Matt Hennessy sent to IR; Jovante Moffatt to active roster; more practice squad moves

Crack open a bottle for Hennessy who is set to miss at least four games.

There was no way to space out roster moves on a short week. With the Falcons facing off against the Carolina Panthers on Thursday Night Football, it made five roster moves all at once.

Short weeks are tough on teams.

The most notable? Matt Hennessy, who was injured against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday, heads to injured reserve. We don’t know the extent of his injury, but he is guaranteed to miss at least four games. Hennessy looked solid enough on Sunday filling in at left guard for the injured Elijah Wilkinson (also placed on injured reserve). That opens up an opportunity for Colby Gossett who performed arguably as well as, or better than, Hennessy against the Cincinnati Bengals.

The guard spot is hopefully in good hands with Gossett, but there aren’t many options after the blocker. Germain Ifedi has experience at both tackle and guard, and looks to be the team’s emergency guard in case of any more injuries. Maybe Jalen Mayfield returns from injured reserve soon for “reinforcements”.

The short week makes signing replacement guards extremely difficult. Look for the Falcons to do some more roster shuffling next week.

The Falcons instead added safety Jovante Moffatt to the active roster. The formerly undrafted safety has been on the practice squad since September. The Falcons may need some special teams help and secondary depth in light of the Dean Marlowe trade. Marlowe played almost entirely on special teams but filled in on defense when Jaylinn Hawkins was injured. With Marlowe now in Buffalo, Moffatt likely locks up the backup safety spot.

Surprisingly, despite the depth concerns at corner, the Falcons cut corner BoPete Keyes from its practice squad. You would think instead they may consider elevating him, but it suggests Rashad Fenton is ready to pick up some slack. Atlanta added two to the practice squad, both with previous stints with Atlanta: EDGE Quinton Bell and OL Jonotthan Harrison.