Billy Bowman Jr. Inactive in Baffling Falcons Roster Move While Deablo and Pearce Return

The NFL injury report is officially a work of fiction. Atlanta Falcons defensive back Billy Bowman Jr. practiced all week, carried zero injury designations into Sunday, and was still surprisingly announced as inactive right before kickoff against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Getting a clean bill of health on Friday only to get scratched on Sunday is the football equivalent of getting fully dressed for a date and then being told they decided to stay in and wash their hair. It is a baffling roster move for a guy who just fought his way back from a hamstring issue earlier this season.

"Marc Raimondi reported that Bowman practiced this week and carried no injury designation."

Anyone holding a ticket on the Cincinnati Bengals passing attack just got a massive late swing in their favor. Bowman is a crucial piece of the Atlanta Falcons secondary, and pulling him off the board at the last second completely changes the math for anyone trying to handicap this matchup.

The silver lining for Atlanta is that they are getting some serious reinforcements in the front seven. Linebacker Divine Deablo is officially active after dealing with a forearm injury that knocked him out of their Week 7 clash with the San Francisco 49ers.

Getting the veteran back is massive for defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich. Deablo wears the green dot and signed a two-year, $14 million deal to be the sideline-to-sideline eraser this defense desperately needed.

The Falcons are also activating defensive end James Pearce Jr. today. The second-year edge rusher racked up 10.5 sacks as a rookie last year, and getting him back on the field gives Atlanta a legitimate game-wrecking presence up front.

We will have to wait for the postgame press conference to find out if Bowman suffered a pregame setback or if this was a straight-up coaching decision. Until then, the Falcons defense will have to figure out how to slow down the Bengals without one of their top cover guys.