Falcons Sign Linebacker, Cut Punter To Kick Off Week 17 vs. Bears
The Atlanta Falcons kicked off their preparations for Week 17's game against the Chicago Bears with two roster moves on Tuesday.
The first of said moves was signing linebacker Frank Ginda to their practice squad, again. Ginda, a 26-year-old hailing from San Jose, California, has been on and off the Falcons' practice squad all season, although he has only seen the field in the preseason.
Frank Ginda
Despite being a part of four different NFL teams, Ginda has yet to appear in a regular-season game. However, his contributions outside the NFL are much more notable. He led the NCAA with 173 total tackles in 2017 at San Jose State, and he was the USFL Defensive Player of the Year with the Michigan Panthers earlier this year.
With every addition must come a corresponding subtraction, and in this case, that subtraction came in the Falcons releasing punter Pat O'Donnell. Atlanta signed O'Donnell, 32, in late October as Bradley Pinion was dealing with an injury. Pinion returned for the Falcons' next game against the Tennessee Titans, though, which sent O'Donnell back down to the practice squad.
In his nine prior NFL seasons with the Bears and the Green Bay Packers, O'Donnell averaged 45.1 yards per punt.
Notably, this set of moves essentially undoes one the Falcons made on Friday, when they signed O'Donnell to the practice squad while releasing Ginda.
The Falcons will take the field next on Sunday, needing a win over the Bears to stay alive in the playoff race.
