The Atlanta Falcons signed offensive tackle Gabe Carimi, who has been with two teams already, the Chicago Bears and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, on Monday, according to the team.
Carimi, 6-7, 316 pounds, was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the first round (29th overall) of the 2011 NFL Draft.
Carimi, who played with Falcons center/right guard Peter Konz at Wisconsin, spent two seasons in Chicago. He played in 18 games and made 16 starts before being traded to Tampa Bay for a sixth-round pick before the 2013 season.
In 2011, he played in two games at right tackle. In 2012, he played right tackle and right guard.
He played lin 14 games and made two starts at left guard for the Bucs last season. He played 218 snaps. He had 127 run block snaps and 91 pass block snaps, according to profootballfocus.coc. He had negative grades for overall blocking, passing blocking and run blocking. However, he gave up just one sack, no quarterback hits and just one hurry.
Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan was either sacked, hit or hurries on nearly 38 percent of his dropbacks in 2013.
In 2012, when Carimi saw his most extensive action, he did not have a good season. He played 941 snaps and negative grades for overall blocking, passing blocking and run blocking. He gave up seven sacks, nine quarterback hits and 34 hurries.
He was rated as the 73rd (out of 80) best tackle in the league, by profootballfocus.com.
Carimi could be in the mix for the starting right guard or right tackle spots, which were held mainly by Garrett Reynolds and Jeremy Trueblood, respectively, last season.
He was the Outland trophy as the nation’s top interior lineman and was an All-America selection as a senior at Wisconsin.
Carimi will be reunited with Falcons offensive line coach Mike Tice, who was with the Bears for his first two seasons in the league.
