Report: Falcons working out AAF standout S Ed Reynolds

The Alliance of American Football suffered an unfortunate fate earlier this month, a result of any number of missteps and unfulfilled promises from its ownership.

As a result, a flurry of former and hopeful NFL talents found themselves looking for work, and a decent rcross-section of the AAF’s best players have found new homes.

The Atlanta Falcons have been a bit quiet on this specific front as other teams have snapped up the AAF’s best, but they’re going to get a look at a local Legend, so to speak.

The son of a Patriots linebacker, safety Ed Reynolds was an interesting talent at the position with very little chance to prove himself in Philadelphia in the 2014 and 2015 seasons before being waived and heading to Cleveland in 2016. He’s played in a total of 16 NFL games with 61 tackles, a sack, an interception, and two pass deflections, and his most noteworthy attribute during that brief stint was probably his physicality.

Since then, he’s been out of the big leagues, but he found a spot on the Atlanta Legends roster this winter. Like so many of his AAF contemporaries, Reynolds showed enough improvement to warrant another NFL look.

Of course, both starting safety spots in Atlanta are locked down, but the team needs depth. Reynolds was a free safety with the Legends, so perhaps that’s where Atlanta could look at him, with Damontae Kazee expected to take more of a focus at cornerback.

He had 35 tackles, a sack and a quarterback hit in his eight games with the AAF, and was one of the league’s surer tacklers at his position.

We’ll see if Atlanta brings him in, and to be honest, it’d be a low risk-high reward move as you’d expect. He can compete for a spot on the 90-man roster this summer and try to prove his mettle in training camp and preseason, with an eye on making the team as a reserve safety.

He’s played in the NFL before, so perhaps that could give him a leg up on one of the team’s backup safety spots and special team positions.

Here’s hoping Atlanta considers a few other AAF talents as they fill out the 90-man roster for summer.