The Atlanta Falcons have cut Ray-Ray McCloud, per the team. This concludes a brief and deeply confusing saga that saw McCloud go from a 2024 career year to light involvement in the offense early in 2025 to not suiting up for the team the past two weeks. Now he’ll be looking for a new home.
We still don’t know what happened here, and I’m not going to speculate. Raheem Morris alluded to football-related issues rather than disciplinary ones, but we don’t have any concrete information on what went on between
McCloud and the team that had him parked and now released. I just hope, above all, that McCloud is okay.
This year, McCloud has six catches for 64 yards on 14 targets, plus four kick returns for 91 yards and a pair of punt returns for no gain. Last year, he was a monster over the middle of the field for Kirk Cousins and then Michael Penix Jr., putting together career-best marks with 62 catches, 686 yards, and a touchdown. He also handled 34 kicks and punts a year ago; the combination of the large role on offense and important one on special teams makes it all the more striking that he’s gone fewer than eight weeks into the 2025 season.
It’s the second major change this year for Atlanta that concerns their receiver group. The first was the firing of wide receivers coach Ike Hilliard after the embarrassing 30-0 defeat at the hands of the Carolina Panthers, which led to T.J. Yates taking over his old receivers coach mantle again. Now the third receiver is gone, too.
The Falcons now have real needs at both receiver and returner. Casey Washington and David Sills V have been the primary fill-in options for Atlanta with McCloud unavailable, but Sills has yet to be targeted and Washington has just one catch for 17 yards on three targets over the past two weeks. While McCloud’s so-so blocking and sometimes chaotic decision-making were frustrating, the team could still use a reliable third receiver and don’t currently have one; Washington has at least been an asset as a blocker.
Returner is in a decent spot if Jamal Agnew is healthy and the team trust Natrone Brooks to pitch in, which seems to be the case based on usage the past couple of weeks. Still, the Falcons could use a proven fallback plan there, given that McCloud is now gone and Agnew has suffered a spate of injuries in recent years, including earlier in the 2025 season.
We’ll wish McCloud well wherever he ends up next, and see how the Falcons address the position and fill their open roster spot with Miami on deck.
