Yesterday the Atlanta Falcons announced that they signed cornerback C.J. Henderson, and while the ninth overall pick in the 2020 Draft hasn’t maybe lived up to the expectations of a top 10 pick he’s still had a solid NFL career thus far, and in a Falcons’ cornerback room that’s already got some competition The Morning Shift talked about what this signing could mean for Atlanta’s secondary moving forward.
“The only thing I can think of is that there’s an injury or there’s a depth issue or they're trying to push some competition.” Beau Morgan said
Mike Johnson responded to Beau’s comments by talking about how he believes Terry Fontenot and the Falcons made this move because of cornerback Cobee Bryant’s current hamstring injury that he recently suffered.
“Maybe that hamstring issue is a little bit more long term than we kind of initially envisioned, so you mentioned it, Is it a depth issue? Is it a health issue? I think it’s kind of both. I think they just envisioned Cobee Bryant moving into a particular role given this defense and given the situation there in and he’s not available to do that, so they have to sign more depth and make sure that they’re healthy.” Mike said
It’s been reported by multiple sources that Henderson chose the Falcons over another team or maybe even multiple teams, so that means he was probably promised a 53-man roster spot, so all signs point to CJ being a part of this team when the regular season starts.
As Mike and Beau said, the Falcons signing Henderson probably means that they either weren't happy with their depth at outside corner behind Mike Hughes and A.J. Terrell, or a guy who they really like in Cobee Bryant is going to miss some regular season action with that hamstring injury, and they needed somebody to replace him for a while.
Whatever the case is, the former Florida Gator was drafted ninth overall for a reason, and if he can stay healthy and get comfortable in Jeff Ulbrich’s system the Falcons may’ve gotten a really nice player to add to their secondary.