Jawaan Taylor has missed all of Atlanta Falcons training camp to date. He's been sidelined since OTAs due to a lingering elbow injury, but after Kevin Stefanski revealed he would be out there for Monday's practice, he was activated from the reserve/PUP list where he spent most of the summer.
Since Taylor was cleared to practice, the Falcons got their starting right tackle back, which means that the mess of a right tackle competition they were set to embark on is officially over. No more first-team reps for Michael Jerrell, Brandon Walton,or Ethan Onianwa--they'll duke it out for depth roles.
Since Atlanta signed Cameron Sample earlier in the day, Taylor's activation meant that someone would have to be released. And in a corresponding move, the Falcons released long snapper Phil Florenzo and 2025 seventh-round pick Jack Nelson after he failed to make waves this training camp.
The Atlanta Falcons just released 2025 seventh-round pick Jack Nelson
The fact of the matter is that at 6-foot-7 and 314 pounds, Nelson had the size and the upside to do damage in Bill Callahan's system. That is one massive human being, and for a team looking to get more physical in the trenches, you'd think that would give him merit to stick around, but clearly not.
Even when the 24-year-old was healthy, he was buried enough on the depth chart to be a healthy scratch. The Dirty Birds were desperate for right tackle play, and they went with Elijah Wilkinson (who was borderline unplayable) and likely would've went with Jerrell over him if it came down to it.
The Falcons had high hopes for him, but unfortunately, it never amounted to much. He appeared in 10 games and played just four offensive snaps as a rookie, so it's not like he ever gave a new regime a real reason to keep him around. Not to mention, he wasn't someone that Kevin Stefanski brought in.
He was one of the final remnants of the Terry Fontenot era in Atlanta, and Stefanski and Ian Cunningham have preferred to bring in their own guys. So when they took Onianwa with their final pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, it essentially confirmed that Nelson didn't have a roster spot anymore.
The Wisconsin product would've been an intriguing gamble, but with the way Onianwa has risen up the depth chart, the deck was always stacked against him. And unfortunately, because of the Jawaan Taylor injury, the Falcons had no choice but to move on from Jack Nelson, the one blemish from their elite 2025 Draft class
In all likelihood, Jack Nelson will now try to revive his career and land elsewhere before the summer ends.
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