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If there is one roster-building habit that has been equal parts running gag and actually accurate, it’s Dan Quinn’s abiding love for LSU players. He’s taken them seemingly as often as he can, with mostly positive results to this point.
That—and Jason Butt’s reliability as a reporter—is why you should take this particular note as more than a throwaway connection.
Keep an eye on Danny Etling, a QB who @FieldYates reported was waived today by New England. Atlanta was interested in signing him after the 2018 draft but he was taken in the 7th rd by the Pats. Falcons may want to add a young developmental QB with Kurt Benkert out for the year.
— Jason Butt (@JasonHButt) August 13, 2019
Etling’s tenure in New England was a fairly rocky one. He had a mixed preseason in 2018, tossing two picks against a touchdown, completing 52% of his passes and running 10 times for 120 yards. He’s a good athlete and has a solid arm, and the Patriots liked him enough to keep him on the practice squad for the entire 2018 season.
In 2019, however, they were transitioning him to wide receiver before they cut him. That’s not where he’d end up with the Falcons, who are loaded at receiver and are starved for QB help with Matt Simms clearly not serving as anyone’s idea of a developmental guy behind Matt Ryan and Matt Schaub. If they do like him and do sign him, he’d be a developmental QB who would spend the year on the practice squad, ready to duke it out with Kurt Benkert and Matt Schaub in 2020.
Stay tuned and we’ll see if Butt’s hunch is right.