The Atlanta Falcons shook up their roster a bit Tuesday evening, but it wasn’t anything as major as when they released defensive end Ray Edwards on Monday night.
They had Edwards’ roster spot to work with and another came available as the Falcons placed reserve tight end Tommy Gallarda on injured reserve.
To fill those two spots, the Falcons signed wide receiver Tim Toone and promoted tight end Chase Coffman from the practice squad. They also signed tight end Andrew Szczerba to the practice squad.
Toone was with the Falcons in the preseason but was waived-injured on Sept. 6. Toone’s presence possibly could help free up wide receiver Harry Douglas to handle punt returns. Dominique Franks has been doing that without much success and Douglas has had some past success on punt returns. Although Toone has never played in a regular-season NFL game, it also is possible the Falcons consider him as a punt returner. Toone earned the Mr. Irrelevant title by being the last player chosen in the 2010 draft and had some long punt returns in college.
The loss of Gallarda hurts because he was often used as the team’s blocking tight end. Starter Tony Gonzalez doesn’t get asked to do a lot of blocking, so Coffman will be asked to share blocking duties with backup Michael Palmer.
