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Falcons hold scrimmage during Monday’s practice

Dan Quinn split the Falcons into two separate teams for a full half scrimmage during Monday’s practice. We got an interesting glimpse into the team’s thoughts on a lot of players, and witnessed a dominant performance by the defense.

By Kevin Knight
NFL: Atlanta Falcons-Training Camp Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

If you were lucky enough to be among the fans attending the Falcons’ training camp practice on Monday, you’d have been in for a surprise.

The Falcons played a two quarter scrimmage today, with Dan Quinn splitting the roster into two separate teams. It seems like a fun exercise for the players and coaching staff as well as an interesting look into the team’s thoughts on the current roster. This isn’t quite an official depth chart, but it’s the only one we’ve gotten thus far. Read on for some of the most interesting tidbits.

  • Ty Sambrailo is still ahead of Austin Pasztor on the OT depth chart, much to our chagrin.
  • Marvin Hall may be ahead of Justin Hardy at WR.
  • Daniel Marx and Ricky Ortiz appear to be ahead of Luke McNitt in the FB battle.
  • Jacob Tuioti-Mariner is being played at EDGE, despite being listed as a DT on the official roster. I considered him a “hybrid” DE/DT player, similar to Adrian Clayborn.
  • J.T. Jones is being played at SLB. He spent his first training camp with the team at EDGE, but there were reports that he was practicing at SLB as well.
  • The team apparently thinks quite highly of Matt Gono, who was listed as the starting RT for Team White—ahead of Daniel Brunskill and Austin Pasztor.
  • CB Deante Burton appears to be ahead of Isaiah Oliver, Leon McFadden, and Chris Lammons (who was playing at CB despite being listed at S on the official roster). He’s got the physical traits the team looks for in it’s DBs at 6-2, 205. Burton is another WR-to-CB conversion for the Falcons, similar to C.J. Goodwin.
  • Emmanuel Ellerbee seems to be ahead of Foye Oluokun and Emmanuel Smith on the LB depth chart. He’s another LB in the Deion Jones mold at 6’1, 235.

I had automatically assumed that the team with Matt Ryan would end up being the winner, but apparently I was wrong. According to our man in the field Adnan Ikic, Team Red won handily—14-0 in a dominant defensive effort. The defense always has an advantage early in camp, but it’s still mighty impressive. On the other hand, it might be a tad bit worrisome that the Matt Ryan-led offense failed to score in an entire half of football. Let’s just chalk it up to early-season communication issues and move on.

What are your thoughts on the fourth day of the Falcons’ 2018 training camp? Which of the two “teams” did you view as the favorite? Anything stand out to you about the unofficial depth charts of the two teams?

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