there's no change coming.

To me, this signals concern over Antone Smith's hamstring injury, which kept him out of the Chargers game last weekend. If he can't go, the Falcons have somebody with a couple of years of experience to fall back on. After all, without Smith the team is one injury away from having two backs, which is hardly ideal.

So welcome aboard, Josh Vaughan. No offense, but I hope we never see you on the field.