The Atlanta Falcons must sure love LaRoy Reynolds and his special teams ability. NFL teams now have the option to place two players on short-term injured reserve per season, meaning they can come back after being out for eight games. This way, teams don’t burn up a roster spot on a star player who will be out for an extended period of time.

LaRoy Reynolds, who has been one of the team’s better special teams players, is cleared for practice and can return in week 9, per the team.

LaRoy Reynolds is set to return to practice this week.



STORY - https://t.co/kNV3Otb5ea pic.twitter.com/1bb1ut06Ei — Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) October 18, 2017

The Falcons get a few weeks to come up with the extra roster spot (um... sorry to either Jermaine Grace or Jordan Tripp), while Reynolds gets back up to game speed after going down in preseason with a chest injury.

Reynolds is a nice asset on special teams, but is unlikely to see much work on defense. He’s noticeably slower than Atlanta’s freaky fast linebackers, but is still a nice player to get back this far into the season.