Falcons Marquis Spruill out for the year with a torn ACL

The Atlanta Falcons have announced that their fifth round pick, linebacker Marquis Spruill suffered a torn ACL at practice on Wednesday and will miss the 2014 NFL season.  A defense that comes into the season relatively thin loses another linebacker as Sean Witherspoon is also out for the season with a torn Achilles’.  It was unclear how much of a role Spruill would have had defensively, but he was likely going to be a fixture on the Falcons special teams and this hurts them there as well as their overall depth.

Spruill, the rookie from Syracuse was one of the team’s two fifth round picks along with Ricardo Allen in a draft that was heavily invested in trying to secure depth and developmental talent for a team that really needed it, especially on that side of the ball.  He was also one of four linebackers the Falcons drafted to fill out and perform various roles in their newly installed 3-4 scheme.

For the Orange, Spurill was an athletic, rangy linebacker that could help in coverage and might have been able to carve out a nice niche on special teams.  As it is, Spruill is forced to try to rehab as fast as possible so he can make a name for himself next year.

This comes on the heels of the news that Ra’Shede Hagemen, the team’s second round pick and a player that needs to come up big for them this year, had injured his wrist in a fight with teammate Joe Hawley.  Initial reports Hageman has suffered a broken wrist, but the Falcons are disputing that saying there were no broken bones but have not yet detailed the extent of what damage Hageman did, if any.

The Falcons are set to kickoff their preseason against the Miami Dolphins on Friday at home.  Opinions are mixed on how well the Falcons are expected to perform this year as many look at their weapons returning healthy and allowing them to be in contention for a playoff spot while doubters cite questions on defense and depth that were a huge reason for their collapse last year.