The Falcons signed linebacker Bralen Trice to the practice squad, the team announced.
Atlanta drafted Trice in the third round in 2024, but he has not played a game for the Falcons yet. The team waived him on Sunday.
Trice, 25, tore his ACL in his first preseason game and missed his entire rookie year. He then aggravated the same knee in 2025 and didn’t play last season either.
Trice was a two-time first-team All-Pac-12 selection at Washington and a two-time bowl game MVP.
Falcons Clips
With the first game of the season only nine days away, the Falcons still haven’t named a starting quarterback.
The competition, ostensibly, is between Tua Tagovailoa and Michael Penix Jr. But how, as Simms said on Thursday’s PFT Live, can it be a competition when Penix hasn’t been able to compete?
The Falcons published their weekly media schedule on Friday, and there will be a “starting quarterback press conference” next Wednesday. Obviously, the identity of the starter will be known by then.
Our guess is that it will happen early in the week, probably on Monday, with the announcement coming Tuesday morning at the earliest.
And if Penix still isn’t ready to go as he continues to recover from a torn ACL, the likely options are Tua and Cooper Rush. (I’d roll the dice with undrafted rookie Jack Strand, but that’s possibly one of the many reasons why I don’t run a team.)
Here’s where the situation can get very interesting. If the Falcons decide to go with Rush, who is 9-7 in 16 career starts, why even keep Tua on the team?
His $1.215 million base salary isn’t guaranteed. They could cut him, and he’d still get the full $54 million he’s owed by the Dolphins for 2026.
It made sense to sign Tua. He was cheap. He beat the Falcons in Atlanta last year. When everything is working as planned, he can perform at a high level. When, however, things go sideways (e.g., if the first read isn’t there), Tua tends to get happy feet.
The Falcons gave it a try. Tua gave it a try. If he can’t beat out Rush for the Week 1 start in Pittsburgh (where Tua made his last start for the Dolphins last December), there’s no reason to keep him on the roster. Frankly, if Tua falls behind Rush, Tua shouldn’t want to stay.
The Falcons will add two former players to their Ring of Honor during the 2026 season.
The team announced that they will induct defensive end John Abraham and guard Bill Fralic. The ceremony will be held during the team’s October 11 game against the Ravens on Sunday Night Football.
Abraham was a Jets first-round pick in 2000 and he came to the Falcons in a 2006 trade. He spent seven years with the team and was a first-team All-Pro in 2010. He recorded 68.5 sacks while in Atlanta, which is the most for any Falcons player since sacks became an official stat in 1982.
Fralic was the second overall pick in 1985 and started 115 games over eight seasons with the team. He was a two-time first-team All-Pro and four-time Pro Bowler before finishing his career with one season in Detroit. Fralic died of cancer in 2018.
Deion Sanders’ fourth season as head coach at Colorado is off to a promising start.
Sanders’ team started 1-0 with a 14-13 win at Georgia Tech, in a wild ending that saw both teams block field goals in the fourth quarter and Colorado score a go-ahead touchdown in the final minute. The game ended when Colorado blocked Georgia Tech’s game-winning field goal attempt as time expired.
After going 3-9 last season, Sanders was heavily scrutinized, and there was talk that he could be on the hot seat if his team didn’t improve this year. Sanders said afterward that he doesn’t care about that talk.
“I want to win, man. I don’t give a damn — they talked about me when I came out of the womb,” Sanders said. “This is a big win for these kids.”
Colorado was a 6.5-point underdog heading into the game, but Sanders’ defense kept Georgia Tech’s offense (led by quarterback Alberto Mendoza, brother of Raiders quarterback Fernando Mendoza) out of the end zone. Georgia Tech’s only touchdown came on a 100-yard kickoff return.
The win came on Georgia Tech’s home field in Atlanta, the city where Sanders had many of his greatest moments as a player, both in the NFL with the Falcons and in Major League Baseball with the Braves. Sanders was asked after the game where that win ranks among his greatest moments in Atlanta.
“I don’t rank moments,” Sanders said. “I try to turn them into monuments.”
The Falcons have named five team captains for 2026.
While it’s not necessarily a shock, there are no quarterbacks among the group.
Running back Bijan Robinson, offensive lineman Chris Lindstrom, safety Jessie Bates III, linebacker Divine Deablo, and kicker Nick Folk earned the honor through a vote from their teammates.
For Robinson, Deablo, and Folk, it’s a first-time honor. Lindstrom has been a captain three times, while Bates is now a four-time captain for the Falcons.
With the quarterback competition between Tua Tagovailoa and Michael Penix Jr. apparently still ongoing, neither player was voted a captain this year. While Tagovailoa has had an advantage in the competition with Penix recovering from a torn ACL, the former Dolphins QB has not been able to secure the job.
The Falcons will open the season on the road against the Steelers on Sept. 13.
The Raiders named Kirk Cousins their Week 1 starting quarterback on Wednesday, but his former team has not made the same call.
Falcons General Manager Ian Cunningham said “not yet” when asked at a press conference if the team has made a choice between Michael Penix and Tua Tagovailoa for their game against the Steelers.
“Ultimately, when the coaches are ready, when the players are ready, we will make that decision,” Cunningham said.
Penix was cleared for football activities after recovering from a torn ACL over a week ago, but did not play in the team’s final preseason game. That lack of work was mitigated by Tagovailoa’s ups and downs while in game action last month. Tagovailoa also dealt with a back injury early in camp and the extended looks that Jack Strand and Cooper Rush received over the summer resulted in them making the cut to the 53-man roster as well.
Cunningham said that having Strand and Rush provides “a little bit of an insurance policy” and that seems wise given the injury histories of the other two quarterbacks. That only leaves the decision of who they’ll be insuring on September 13.
The Falcons signed veteran linebacker Josh Woods from their practice squad to their 53-player roster on Monday night, the team announced.
In a corresponding move, the Falcons placed third-year linebacker JD Bertrand on the reserve/injured list. Bertrand’s injury is undisclosed.
He is required to miss at least four games before returning.
Woods has spent the past two seasons in Atlanta and has become a core special teams player. He played 82 percent of special teams snaps in the 12 games he was active last season.
Woods registered 14 total tackles.
He entered the league in 2019 as an undrafted free agent with the Bears. He has played for four different teams in his seven NFL seasons, compiling 137 tackles, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.
The Falcons have two spots on their practice squad.
The Falcons claimed linebackers Yasir Abdullah and Jared Ivey and offensive lineman Cameron Williams off waivers earlier in the day. They needed to make room on their 53-player roster for the three additions and did Monday afternoon.
In corresponding moves, the Falcons have waived defensive backs Jammie Robinson and Natrone Brooks and defensive lineman Zach Harrison.
Robinson, 25, entered the league as a fifth-round pick of the Panthers in 2023. He spent time on the Falcons’ practice squad last season and appeared in six games, seeing action on 121 special teams snaps.
He has played 27 games with two starts in his career.
Brooks, 26, has spent the past three seasons with the Falcons. He played all 17 games last season and has played 26 games, with one start, in his career.
He has 15 tackles and three passes defensed.
Harrison, 25, was a third-round pick of the Falcons in the 2023 draft. He has appeared in 40 games with eight starts in his career, 81 tackles, 8.5 sacks, 11 quarterback hits and four passes defensed.
The Falcons have been assigned three players through the waiver system after teams reduced their rosters to 53 players.
Via the transaction wire, Atlanta claimed linebacker Yasir Abdullah, linebacker Jared Ivey, and offensive tackle Cameron Williams.
Abdullah was waived by the Jaguars, Ivey by the Seahawks, and Williams by the Eagles.
Of the three players, Abdullah has the most pro experience. He’s appeared in 29 career games with three starts, playing 10 contests for Jacksonville last year. Most of his playing time has come on special teams.
Ivey has appeared in two career games and Williams has appeared in one.
When the Falcons drafted defensive end Bralen Trice in the third round in 2024, they thought he had a bright future. Instead, he never played in a regular-season game for them.
Trice was among the Falcons’ roster cuts on Sunday, the end of a highly disappointing two years in Atlanta.
The 25-year-old Trice tore his ACL in his first preseason game, missed his entire rookie year, and then aggravated the same knee in 2025 and never played that year either.
Trice was a two-time first-team All-Pac-12 selection at Washington, and a two-time bowl game MVP. He wasn’t necessarily a bad pick at the time the Falcons chose him, but he turned into a rare third-round pick who never got on the field for the team that drafted him.
