Falcons report: Roster cuts coming

Flowery Branch — The Falcons reached the league’s roster limit of 75 players with relative ease Tuesday with two player moves.

They placed offensive lineman Renardo Foster (knee) on the reserve physically-unable-to-perform list and moved defensive tackle Trey Lewis (knee) to the reserve non-football injury list.

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CURTIS COMPTON/ccompton@ajc.com

One of the Falcons four quarterbacks won’t be around after Saturday’s cuts. Will it be Joey Harrington?

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CURTIS COMPTON/ccompton@ajc.com

Will former UGA star D.J. Shockley stick with the team?

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• Falcons roster moves: Cut 'em or keep 'em

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The next cutdown to 53 players by 6 p.m. Saturday will not be so neat and tidy, with several jobs still up for grabs entering the final exhibition game against Baltimore on Thursday.

Here’s a roster analysis going into the game against the Ravens (with number projected on 53-man roster in parentheses):

Running backs (5 or 6)

Locks (3): Michael Turner, Jerious Norwood and Ovie Mughelli

Bubble (3): Thomas Brown, Jason Snelling and Corey McIntyre

Comment: McIntyre is a special-teams maven. Brown’s a promising kick return, and Snelling runs hard.

Specialists (3)

Locks (3): Jason Elam, Michael Koenen and Mike Schneck

Comment: With Elam, the Falcons don’t need to keep Morten Andersen’s phone number on speed dial this season.

Quarterbacks (3)

Lock (1): Matt Ryan

Bubble (3): Chris Redman, Joey Harrington, and D.J. Shockley

Comment: Will the Falcons keep two veterans and try to slip Shockley onto the practice squad, or will they keep one veteran and keep developing Shockley?

Tight ends (3 or 4)

Locks (2): Ben Hartsock and Marcus Pollard

Bubble (3): Martrez Milner, Keith Zinger and Jason Rader

Comment: Zinger’s a promising practice-squad candidate.

Wide receivers (6)

Locks (6): Roddy White, Michael Jenkins, Laurent Robinson, Harry Douglas, Adam Jennings and Brian Finneran

Bubble (2): Eric Weems and Chandler Williams

Comment: Finnernan looks like he’s going to make the team after missing the past two years with knee injuries.

Note: Noriaki Kinoshita has an international-player exemption for the season.

Linemen

Locks (9): John Abraham, Jamaal Anderson, Grady Jackson, Jonathan Babineaux, Chauncey Davis, Rashad Moore, Kindal Moorehead, Kroy Biermann and Simon Fraser

Bubble (4): Brandon Miller, Tim Anderson, Montavious Stanley and Willie Evans

Comment: Possibly only one spot appears open.

Linebackers (6 or 7)

Locks (6): Michael Boley, Curtis Lofton, Keith Brooking, Stephen Nicholas, Tony Taylor and Coy Wire

Bubble (2): Cameron Vaughn and Mickey Pimentel

Comment: Unit appears to be strength of the defense.

Linemen (9 or 10)

Locks (8): Sam Baker, Justin Blalock, Todd McClure, Harvey Dahl, Todd Weiner, Alex Stepanovich, Quinn Ojinnaka, Tyson Clabo

Bubble (6): Kynan Forney, D’Anthony Batiste, Ben Wilkerson, Doug Datish, Michael Butterworth and Terrance Pennington

Comment: Forney’s a six-year starter who is behind Dahl in a battle to earn the starting spot at right guard.