Falcons reportedly will add CB Kendall Sheffield to injured reserve

One of the biggest bummers of the summer was that Kendall Sheffield, who was competing for a roster spot in a suddenly crowded cornerback group, didn’t get much of a chance to compete at all. He missed every preseason game while injured, which seemed to doom his chances of making the roster.

Fortunately for Sheffield, he did wind up on the 53 man roster after the Falcons cut down. Unfortunately, he’s still not healthy, so as anticipated the team will reportedly move him to injured reserve.

The relaxed injured reserve rules mean that we could see Sheffield after three weeks if he’s healthy, though his fit on the roster at that point is unknown. Sheffield was a favorite of the last coaching staff, with Dan Quinn and company talking him up as a potential starter, but his in-game results were uneven and he’s dealt with injury repeatedly through his career to this point. He’s still just 25 years old, under contract affordably through next year and has tremendous speed, so the fact that the Falcons are looking to keep him around is welcome news. We’ll see what Dean Pees is planning for him when he comes off of injured reserve.

Atlanta now has an open roster spot, and once they move one of their two backup quarterbacks to the practice squad, they’ll have two to work with. Sheffield being out does mean the Falcons will sign another cornerback, per se—they have six if you count T.J. Green as an option—but they do have depth issues across the roster that they will likely look to address via free agency in the coming days.

We’ll hope to see Sheffield healthy again soon.