Falcons Waive Linebacker Matt Hansen

The Falcons have had weak depth at linebacker for a couple of seasons now, and it's not getting better in 2013.

Given that reality, I expected Matt Hansen to get his shot. Hansen, a converted safety who was trying to make it as a linebacker in Atlanta, is a smart football player without elite athleticism. He's also coming off a torn patellar tendon, and the Falcons must have evaluated him and figured there was no way he was going to be healthy enough or good enough to crack the active roster. They announced they waived him yesterday.

Waiving Hansen leaves a team already perilously thin at linebacker even thinner. Pat Schiller seems like the likeliest candidate to get a promotion to the roster this off-season, with Robert James' future with the team quite uncertain and Mike Peterson possibly on his way out. The Falcons will almost certainly ink a free agent or draft a linebacker to help out, too. If the starters go down, they're in real trouble as it stands today.

Your thoughts on Hansen? Be sure to wish him well.