Storm Norton spent the past six months with the Saints, signing with the team in March and ending up on its practice squad. But an intra-NFC South transaction will send him to New Orleans’ top rival.
The Falcons are signing Norton off the Saints’ P-squad, according to NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo. Atlanta will be the veteran tackle’s sixth NFL destination. He is best known for a Chargers tenure that spanned from 2020-22.
Because they are poaching Norton off another team’s practice squad, the Falcons must keep the seventh-year blocker on their active roster for at least three weeks. Norton spent the past three seasons on the Chargers’ 53-man roster, working as a starter for most of the 2021 campaign. Norton, 28, started 15 games for the Bolts that year, beating out Trey Pipkins for the team’s right tackle job. Pipkins, however, won the following year’s competition to lead Norton to a backup role. The Chargers let Norton walk in free agency this offseason, re-signing Pipkins on a three-year, $21.75MM deal.
Norton, a 2017 UDFA, will join a Falcons team housing entrenched starters at tackle — in Jake Matthews and Kaleb McGary — and one that rosters Isaiah Prince as its swingman. Prince, however, was inactive for the Falcons’ Week 3 game against the Lions.
A Toledo alum, Norton has journeyed to Detroit, Arizona, Minnesota, Los Angeles and New Orleans over the first seven years of his career. He only played in one game over his first three seasons — a 2018 cameo with the Vikings — but worked his way up the ladder in L.A. Norton will now have a chance to make an impression as a Falcons backup.
