via Atlanta United
Atlanta United players have arrived for preseason after a long offseason of like two weeks. Before they start playing matches, I wanted to take a look at the current roster and answer two questions: How did their 2024 go and what could their 2025 look like?
We already talked about the forwards and midfielders. We’re gonna keep going with the fullbacks. We’ll keep rolling throughout the week or until something more interesting happens.
Something to note here immediately is that this group feels very, very thin. It would have already felt thin without Brooks Lennon’s long-term injury. Right now, the only backup for Pedro Amador and Ronald Hernández with significant experience at fullback has next to zero experience at the MLS level. There is a chance that Noah Cobb may end up as a part of this group at some point this season—Garth Lagerwey went out of his way to mention this in a press conference—and there is a chance that Atlanta adds another fullback before the season.
The thing is though, you can’t expect anyone of quality to come in. Barring another miracle unicorn signing like Amador’s, a right back who doesn’t hurt your salary cap just isn’t going to be an effective player. And, right now, Atlanta doesn’t have a whole lot of room on its senior roster. Not with two DPs set to come in.
To lay it out, Atlanta currently has 16 players on its senior roster1. Lagerwey has said in the past he typically likes to carry 18, two short of the 20 senior roster spots allotted. The idea is to pay more per player rather than add players for the sake of it. With two spots for DPs, Atlanta is already at 18.
Obviously, they could just choose to break their own rule here and add a 19th senior roster player or they could try their luck with another supplemental guy. Or maybe this is an opportunity to use one of your two (!) buyouts on a player like Luis Abram, take the extra cap space, roll with Noah Cobb and Efrain Morales as your backup CBs, and add a more proven option at fullback.
Whatever option they go with, they probably do need to try *something.* Edwards is totally unproven, Cobb at fullback is a fun idea in theory but we have no idea what it looks like in practice and going into the year relying on Hernández and an injured Lennon to carry the load at right back feels a bit too volatile. Could be totally manageable. Could be a clear weakness that gets exploited. Oh, and god forbid, but what if Amador gets injured?
My gut call is that I’d expect Atlanta to make a move at some point in the near future. Possibly through a trade since Atlanta can throw cash around in MLS now2 and still have a metric ton of GAM to utilize if they feel like it.
For now though, here’s who’s left.
Pedro Amador | End of 2025 season age: 26 | 2024 g+/96: 0.09 (!!) in 915 minutes, | Probable cap hit: $242.6k (LOL) | Contract length: 2026, Option for 2027
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