Offensive guard Jon Asamoah, 27, who was signed as a free agent to help stabilize the offensive line in 2014, has reached an injury settlement with the Falcons, according to the team.
The Falcons placed Asamoah on injury reserved with a hip injury on Sept. 5 when they cut down to the 53-man roster.
The move is surprising because he’s relatively young and the interior of the line has struggled at times in pass protection this season. The Falcons signed him to a five-year, $22.5 million contract that included an $8 million in guaranteed money. Terms of the settlement were undisclosed.
Asamoah, 6-foot-4 and 305 pounds, was signed by the Falcons as a free agent on March 12, 2014.
Chris Chester, who was signed this offseason after being released by Washington, has played right guard this season. Also, the Falcons traded for Andy Levitre to basically replace Justin Blalock at left guard.
Falcons coach Dan Quinn praised Asamoah’s pass blocking several times during training camp, which inadvertently highlighted that the staff didn’t think he fit as a run-blocker in the outside-zone blocking scheme.
Asamoah started 15 games for the Falcons in 2014. Asamoah (24th) was rated higher than Chester (33rd) by profootballfocus.com for that season. Asamoah gave up two sacks, three hits and 21 hurries while the Falcons went 6-10.
In five NFL seasons, Asamoah has appeared in 75 games and has made 56 starts.
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