Why Ray-Ray McCloud isn't playing for Falcons on Monday Night Football vs. Bills

Billy Heyen

Why Ray-Ray McCloud isn't playing for Falcons on Monday Night Football vs. Bills image

The Atlanta Falcons have some explaining to do.

Ray-Ray McCloud wasn't on the injury report, but he's inactive for Monday Night Football vs. the Buffalo Bills in Week 6.

The Falcons will be especially shorthanded at wide receiver since Darnell Mooney was already a known absence.

MORE: Spencer Rattler's fall from No. 1 pick to 5th round has a happy ending

Why isn't Ray-Ray McCloud playing on Monday Night Football?

The Falcons made McCloud a healthy scratch, a total surprise.

"In a surprise turn, the Falcons also chose to keep fellow receiver Ray-Ray McCloud inactive against the Buffalo Bills," Tori McElhaney of AtlantaFalcons.com wrote on Monday night when inactives were released. "McCloud is not dealing with an injury, and is considered a healthy scratch for Atlanta,"

McCloud, when active, is the Falcons' No. 3 WR. Drake London and the aforementioned Mooney slot ahead of him on the depth chart.

Mooney remains out with a hamstring injury, and now McCloud isn't playing either.

MORE: What Jaxson Dart does next is critical to Giants' future

Falcons' WR depth chart

With Mooney and McCloud out, this is how the Falcons' WR depth chart looks:

  1. Drake London
  2. Casey Washington
  3. KhaDarel Hodge
  4. Jamal Agnew

Hodge and Agnew's usage likely depends on specific personnel groupings and formations.

London could see 15 targets on Monday night.

More NFL News:

Billy Heyen

Billy Heyen is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He is a 2019 graduate of Syracuse University who has written about many sports and fantasy sports for The Sporting News. Sports reporting work has also appeared in a number of newspapers, including the Sandusky Register and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle