Huff, Jordan released

By: T. Love

The roster trimming continues as the Atlanta Falcons have released linebacker Orlando Huff and offensive tackle Leander Jordan.

Huff, a seven-year veteran, signed with the Falcons in June after playing the previous two seasons with the Arizona Cardinals. Huff’s ability to play all three linebacker positions and special teams prowess were his selling points. Well, after about two months with the Falcons he is gone. Another great signing by our terrific GM Rich McKay. I’ll talk about him later.

On a positive note for Mr. McKay, the drafting of South Florida’s Stephen Nicholas in the fourth round made Huff expendable. Nicholas is currently second on the team in tackles with nine behind fellow rookie Daren Stone. Maybe I shouldn’t hate on McKay so much, but this is just the preseason.

Also, the emergence of undrafted free agent Tony Taylor from Georgia could also be a reason for Huff being handed his walking papers. Taylor is currently listed as second behind Keith Brooking at the middle linebacker position.

The knock on Taylor coming out of college was his size. Brooking is getting a bit long in the tooth and I seem to remember the guy he replaced was knocked for being a little small as well. A football player is a football player and Taylor is that guy. It also helps that Atlanta’s linebacker coach is Brian Van Gorder, who coached Taylor for a while in Athens.

Jordan originally signed with the Falcons on May 8 and was brought in to bring more competition to the tackle position. Obviously he did not bring much competition. The starting offensive line is set and Jordan was battling for a backup position.

Good luck to him as well as Huff in the future.

The Falcons have two preseason games remaining and a couple more people will be handed pink slips as the team needs to trim the roster down to 53 men.