Atlanta tinkers with its cornerback depth, replacing a rookie with a veteran hoping to make a splash.
The Atlanta Falcons will be making roster moves all summer, always restlessly swapping out a player at the bottom of the roster for another one they become intrigued by. Sometimes that leads to players landing on the team and making a splash and more often it does not, but here in the days before training camp it’s a worthwhile exercise to take a longer look at interesting options.
The latest beneficiary of a move is cornerback Harrison Hand, who signed with the Falcons on Tuesday. In a corresponding move, the Falcons released undrafted free agent cornerback Anthony Sao, one of several corners who joined the team after the draft hoping to snag a spot at the bottom of the 53 man roster this summer. We’ll wish Sao well wherever he lands.
Hand, meanwhile, will compete in an extremely crowded cornerback group with the hope that his experience and talent will win the day with this coaching staff. A 2020 third day pick for the Vikings, Hand has appeared in 27 games with two starts, and his career highlight to this point was probably intercepting Drew Brees back in 2020. Hand last played in a regular season game back in 2022.
He’s logged time on special teams in his career and certainly has shown he can hold his own in coverage during limited opportunities, so an impressive summer could help Hand find his way onto the team’s practice squad or maybe one final roster slot.
Obviously there’s a long road to go for him, which has a lot to do with the sheer number of solid options vying for spots on the roster, but we’ll give Hand a warm welcome and see what he can do when training camp rolls around next month.