Falcons vs. Saints Inactives: Drake London good to go

Week 1 and we are back to scouting the inactive lists. Teams aren’t struggling with injuries too much this early in the season, meaning we are seeing more of the bottom of the presumed roster. Also of interest is we may be seeing a few match-up related roster decisions, so it may be a few weeks if we know these players are indeed at the bottom of the roster.

For the Falcons, a few notables.

• WR Damiere Byrd
• RB Tyler Allgeier
• OLB DeAngelo Malone
• ILB Nick Kwiatkoski
• OL Chuma Edoga

Interesting is Byrd, a rare undersized pass catcher on Arthur Smith’s offense. The former Carolina Panthers wide receiver is still searching for a role early in the season. Much more interesting is Allgeier, a potential workhorse in Atlanta’s offense. At 5-foot-11 and 220-pounds, his inactive status is a bit surprising.

For the Saints, there are some surprisingly big names inactive.

• CB Paulson Adebo
• G Wyatt Davis
• DE Tanoh Kpassagnon
• WR Tre’Quan Smith
• RB Dwayne Washington
• TE Nick Vannett

Half of the New Orleans inactives are former big-name draft picks who have struggled so far in the NFL. Vannett was a big-play pass-catching tight end in college who never made a successful transition to the pros. Kpassagnon is a high draft pick with impressive size but has lacked consistency so far.

The most notable is who isn’t there: Michael Thomas will return to the NFL after a fairly long absence.