One name that's hardly been uttered for the Atlanta Falcons this summer is Natrone Brooks. Brooks quietly changed positions from cornerback to safety during OTAs, thinking that would be his saving grace when it came down to roster cuts, but the transition hasn't exactly gone according to plan.
And now that roster cuts are less than a week away, it doesn't appear that his chances of sticking around are particularly strong. He's consistently been working with the reserves while DeMarcco Hellams has got the first-team reps in the time that Jessie Bates III was on the shelf due to injury.
However, ESPN's Marc Raimondi seems to be one of the only people expressing be there's a chance Brooks sticks around. While going over his most recent 53-man roster prediction, Raimondi penciled in five safeties on his Week 1 roster... a projection that included Natrone Brooks making the roster.
"Brooks and Brown can both also play cornerback, adding some versatility to the secondary,". Raimondi wrote.
One Falcons writer thinks Natrone Brooks' roster chances are still alive
Natrone Brooks has been labeled good as gone for a while now, so it's interesting that Marc Raimondi, one of the most respected Falcons beat reporters in the business, doesn't see it that way. He thinks keeping him around to roster five safeties is more important than holding on to a sixth wide receiver.
Here's the thing though: for all of the positions where the Falcons can have position battles and roster dilemmas, safety is not one of them. They have arguably the NFL's best safety duo in Jessie Bates and Xavier Watts, and then Hellams and Sydney Brown are there to take the other two spots.
Here's where Raimondi's logic confuses me what exactly is the rationale in rostering five safeties? Instead, the Dirty Birds could keep all four quarterbacks on the roster, or a fourth tight end or an extra linebacker. Those are positions where this team isn't exactly blessed with game-changing depth.
The other thing that doesn't make sense is why Atlanta would want to roster both Brooks and Brown. Yes, they both are versatile enough to play cornerback, but this isn't a battle. The latter has been one of the standouts of the summer, and is someone the Falcons traded for. There's no way he gets cut.
Sure, the 26-year-old has the versatility to play cornerback and safety, as well as being a gunner on special teams, but what else does he offer this team? C.J. Henderson, Clark Phillips III, and Cobee Bryant are better corners than him and both Brown and Hellams are more productive safeties.
There haven't been a lot of people expressing belief in Natrone Brooks' roster hopes this summer, especially since he missed some time due to injury. However, he may have gotten his most important endorsement yet right as roster cuts loom--and that has to count for something.
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