Roster cuts are due for the entire league tomorrow at 4 p.m., but the Falcons are already making moves. Over the weekend, the club announced a handful of cuts, including 2021 third-round pick Jalen Mayfield, on Saturday.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise to Falcons fans. The writing was on the wall for the Michigan product. After turning in one of the worst rookie seasons in recent memory, Mayfield was sidelined for all of 2022 with a back injury.
At first, the hope was he could kick inside to guard from his collegiate tackle position, but the experiment failed in spectacular fashion. He started all 16 games in 2021 and was regularly showcased for his lowlights. Some went as far as dubbing him the worst lineman in the league.
As stated before, he was unavailable for all of last season, but nobody expected him to come into 2023 as a new player. There were some who had hoped a switch back to tackle would change this; however, this offseason didn’t net any different results.
For much of training camp and preseason, Mayfield worked with the third-team offense while guys like Joshua Miles and Tyler Vrabel were on the second-team offensive line — both of whom weren’t impressive. He looked pitiful in pass preotection against backups, which practically cemented his fate.
After just two seasons, the Falcons are rectifying an egregious mistake. Not many were fond of the selection originally, and now, it’s clear the club sees it the same way. There’s a chance he catches on somewhere else, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s heading out of the league.
The Falcons also announced the release of Bless Austin, Justin Ellis, and Delontae Scott on Saturday. The rest of the roster cuts are due in about 24 hours, so there will be many more announcements coming.
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