The Falcons went up to the 4 p.m. deadline Saturday before cutting down to their 53-man roster.
Other than Ra’Shede Hageman getting suspended, there were few surprises, and the front office will now turn its attention to filling out their 11-member practice squad.
This is the initial group that will start out on the Falcons’ attempt to defend their NFC title and possibly return to the Super Bowl to avenge their historic loss in Super Bowl LI, when they collapsed after taking a 25-point lead against New England and lost 31-28 in overtime.
The Falcons open the regular season at the Chicago Bears at 1 p.m. Sept. 10 at Soldier Field.
“Man, do we love this group of guys,” Falcons coach Dan Quinn said. “I’m anxious to get started with them, for me as a coach on Monday.”
The Falcons waived safety Marcelis Branch, offensive tackle Daniel Brunskill, wide receiver Deante Burton, wide receiver Reggie Davis, guard/center Cornelius Edison, wide receiver Marvin Hall, defensive end J’Terius Jones, defensive end Chris Odom, tight end Josh Perkins, running back Jhurell Pressley, defensive lineman Taniela Tupou, defensive tackle Joe Vellano.
Defensive end Martin Ifedi, linebacker Josh Keyes and quarterback Matt Simms were waived injured. Simms must have been hurt in the final exhibition game.
The Falcons reached an injury settlement with tight end Darion Griswold, and they placed safety Quincy Mauger on injured reserve.
Hagemen went to the reserve/commissioner’s exempt list, apparently for his domestic-violence case from March 2016.
Cornerback Jalen Collins was placed on the reserve suspended list for 10 games for violating the NFL’s performance-enhancing drugs policy.
All of the Falcons’ draft picks and undrafted linebacker Jermaine Grace made the roster.
All will be expected to contribute.
“Now that the roster goes from really wide to a very narrow group and then even more narrow on game day, it’s one of the roles of coaching that I enjoy the most to say, ‘If he’s active, this is how he’d play,’” Quinn said. “If we’re going to give you a jersey on game day, you’re going to have a role in the game for sure.”
Most of the work over the past couple of years has been done to improve the defense. The Falcons believe they have a stacked defensive line group and some speedy run-hit-and-cover linebackers.
“We worked really hard to continue to build the competitive toughness of this team,” Dimitroff said. “After the moves that (we made) we feel like we are going to be a more competitive and tough team. We are encouraged by that.”
The Falcons added defensive tackle Dontari Poe, defensive tackle/end Jack Crawford and rookie defensive end Tarrakist McKinley, essentially replacing Jonathan Babineaux, Tyson Jackson and Dwight Freeney.
“I think you’ve been able to see it when we played the ones and twos, it’s a really impressive front,” Dimitroff said. “A lot of passion is in that group and ‘want to’ to make the plays. …I think we’re in a really positive spot at (those defensive line positions).”
Quinn was pleased with how hard the reserves tried to play in the exhibition season as the team went 0-4.
“We threw a great camp and at times we threw some great preseason football,” Quinn said. “At times, it didn’t go like we wanted especially in some of the second halves.”
The Falcons elected to keep just two quarterbacks, but felt that Simms had a good exhibition season.
“I thought overall Matt really showed himself well, and he showed that he can play in this league at quarterback,” Quinn said.
Grace adds to the speed of the linebacker group. He didn’t play last season for the Miami Hurricanes after he was suspended for his role in an issue involving rental cars.
He showed his speed in the final exhibition game when he covered Jacksonville tight end Alex Ellis 15 yards down the field and broke on the ball to make the interception.
“We were excited to see Jermaine Grace,” Quinn said. “It has been a long time since he had some extended playing time. He was playing alongside a really good veteran quite a bit of the time in Kemal Ishmael. We were encouraged to see the speed that he could play with.”
With the addition of third-round pick Duke Riley and Grace, the Falcons like their linebackers.
“Our linebackers can run,” Quinn said. “That’s from top to bottom. The speed that they play with shows up on tape. It shows up on the way they hit. It shows up on the way they go after the ball.”
The Falcons went up to the deadline likely to try to disguise the players they want to bring back to the practice squad.
“As far as the process goes, there’s certainly some strategy behind that of when, who, and where on make the cuts,” Quinn said.
