Falcons roster cuts 2016: First wave implications for Atlanta

Atlanta’s made their first five roster cuts, with ten more to go between now and Tuesday. While the cuts simply aren’t as impactful in the first go-around, we can still take a closer look at what they mean for the Falcons, and will do so here. Join us.

WR David Glidden

The first victim of what will eventually be a massive round of cuts at wide receiver, a position stocked with a ton of players who don’t have much of a shot at making the final roster. Glidden looked sharp very early in the offseason and was one of my sleeper picks for a practice squad spot until this week’s projection, when it became very obvious that he simply wasn’t playing enough or well enough to grab a spot. The Falcons still have Devin Fuller, J.D. McKissic, and a handful of others competing for one or two spots in the receiving corps.

DE Efe Obada

Obada was a fun signing, but looked way too raw to actually make this roster. The Falcons have a pretty solid rotation at defensive end this year between Ra’Shede Hageman, Adrian Clayborn, Derrick Shelby, Vic Beasley, Dwight Freeney, and potentially Courtney Upshaw and Brooks Reed, so Obada won’t be the last defensive end to hit the bricks.

FB Will Ratelle

The first of two players I considered to be solid picks for practice squad spots, Ratelle’s a little bit of a surprising early cut. He’s one of only two fullbacks on the roster, leaving the Falcons a little thin in a fourth preseason game where they’re simply not going to play Patrick DiMarco much, and was an interesting conversion project as a physical linebacker turned fullback. He’ll try to latch on elsewhere, but this doesn’t have any true roster implications because Ratelle was simply not going to make the 53 man with DiMarco around.

CB Jordan Sefon

The Falcons have C.J. Goodwin, Akeem King, and Brian Poole all in the mix to be the fourth and fifth cornerbacks, and Sefon was quite simply behind all of them in the pecking order.

G Jordan Walsh

A physical, undersized guard with solid athleticism, Walsh was picked up when the Saints let him go and seemed like a decent bet to make the practice squad with the Falcons very jumbled at guard and in need of a young option or two to develop. I still think they’ll carry a guard on the PS, but it won’t be Walsh, and the actual battle for roster spots is going to come down to Mike Person, Wes Schweitzer, Tom Compton, and Ben Garland, in all likelihood.

That about wraps it up, but we’ll see if there are any surprising names in the next ten cuts we see.