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Falcons LB Sean Weatherspoon will miss 2014 season to torn Achilles tendon

It's been tough for Sean Weatherspoon to stay healthy. (John Bazemore/AP) The Atlanta Falcons hoped to get bigger and tougher on defense through free agency
Doug Farrar|
Falcons LB Sean Weatherspoon will miss 2014 season to torn Achilles tendon
Falcons LB Sean Weatherspoon will miss 2014 season to torn Achilles tendon

It's been tough for Sean Weatherspoon to stay healthy. (John Bazemore/AP)

The Atlanta Falcons hoped to get bigger and tougher on defense through free agency and the 2014 draft, but they lost a key cog in that effort for the entire season on Tuesday. Linebacker Sean Weatherspoon, the team's first-round pick in 2010, suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon during the team's practice. The injury will cause Weatherspoon to miss the 2014 campaign.

"We sent Sean to the doctor for some additional testing and evaluation and unfortunately the results showed that he ruptured his Achilles tendon," coach Mike Smith said in a team statement. "Sean had been working extremely hard to get back on the field, but regrettably he will miss the entire 2014 season. He will have a procedure done in the near future and we expect him to make a full recovery."

Weatherspoon has been a real difference-maker for the Falcons when healthy, but that hasn't been too often of late -- he was placed on the short-term injury list in 2013 after he suffered a Lisfranc (foot) injury in Week 2. He also suffered a knee injury, which ended his season after just seven games, and he had been limited in the team's current OTAs as he was recovering from the knee injury. Weatherspoon was on the side of the field, working with team staff, when the injury occurred.

Weatherspoon has played all 16 games in just one NFL season -- 2011 -- and has started 41 of a possible 64 regular-season games. In that season, he had 86 tackles and eight passes defensed. In 2013, he amassed 26 tackles and a 71-yard interception return for a touchdown. But according to Pro Football Focus' charting, he also missed 11 tackles, and allowed 198 passing yards on 23 catches and 33 targets.

Weatherspoon is in the last year of the $14 million rookie contract he signed in July, 2010. He'll be 27 years old on Dec. 29, and his future in the NFL doesn't look too bright.

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Doug Farrar
DOUG FARRAR

SI.com contributing NFL writer and Seattle resident Doug Farrar started writing about football locally in 2002, and became Football Outsiders' West Coast NFL guy in 2006. He was fascinated by FO's idea to combine Bill James with Dr. Z, and wrote for the site for six years. He wrote a game-tape column called "Cover-2" for a number of years, and contributed to six editions of "Pro Football Prospectus" and the "Football Outsiders Almanac." In 2009,  Doug was invited to join Yahoo Sports' NFL team, and covered Senior Bowls, scouting combines, Super Bowls, and all sorts of other things for Yahoo Sports and the Shutdown Corner blog through June, 2013. Doug received the proverbial offer he couldn't refuse from SI.com in 2013, and that was that. Doug has also written for the Seattle Times, the Washington Post, the New York Sun, FOX Sports, ESPN.com, and ESPN The Magazine.  He also makes regular appearances on several local and national radio shows, and has hosted several podcasts over the years. He counts Dan Jenkins, Thomas Boswell, Frank Deford, Ralph Wiley, Peter King, and Bill Simmons as the writers who made him want to do this for a living. In his rare off-time, Doug can be found reading, hiking, working out, searching for new Hendrix, Who, and MC5 bootlegs, and wondering if the Mariners will ever be good again.

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