NFL star brutally cut from team just days after being sent home in mysterious circumstances

The Atlanta Falcons have released wide receiver Ray-Ray McCloud III just days after the team sent him home from their facility last week.

McCloud was kicked out of the team's training complex under mysterious circumstances - with little clarity offered by head coach Raheem Morris at the time.

The wideout also did not play for the Falcons this past Sunday.

Speaking to reporters last Friday, Morris addressed the decision to send McCloud home.

'I sent him home. An excused absence. We are working through some things that are private with the young man, and we will get those things figured out,' Morris told the media.

'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.'

Morris also said that McCloud's issue did not have to deal 'at all' with the firing of former Falcons receivers coach Ike Hilliard. 

McCloud and Hilliard worked together in the 2020 and 2021 seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers before the two re-united with the Falcons in 2024.

The 29-year-old was a star pass catcher at Clemson - where he won a national title in 2016.

McCloud was selected 187th overall in the sixth round of the 2018 NFL Draft by the Buffalo Bills.

He went on to have stints with the Carolina Panthers, the Steelers, and the San Francisco 49ers before going to Atlanta.