A former Clemson wide receiver has been released by this NFL team.
The Atlanta Falcons released Ray-Ray McCloud on Tuesday.
McCloud did not play in the Falcons’ last two games against the Buffalo Bills in Week 6 and the San Francisco 49ers in Week 7. He was a healthy scratch for both contests.
McCloud was sent home ahead of the Week 7 matchup, according to Falcons head coach Raheem Morris, who called it a football decision.
Morris said McCloud being sent home wasn’t a disciplinary action, nor was it related to the Falcons’ recent firing of wide receivers coach Ike Hilliard, who also worked with McCloud with the Pittsburgh Steelers from 2020-21.
“I sent him home,” Morris said, via the team’s website on Oct. 17. “An excused absence. We are working through some things that are private with the young man, and we will get those things figured out. This is between Ray-Ray, the organization and us. . . . I wouldn’t say it is a disciplinary thing. More a football thing with something we have to get straightened out.”
McCloud signed with the Falcons before the 2024 season after spending the 2022 and 2023 seasons with the 49ers. Prior to that, the 5-foot-9, 185-pounder had stints with the Steelers (2020-21), Bills (2019-20) and Panthers (2019). He began his NFL career with the Bills in 2018 after being selected by the franchise in the sixth round of the 2018 NFL Draft.
In the Falcons’ first four games this season, McCloud had six catches for 64 yards. He also returned two punts and four kicks on special teams.
Entering the 2025 campaign, McCloud had accumulated 152 receptions for 1,454 yards and two touchdowns in 94 games over the first seven years of his NFL career (2018-24), to go with 271 yards and another touchdown on 25 career carries, as well as 1,326 yards on 138 career punt returns and 2,799 yards on 122 career kickoff returns.
–Cory Knowlton-Imagn Images