Atlanta Falcons: Where in the heck was Russell Gage on Sunday?

The Atlanta Falcons were caught off guard when Calvin Ridley ended up not being able to suit up and play against the Carolina Panthers, and his subsequent announcement that he would be stepping away from football for an undisclosed period of time.

You cannot blame Ridley, as his mental health is exponentially more important than him being on the field, but with his loss, it requires other players to step up in his absence, guys like Russell Gage.

Falcons new top receiver was an afterthought in the team’s loss to the Panthers

Russell Gage is the Atlanta Falcons’ new top wide receiver with Ridley being out, which requires him to make a significant impact in each game he plays—thus far, he has done the exact opposite.

Watching the Falcons and Panthers game, it would have been easy to forget that Russell Gage existed, to be honest. He has missed significant time due to injury and even when he has played, it has not been the same type of play we were used to last season.

Russell Gage finished the week seven game with a total of 36 snaps (68% of the total offensive snaps) and did not record a single target, catch, or yard.

This is tied with the most percentage of offensive snaps he has played this year—tying his week one performance against the Eagles when he coincidentally had two targets, zero catches, and zero yards.

From everything we have seen from Gage this season, he should not be higher than third on the depth chart, he simply is not performing. He literally did nothing against the Panthers outside of the normal blocking that receivers participate in.

The Atlanta Falcons have a serious problem at receiver—especially now with Calvin Ridley missing an unknown amount of time—the team either needs to find another receiver or say goodbye to the season.