New Atlanta Falcons signings fulfills depth needs on roster

Recent moves by the Atlanta Falcons were better than they appear.

The Atlanta Falcons recent free agent singings will bring needed depth and skills to the tight end and safety positions.

The Atlanta Falcons recently signed veteran tight end Lee Smith and veteran safety Erik Harris this week, two guys who will add depth and stability to their respective positions.

Let’s not kid anyone here, these signings are not your crowd-pleasing, big-name pickups like Todd Gurley last season. Neither one of these guys will make a game-changing or eye-popping impact on the team, nor will they become household names.

That’s not why they were signed though. Both Smith and Harris were signed because they fill a need on the Atlanta Falcons at a cheap price.

Smith, the former Buffalo Bill, New England Patriot, and Oakland Raider (at the time it was Oakland, not Las Vegas), will not impress anyone with his pass-catching ability.

He’s only accumulated 64 catches for 458 yards and 10 touchdowns since his first season in 2011. The Atlanta Falcons knew what they were getting when they traded a seventh-round pick for him, and one can assume they didn’t care about his lack of pass-catching ability.

What they care about is his blocking talents and the depth he adds.

Standing at 6’6″ and weighing 265 pounds, he is the perfect size to make an impact along the offensive line, which is exactly what he has done throughout his career. He proved to be an important part of the blocking success for the Bills last season and should do the same for the Atlanta Falcons, a team that desperately needs a good blocker, especially with the two-tight end system Arthur Smith likes to implement.

Hayden Hurst the pass catcher and Smith the blocker may not be a bad duo.

The addition of safety Erik Harris is certainly good news for a team with little to no depth in the defensive secondary at the moment. He won’t blow you away with his talent, but he fulfills the biggest need of getting bodies in the secondary who can play and have experience.

Harris likely won’t be a starter but could serve as a veteran presence and mentor. A very concerning aspect of Harris’s game last season is his knack for missing tackles, which is certainly worrying for a guy at the safety position.

He missed 18 percent of possible tackle situations, which is obviously not great.

The best-case scenario with Harris is he serves as a backup to add depth while helping the hopefully future star draftees in the secondary grow accustomed to the game and locker room.

Again, these signings won’t blow anyone away or get the fan base excited for next season, but at least the Atlanta Falcons aren’t completely silent and doing nothing. They know they lack depth at many positions and have started to fix this issue.

The NFL Draft is where we as fans of the team can get excited about the future stars the Atlanta Falcons may draft.