Falcons place Avery Williams on IR, add minicamp tryout players

The Falcons made another flurry of moves on Friday—stop me if you’ve heard this before—with three signings, a pair of cuts, and finally placing Avery Williams on injured reserve. In total, Atlanta added a new kicker, a receiver, and a defensive lineman while parting ways with a quarterback and receiver.

The headline news, obviously, is Williams hitting injured reserve. We knew this was coming after Arthur Smith said the stellar returner was likely to miss the 2023 season, but this is the formal announcement from the team. Atlanta now has to replace his limited production as a runner, likely limited production as a receiver, and big-time production as a returner, and that last piece in particular will not necessarily be easy to do.

The team also:

• Signed wide receiver Chris Blair. A former undrafted free agent who spent time with the Packers before having a strong season in the XFL last year, he’s a 6’3” receiver who will be competing for a role at the bottom of the depth chart or the practice squad. The Falcons continue to stock former XFLers.
• Signed defensive lineman Albert Huggins. He’ll be competing for a practice squad spot on a suddenly deep defensive line, and has played for a few different teams in his career since arriving in 2019.
• Signed kicker Matthew Trickett. He’ll look to push for a practice squad spot this summer with Younghoe Koo obviously locked in as the kicker for Atlanta for the long-term.
• Cut ties with wide receiver Justin Marshall, a 2023 undrafted free agent receiver who had some sleeper hype after an intriguing college career.
• Cut quarterback Austin Aune, who had joined up earlier this spring hoping to carve out a role as the team’s practice squad quarterback.

Expect more moves between now and training camp, as I’ve said many times, but Williams in particular will be missed this year. Welcome the new guys and wish Marshall and Aune well, if you would.