The Falcons’ latest waiver claim might not look like a headline move at first glance, but it could end up giving Jeff Ulbrich exactly the kind of flexible piece he likes to work with.
Atlanta claimed linebacker Yasir Abdullah off waivers Monday, and the timing matters. The Falcons are already thin on the edge with James Pearce Jr. suspended for the first eight games of the season, Jalon Walker on injured reserve after tearing his ACL and DeAngelo Malone on the reserve/PUP list. That shortage puts a premium on players who can do more than one job.
Abdullah fits that mold. He brings pass-rush experience, can play in space and contributes heavily on special teams. That makes him a far more intriguing addition than a simple backup linebacker, especially in a defense where Ulbrich has shown he’s willing to move pieces around and test different combinations.
Atlanta is not claiming Abdullah with the expectation that he steps in and becomes a starting edge rusher right away. But the Falcons’ current situation could force Ulbrich to use players in ways that weren’t part of the original plan. Pearce won’t be back until November, Walker is out for the year and the team has already had to adjust its defensive personnel.
That kind of churn is part of what made Kaden Elliss so useful last season, and Ulbrich made it clear how much he asked of him this spring.
"We had asked Kaden to do, I had never been around anything like that before in the past," Ulbrich said this spring. "There were days when he was an outside backer, days when he was a defensive end, days when he was an inside backer, days when he was - in some ways - a nickel."
Abdullah is not a one-man replacement for Elliss, but he does give Ulbrich another option when Atlanta wants to create that same kind of uncertainty for opposing offenses.
And he’s not the only one who fits that approach. Harold Perkins Jr. looks tailor-made for the kind of defensive experimentation Ulbrich prefers, with experience at off-ball linebacker, the edge and over the slot. The Falcons have already said Ulbrich can get creative with Perkins, and the edge injuries make that flexibility even more valuable.
That also makes Abdullah more interesting than simply asking JD Bertrand to absorb a bigger workload. Atlanta doesn’t need to lock Abdullah into one role.
The better move is to figure out what he does best and build from there. That’s the kind of player Ulbrich tends to use, and the Falcons’ depth issues may give him every reason to keep experimenting.
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