Falcons Friday Night Lights: The youth movement shone

The Falcons held their annual Friday Night Lights scrimmage last night at Grayson High School, and while you can only ever get so much out of these types of practices, theres’s plenty of worthwhile notes to cover.

Let’s run down through what stood out at FNL.

These are the big standouts, straight from Jeanna Thomas, who fought traffic to give us her live impressions. De’Vondre Campbell has been a standout all spring and summer and shouldn’t be counted out of the competition for a starting gig, while Adrian Clayborn is expected to get significant time at defensive end this year, especially in nickel packages. Joshua Perkins and Gus Johnson are fighting for roster spots at tight end and running back, respectively, and made their cases last night.

This seems justified, given that Matt Schaub threw two picks last night and has generally looked very shaky in camp thus far. One of those picks was a tipped pass to Robenson Therezie by way of Jalen Collins, and the other was to C.J. Goodwin.

Goodwin, it should be noted, seems to be taking to cornerback quite well. He’s a candidate for the practice squad, at the very least.

Fuller has been someone I’ve honestly been a little skeptical of, for reasons that have less to do with his (obvious) talent than his readiness to contribute in his first NFL season. He’s got a good shot to hang on as a returner, though, and has been picking up steam as a receiver in training camp, with several touchdowns along the way.

Poole’s a favorite of several Falcons analysts, and with the team deeply unsettled beyond their top three cornerbacks, there’s a legitimate chance he’ll make the team. He’s ideally suited to the nickel, so again, at the very least you should look for him to be in the running for a practice squad spot.

What else did you notice last night? Share in the comments!