The news broke last night that the Atlanta Falcons have traded quarterback Taylor Heinicke to the Los Angeles Chargers in exchange for a conditional sixth-round pick. While this move isn’t a huge surprise with Kirk Cousins and Michael Penix Jr. both on the Falcons roster, Heinicke did make the Falcons initial 53-man roster, and now that roster spot has been freed up, so what will the Falcons do with it? Beau Morgan and Mike Johnson both think another position besides quarterback on the 53-man roster will get some added depth, and they told you positions they think it could be earlier today on The Morning Shift.
1.) Wide Receiver
The Falcons only kept five wide receivers on their initial 53-man roster, and that could’ve been because the Taylor Heinicke trade was in the works, and Terry Fontenot and Raheem Morris knew they could add to that position in the coming days. Now that the Heinicke trade has been completed, Beau Morgan wouldn’t be surprised if the Falcons General Manager has another move up his sleeve to bring in another receiver.
“I personally think it might be a wide receiver off waivers or a trade that they might want to make. I don’t put anything past Terry [Fontenot] with what we’ve seen him do that he doesn’t have another trade cooking up.” Beau said.
2.) Offensive Line
Mike Johnson agrees with Beau and thinks the Falcons will use the newly open roster spot to claim a player off waivers to sign right to the 53-man roster instead of elevating one of their own practice squad guys to the 53-man roster. However, Mike thinks the Falcons may be looking at a couple of other positions to add depth to besides wide receiver, and if anybody knows this a former offensive lineman like Mike knows you can never have too many big uglies.
“I do wonder if there’s an interior swing guy that could possibly do that on the offensive line.”
3.) Running Back
Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier are a great one, two, punch, but Mike also thinks the Falcons could have a little more depth in the running back room as well.
“I also think that when you look at the running back depth it’s not something I love right now. Like Jase McClellan, I don’t know that I love either one of those guys as third running back options right now. I think that it’s a huge drop off after Tyler Allgeier, so maybe you bring in a running back, special teams ace that can do that as well, but it would be strange to me to trade Taylor Heinicke and bring in another third quarterback on the active roster you just have to wonder what they’re going to do with that spot.”
It does seem safe to say after the trade of Taylor Heinicke the Falcons won’t add another quarterback to their 53-man roster, and just bring in a quarterback to be on the practice squad, so it will be interesting to see which position group gets some more depth added to it, but wide receiver, offensive line, and running back are definitely three strong possibilities.