Player targets: Late roster additions, practice squad players, and short-term IR predictions

Yesterday the Atlanta Falcons chopped their roster down to 53 52 players. There is still work to be done to finalize the roster, including a lot of weird depth. Why would the team have weird depth, you ask?

Weird Depth

Looking over the roster, there are a few things I am going to classify as weird. The Falcons typically keep five wide receivers. Most teams typically keep five or six. The Falcons have seven. Wild guess? They want to sneak Nick Williams onto the practice squad after other teams have set their own practice squad.

The Falcons have only eight offensive linemen on the roster. That is either an insane amount of trust in their health, or something bound to change. Three tackles, one dealing with injury, is not a recipe for success.

The team has two tight ends. We saw how this worked out last year, and hopefully they plan on adding another tight end at some point.

Short-Term IR

The team can officially drop a player onto short-term injured reserve today at 4 PM. The expectation is that player will be LB Brooks Reed, who is expected to be out about six weeks. But could we have a mystery candidate? After the last preseason game, Dan Quinn announced that two players were medically excused from the game: Jake Matthews and Jon Asamoah. One of those players is out for the year. The second? Maybe we will find out in a few hours.

Active Roster and Practice Squad

After likely using the short-term IR spot, the team will have two open roster spots, and 10 open slots on the practice squad. It is a little difficult to guess who those players will be, as we expect some new names to be on the team.

New player waivers are expected to come through at noon, while practice squads are set at 1 PM.

One of the more interesting cuts yesterday was the Rams OT Isiah Battle. They oddly dropped a fifth round selection on Battle after already addressing their tackle spot, and have now let him go. The Falcons were widely linked to Battle, and they now have only three tackles on the roster. He is unlikely to be very good this year, but the team will need some bodies.

As far as old names, the following likely have a good shot at returning thanks to their preseason play or lack of roster depth, via the practice squad: LB Tyler Starr, NT Joey Mbu, LB Derek Akunne, CB Kevin White, OL Jake Rodgers, OL Pierce Burton, and CB Akeem King.

As far as new names, Tim Tebow is always available LB Jameel McClain, OT Derek Sherrod, and CB Stanley Jean-Baptiste would make some sense.

Anyone else you want to see brought in to Atlanta?