Falcons inactives for Week 5: DL Ta’Quon parked for Texans game

Atlanta’s inactives are in ahead of today’s game against the Texans, and there are a couple of surprises in the list today.

The team announced that they’re parking Ta’Quon Graham, a major piece of the team’s defensive line rotation over the past couple of seasons, in addition to practice squad call-up Xavier Malone. That means Atlanta will roll with just four wide receivers and will significantly shake up their defensive line depth for at least one week.

Graham is a surprise because he’s been a capable player in the past and had logged a decent number of snaps the first four weeks of the season, but new defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen hasn’t seemed entirely satisfied with the depth along the line thus far. The past two weeks the team had elected to make Albert Huggins inactive in favor of Timothy Horne; with Horne not being added to the active roster, Huggins is going today along with new signing Eli Ankou, who joined up this week from the Bills practice squad. Let’s hope they can hold up well against a solid but unspectacular Houston rushing attack.

I had figured Malone would be active after getting flexed from the practice squad over the weekend, but instead the team will roll with Drake London, Mack Hollins, KhaDarel Hodge, and Scotty Miller. That may signal a larger role for Hodge or Miller today, but perhaps the likeliest outcome is that we finally see some Cordarrelle Patterson as a runner and a receiver.

The team will also be going with just Tae Davis as inside linebacker depth on Sunday behind Nate Landman and Kaden Elliss.

Week 5 Falcons inactives

QB Logan Woodside (third quarterback)

WR Xavier Malone

OL Jovaughn Gwyn

DL Ta’Quon Graham

DL Joe Gaziano

ILB Andre Smith Jr.