FLOWERY BRANCH — It was the last practice for 54 players as the Falcons and Jaguars each must cut their roster to 53 after their exhibition game set for 3 p.m. Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The roster deadline is 4 p.m. Tuesday.
“It’s hard,” Jacksonville coach Doug Pederson said. “It’s the hardest part of our business. ... I was one of those guys. I was released six different times.”
As a player, Pederson looked forward to the final exhibition game. He played 10 seasons with Miami, Green Bay, Cleveland and Philadelphia. His claims to fame as a player were backing up Brett Favre in Green Bay and helping Don Shula win his 325th game as a coach.
“It meant a lot to me when I played,” Pederson said. “That’s my message to the guys that are (on the bubble). Because guys can get opportunities. ... I don’t want to say it’s the end of the road because there are 31 (other) teams looking at these rosters.”
Pederson wants his players to keep playing hard.
“Put your best foot forward,” Pederson said. “It may not be with the Jaguars. It may be somewhere else. That’s the encouraging part for me. The mitigating factor is to allow them to go out and play, do their job. They are trying to make our team, but other teams are going to be looking.”
NFL practice-squad sizes were increased during the pandemic and will remain at 16 players.
“You have to release them for a period of time and hope that you can get them back,” Pederson said. “That’s the nature of the beast. Every team is going to go, ‘Man, we got this last five to eight guys that we definitely like.’
“A bunch of teams are looking at them, too. It’s tough. I hope that they get picked up. I’d love to keep them, but I hope they get on an active roster somewhere or on to a practice squad somewhere. That means they did enough to warrant a job.”
Both coaches were pleased with how the two joint practices went.
“I think you saw it (Wednesday),” Pederson said. “There (was) some really good work being done. Some really good collisions. All of the things you want from a practice, and we didn’t have all of the extracurriculars. ... I’ve learned from the first two that I’ve been a part of. You learn from that. I think the Falcons learned from last week with the Jets. They’ve been really good for us.”
Falcons coach Arthur Smith concurred with Pederson’s assessment of the practices.
“It was awesome,” Smith said. “It was what a real practice looks like. Two professional staffs and teams trying to get better and understanding the objective out there. We had a good situation that worked. I have to thank Doug, his staff and the Jacksonville players. It was awesome.”
The Falcons had eight penalties called on them in the exhibition opener against Detroit. Five were accepted. They had 13 penalties for 121 yards against the Jets on Monday night.
The Falcons had NFL crews on hand to help with calls in the joint practices.
“You talk through them because as you’re going through (exhibitions) you know the points of emphasis,” Smith said. “Can they (make) clarifications for certain calls? Like with Ade’s (Ogundeji’s) penalty, right, you’re trying to clarify those and the points of emphasis.”
Ogundeji was called for unnecessary roughness on a sack. “I’m not going to speak on that,” Ogundeji said.
The Falcons had holding, illegal formation and false-start penalties.
“The stuff that I say you can always control, we can control pre-snap,” Smith said. “Logistics. Our operations. The pre-snap penalties, that’s the stuff that drives me insane.”
Penalties of aggression are more acceptable.
“Obviously, you don’t want to have the penalties between the snaps,” Smith said. “The penalties of aggression. We’ve got to clean the holds up. If your hands are outside and you’re clamping down, they are going to call it every time. We have to be better fundamentally. That’s what you coach off of.”
Smith welcomed the referees being on hand.
“Having the referees out here, having Jerome (Boger) and his staff, is awesome because I get to go in there and talk to them,” Smith said. “As you know, they are making calls bang-bang. Then obviously every frame on TV, they slow it down in real time. It’s hard. You just have to have perspective with the operation.”
The big takeaway for the Falcons was that cornerback Dee Alford continued to make plays. He had two interceptions off Jacksonville quarterback Trevor Lawrence, and one would have been a pick-six.
One of the Jacksonville highlights was former Falcons linebacker Foye Oluokun intercepting a Marcus Mariota pass. He signed a three-year, $46.5 million contract, with $28 million guaranteed, in free agency.
“Coach Smith made a joke about return on investment,” Oluokun said. “I might as well make one play if I left here for that much. I like getting my hands on the football.”
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