The Atlanta Falcons released veteran quarterback Chris Redman on Tuesday and signed Luke McCown, who spent the past three years with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
McCown worked with current Falcons offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter, who was an assistant in Jacksonville. In four games last season, McCown was 30 of 56 for 296 yards with no touchdowns and four interceptions last year.
McCown had signed with the New Orleans Saints this preseason but was cut on Monday when rosters were trimmed to 75 players. His most significant action came in Week 2 against the Patriots, when McCown was 9 of 16 for 86 yards. McCown, a fourth-round pick of the Browns in 2004, spent two years with the Buccaneers before playing in Jacksonville.
Redman, 35, saw spot action throughout the Falcons’ first three exhibition games, but he did little to merit a roster spot. His best game came in week two of the preseason against Cincinnati when he threw for 105 yards on 10-of-15 passing and an interception. Redman had spent the last three seasons with Atlanta.
His departure, coupled with the acquisition of McCown -- who’ll have one preseason game to learn the offense -- essentially locks rookie free agent Dominique Davis into the backup QB role behind Matt Ryan. Davis, who starred at East Carolina after transferring from Boston College, has had a stellar preseason.
Coach Mike Smith said the team hasn’t decided how many quarterbacks it will carry.
“In terms of putting your active roster together, it is so fluid in the last five or six days of training camp and you try to massage it based on a number of factors,” Smith said to Chris Viviamore of The Atlanta Journal Constitution. “No roster since we’ve been here has been the same in terms of the number of players we are going to have at each position.”
On-going position battles: RG Garrett Reynolds has not won the starting spot yet, coach Smith told The Atlanta Journal Constitution. Even though Reynolds played the majority of his snaps with the first team, rookie G Peter Konz is still in the mix. Konz played a few series with the starters last Friday in the third preseason game but wasn’t thrilled with his performance. The rookie surrendered a sack against the Dolphins.
Smith also suggested that the competition for starting cornerback is still fluid meaning that Thursday’s game vs. Jacksonville could separate veterans Dunta Robinson, Asante Samuel and Brent Grimes. Robinson was listed as the starting right cornerback while Grimes earned the nod on the left side. Samuel has been vocal this preseason about wanting to play on the left side. All three were announced as starters for last week’s exhibition game.
Feisty Falcons: The Falcons apparently forgot Smith’s No. 1 rule of preseason is to be as healthy as possible heading into the season opener. Two fights broke out and numerous hard hits were levied at Monday’s practice -- their last padded practice of the preseason.
After a fight involving numerous players erupted, Smith called the players into a circle and reminded them of the top priority.
“I just needed to politely remind them of the number one goal of our training camp is to make sure that we get everybody to the first game healthy,” he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I love their energy. I love their enthusiasm. I love their passion. But it was just something that I needed to remind them about.”
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