The Atlanta Falcons have placed Lorenzo Carter on injured reserve, marking a rapid succession from “Carter seems to be playing fewer snaps in Week 6” to “Carter didn’t practice, odd” to “Carter has a concussion, per the team” to “Carter’s on IR.”
We can only guess what happened over the past week to get us to this point, but the upshot is that Carter will be on the shelf for at least four weeks, which opens up a huge hole in the team’s outside linebacker group. Carter had not played well by his standards to this point in the season, struggling in run defense and coverage to a surprising degree for a reliable player in those two facets, but until last week he had played at least half the defensive snaps every single game.