Trades and signings to fix the Atlanta Falcons defen

se after Ricardo Allen’s injury The Atlanta Falcons lost Ricardo Allen to a torn Achilles. The injury is awful with a long recuperation time. Top Falcons defenders are dropping like flies John Cominsky Atlanta Falcons Jersey , and like we saw against the New Orleans Saints, our current personnel can’t stop anything or anyone. We are talking trades, which always come at the cost of draft picks. We don’t want to drop too many picks on one-year rentals, so it may be time to get rid of an underperforming player or two likely in their last year with the team.So lets start off with that.Trade Vic BeasleyThis may definitely feel extreme, but things are clearly not working with the starting defensive end. Something is a bad fit, and a change of scenery is probably best for both the team and player. The Falcons have to be worried about paying Beasley over $12 million next season. If the Falcons need to rotate their roster, this is a great place to start. Add a draft pick and clear future cap space. Beasley may be in more demand by a 3-4 team, especially one with more cap space going forward. Atlanta could potentially net a day 2 pick they could flip for another player to help with this season.Trade for Earl ThomasThe Falcons are terribly thin at safety. Thomas will require a day two pick and a contract extension. I would normally say this move is crazy Cheap John Cominsky Jersey , but Allen has one of the worst injuries for a football player. It may be unlikely he’s ready for the start of next season, and it’s also unlikely he will look like his old self in 2019. It’s the worst case scenario for both Allen and the Falcons. Damontae Kazee is the only thing keeping the Falcons from starting Keith Tandy at safety. If the Falcons can swing a trade for Thomas, Kazee could then rotate with underwhelming Jordan Rodgers and another addition.Sign Eric ReidI think it is mostly accepted that Reid has lost a step since his Pro Bowl 2013 season. However, it seems like most teams have been wary to bring in Reid based on his lawsuit against the NFL. It was just two years ago the 49ers exercised his fifth-year option. He has not lost THAT many steps to still be unemployed at this point of the season, and he may be a hard hitting addition to the strong safety spot. He should sign for veteran minimum. Assuming Atlanta brings in Thomas, the Falcons are back to three starter-worthy safeties.Sign Robert AyersAging, yes, but Ayers is a nice DT/DE that has some versatility and some gas left in the tank. He can better bookend Derrick Shelby and move Brooks Reed to the starting spot across from Takkarist McKinley.Sign John SimonWho? Simon is a 6-foot-2 Keanu Neal Jersey 2019 , 260-pound defensive end who is only 27 and has averaged almost 4 sacks per year the last three seasons with the Colts and Texans. Plug him behind Steven Means on the depth chart at veteran minimum.Sign Junior GaletteJust kidding, things haven’t gotten that desperate. Even though he did have three sacks last year with Washington.Trade for Defensive LinemenThis is where things start getting tricky. Could the Falcons go aggressive and try prying away a top pass rusher from a struggling team, like Chandler Jones from the Arizona Cardinals? Maybe an underperforming DE/DT type like Arik Armstead or Mario Edwards? In retrospect, the Falcons are regretting letting Adrian Clayborn leave. No one has stepped up into his spot. The Falcons could even look into a run stuffer like A’Shawn Robinson from the Detroit Lions. We are just guessing who may be available, but a number are either buried on the depth chart, or like Beasley, seem unlikely to stick around on their team for the long-term. The ResultsA lot depends on how aggressive Thomas Dimitroff and Dan Quinn want to get. Based on the defense’s performance against the Saints, they should be pretty desperate. With a handful of moves Black Keanu Neal Jersey , they can patch up the defense just enough to keep this season going. The cuts are coming in waves at this point, and defensive lineman Brooks Reed is the latest casualty, per Reed’s Instagram account.Reed spent four seasons in Atlanta after being one of the first free agent signings in the Dan Quinn era, back in the 2015 offseason. He was given a five year, $22 million contract with $9 million guaranteed to help bolster Atlanta’s bottom-tier defense.Reed played in 60 games for the Falcons, and started 34 of them. He was signed as a linebacker (which is where he played all 60 of his games in Houston before coming to Atlanta), but was subsequently converted to a defensive end. He started 14 of Atlanta’s 16 games at DE in 2016, and played in all three playoff games during the Super Bowl run.Reed totaled 101 combined tackles Womens Calvin Ridley Jersey , 7.0 sacks, 10 tackles for a loss and 20 QB hits as a Falcon. He took a restructured pay cut to stay with the team in the 2017 offseason, and played in all 16 games (starting eight of them) in 2018.Releasing Reed saves the Falcons $4.5 million in cap space — he was due to account for a $5.44 million cap hit this season, and the release carries with it a $940K dead cap hit.Much thanks to Brooks Reed for his four years of service as an Atlanta Falcon, and best of luck to him moving forward. We’ll always have his great game against the Seattle Seahawks in the 2016 Divisional Round, and his game-winning sack of Mike Glennon in the 2017 season-opener against the Chicago Bears, to look back fondly upon.