Falcons place long snapper Beau Brinkley on IR, cut OL Willie Beavers

Atlanta’s making a flurry of Monday moves after adding to their roster over the weekend.

Heading into today, I had noted on Twitter that the Falcons seemingly had more than 90 players on the roster post-draft, which I assumed they’d resolve quickly. That turned out to be accurate, as the team made a flurry of moves on Monday.

Per Tori McElhaney with AtlantaFalcons.com, the team isn’t just cutting Mike Davis and James Vaughters, which are the moves that have been previously reported today. They’re also cutting offensive lineman Willie Beavers and placing long snapper Beau Brinkley on injured reserve.

Beavers pushed for the swing tackle role a year ago in training camp, and while he lost that battle, he did end up spending the 2021 season on the practice squad. With the addition of tackles Elijah Wilkinson and Germain Ifedi, the Falcons are now content to move on, giving Beavers a shot to catch on for a swing tackle competition with another team. Both Wilkinson and Ifedi have primarily played on the right side of the line, so they may be asked to play more versatile roles this year or there may be another signing in the offing.

Brinkley was added fairly recently to compete for the long snapper job vacated by Josh Harris when he departed for the Chargers, and now we know why the team added Liam McCullough last week. Presumably if he’s being added to injured reserve now, our chances of seeing Brinkley again in 2022 are slim, giving McCullough a leg up on the job unless the Falcons add more competition.

The Falcons are presumably at or under the 90 man roster limit now, but there may be more moves while they free up cap space for the draft class and look to add more free agent talent to address remaining roster weaknesses. We’ll see what’s next, but as is custom, we wish Brinkley well with his recovery and Beavers well at his next stop.