Falcons announce initial 2022 53 man roster

The Falcons have announced their full slate of roster cuts just ahead of Tuesday’s deadline, and that means we now know who has made the initial 53 man roster.

You’ll find the roster below. We’ll have plenty of breakdowns of who made it and what changes the Falcons might make in the days ahead, but what is your initial impression of the roster?

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Offense

QB Marcus Mariota

QB Desmond Ridder

QB/TE Feleipe Franks

RB Tyler Allgeier

RB Damien Williams

RB/WR/KR Cordarrelle Patterson

RB/KR Avery Williams

FB Keith Smith

WR Drake London

WR Bryan Edwards

WR Olamide Zaccheaus

WR Damiere Byrd

WR KhaDarel Hodge

WR/KR Jared Bernhardt

TE Kyle Pitts

TE Parker Hesse

TE John FitzPatrick

T Jake Matthews

T Kaleb McGary

T Germaine Ifedi

G Elijah Wilkinson

G Jalen Mayfield

G Chris Lindstrom

C Matt Hennessy

C Drew Dalman

Defense

DL Grady Jarrett

DL Marlon Davidson

DL Ta’Quon Graham

DL Anthony Rush

DL Timothy Horne

OLB Adetokunbo Ogundeji

OLB Lorenzo Carter

OLB Arnold Ebiketie

OLB DeAngelo Malone

OLB Quinton Bell

ILB Deion Jones

ILB Rashaan Evans

ILB Mykal Walker

ILB Troy Andersen

LB Nate Landman

CB A.J. Terrell

CB Casey Hayward

CB Isaiah Oliver

CB Darren Hall

CB DeAundre Alford

CB Mike Ford

S Richie Grant

S Jaylinn Hawkins

S Erik Harris

S Dean Marlowe

Special Teams

K Younghoe Koo

P Bradley Pinion

LS Liam McCullough

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This is a roster full of surprises, even if changes in the coming day wind up leading to some of these players not being kept after all.

Start with the offense, where the team did indeed keep both Damiere Byrd and Jared Bernhardt. Byrd is seasoned, speedy receiver who earned it with quality play throughout the summer, beating out veterans like Cameron Batson and Frank Darby for a spot. Bernhardt is only a mild surprise at this point after the former lacrosse star consistently starred in preseason, but it is a pleasant surprise.

Colby Gossett being cut means the Falcons are only keeping eight offensive linemen initially, though they’ll almost certainly stock the practice squad well and perhaps add another veteran.

On the defense there are even more surprises. Mike Ford made the roster over Teez Tabor, a nod to his consistent work as a nickel back in practice and strong special teams history, but that is a mild surprise given how strong Tabor came on late in preseason. I had thought rookie Nate Landman had a good chance of unseating Nick Kwiatkoski after the veteran barely played this summer, but it’s still a slight surprise to see it actually happen. Ditto Quinton Bell, who made a big push for a roster spot and basically forced the Falcons to keep him.

The biggest surprise might be along the defensive line, where the team kept an injured Marlon Davidson—we’ll see if there’s a physically unable to perform or injured reserve designation coming—and undrafted free agent Timothy Horne. Abdullah Anderson, Nick Thurman, and Darrion Daniels all had their moments but did not make it, which did surprise me somewhat.

We’ll see how this roster changes in the coming days, but congratulations to everyone who made the initial 53 man!