It hasn't hit the official transactions listings yet, but the Falcons have just released safety prospect C.J. Gaddis. Gaddis was on the practice squad last season and was a long shot to make the roster.
The extra roster spot might give the team room to bring one of the non-roster guys at minicamp in for OTAs and training camp. By my count, the team has 76 players under contract and 11 drafted players to sign. As the draft picks start signing their contracts, the team will need to release other players to remain under the 80-man roster limit. But at least for now there should be room to bring a few of the non-roster guys or sign a few more free agent prospects for OTAs.
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Other notes: the AJC reported today that Todd Weiner is ahead of schedule on his rehab and may start running next week.
I've seen a few articles now that have said that Sam Baker and Pat McCoy are the two candidates for the left tackle job. It's usually overlooked, but Weiner is also capable of playing left tackle. In fact, he had switched from RT to LT just before he went on IR last season. He has played RT since arriving in Atlanta, but that's not because he isn't good enough to be trusted on the left side. It's because we had a left-handed quarterback, so his pass blocking skills were needed on the right side.
Those pieces (at least one was D. Orlando Ledbetter) also failed to mention Quinn Ojinnaka and Renardo Foster, who are both still with the team and both started games at the left tackle spot last season. (Foster is still out doing physical rehab.) They both played better than the original starter, Wayne Gandy. Terrance Pennington and Harvey Dahl are still with the team as well. So while Baker may be the obvious frontrunner for the LT job, there are quite a few other candidates besides Pat McCoy competing for the job.
The AJC also said DJ Shockley did not participate in any of the team drills in minicamp as he continues his rehab. That's technically correct but misleading - he did participate in minicamp. He just wasn't involved in the 11-on-11 session at the end of practice. He did take part in the coverage drills, throwing to the TEs and RBs as they were covered by the linebackers.
Finneran did participate in the practice session that I saw, but he wasn't able to participate in the Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning sessions. He still isn't back to full speed by any stretch of the imagination.
