In the cut down to their 53-man roster, the Falcons surprised some folks by keeping three quarterbacks.
After the season-ending knee injury to AJ McCarron, the Falcons signed Josh Rosen and played him in the final exhibition game. After a strong showing, Rosen, the 10th overall player picked in the 2018 draft, made the team along with undrafted rookie Feleipe Franks.
The Falcons still are trying to sort out the situation and listed both players as the backup quarterback behind Matt Ryan on their official depth chart that was released Tuesday for Sunday’s season opener against the Eagles, at 1 p.m. at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“Josh is doing a great job of coming in early, staying late and trying to grasp and understand as much of the offense as possible,” Falcons offensive coordinator Dave Ragone said Thursday. “Understanding that he’s going to be behind in terms of he wasn’t here the whole offseason and most of training camp.”
The Falcons saw enough from Rosen to start teaching him the entire playbook.
“So, again what we have him do is start from the Day 1 install,” Ragone said. “Learn it from there. Understand the 101 of each play in terms of the basics of them, and then we’ll grow with him as he continues to show us what he can and can’t do.”
Ragone wouldn’t declare Rosen or Franks the No. 2 quarterback. It’s doubtful the Falcons will enter the game Sunday with three quarterbacks on the game-day active roster.
“For us, regardless of who is that No. 2 quarterback, it’s a situation if that No. 2 quarterback has to play, we have a plan in place for that guy,” Ragone said. “So, understanding the strengths of both of those players. Understanding what they do well and making sure if those guys had to play, we cater to that.”
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