Falcons sign safety Micah Abernathy off Packers practice squad, active Matt Hennessy

With injuries still a factor here late in the year for the Falcons and with a need to keep juggling the roster as a result, Atlanta’s making plenty of moves even with the season drawing to a close soon.

As ESPN’s Mike Rothstein succinctly sums up, the Falcons made five moves on Saturday ahead of their game with Arizona, including stealing a practice squad safety from the Packers and bringing Matt Hennessy off of injured reserve.

We’ll start with the Micah Abernathy news. The 2019 undrafted free agent joined the Packers after a productive stint in the USFL and has been on the practice squad this season, earning two elevations to the roster and playing mostly on special teams. He’ll essentially replace Jovante Moffatt, who had primarily played special teams when healthy, on the active roster and will be the fourth safety in case of emergency. Depending on how well he fares in that limited role, he might find himself in the running for a roster spot next summer.

Hennessy, who started one game at left guard, will return as a reserve backing up both Drew Dalman and Elijah Wilkinson, which is good news given how many injuries keep cropping up at guard. That’s doubly true with Chuma Edoga, who looked really good in his one start, finally heading to injured reserve after missing weeks of action. Moffatt joins him on injured reserve, and both players will be out the rest of the year.

Finally, Josh Ali is up after spending much of the year on the Falcons practice squad. A productive wide receiver at Kentucky, Ali will be hoping to get some run on offense and special teams tomorrow to show he belongs in the conversation for a spot in a receiving corps that will only have a small handful of players under contract heading into 2023.

We wish Edoga and Moffatt well on their recovery and give a warm welcome to Abernathy, and it’s good to see Hennessy back and Ali getting his gameday shot.