Falcons Place DB on Injured Reserve, Sign OL in Plethora of Roster Moves

The Atlanta Falcons made changes to their 53-man roster, practice squad and injured reserve.

The Atlanta Falcons placed safety Micah Abernathy on injured reserve with a knee injury Tuesday. / Brett Davis-Imagn Images

The Atlanta Falcons made a quartet of roster moves Tuesday afternoon.

Atlanta signed offensive lineman Matt Hennessy to the 53-man roster, signed defensive back Dane Cruikshank and offensive lineman Coy Cronk to the practice squad and placed defensive back Micah Abernathy on injured reserve, according to a press release.

Hennessy, who started all 17 games at center for the Falcons in 2021, has been on Atlanta's practice squad for each of the past three weeks. He was promoted to the active roster before all three games, though teams are only allowed to promote practice squad players three times in a season.

Thus, Atlanta's three options with Hennessy were to either sign him to the active roster, release him or stash him on the practice squad while being ineligible to play on gamedays.

The Falcons opted for the first -- and the 26-year-old Hennessy, a fourth-round pick by the Falcons' old regime in 2020, gets to stay in Atlanta.

Hennessy will take the roster spot of Abernathy, who suffered a knee injury on punt coverage in the first quarter of Sunday's 38-20 victory over the Carolina Panthers.

Falcons coach Raheem Morris said Monday he expects Abernathy, who played 70% of Atlanta's special teams snaps the first five weeks, to miss a significant amount of time.

Cruikshank's signing comes two weeks after he was released from the practice squadhas. The 6-foot-1, 209-pound Cruikshank was promoted to the active roster and played 14 special teams snaps in the Falcons' 22-21 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 2.

Cronk, an undrafted free agent out of Indiana in 2021, played in three games with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2022. He spent time on the Minnesota Vikings' practice squad this season.

Atlanta (4-2) returns to action at 1 p.m. Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks (3-3) inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium.