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The Atlanta Falcons improved a year on the defensive side of the ball, though they cratered late in a way that put a dark cloud over that side of the ball thanks to injuries and ineffectiveness. The challenge this year won’t just be sustaining those modest gains, but exceeding them, ensuring the expected offensive improvement for Atlanta doesn’t go to waste.
The Falcons have put curiously few resources into ensuring that happens, with a major investment via the draft along the defensive front and a couple of modest signings in the secondary. While we could see more additions this summer, it appears Atlanta will bank heavily on their new-look coaching staff and improvement from existing players delivering them better outcomes. It’s a big bet, one we have to hope will pay off.
What does the depth chart look like today? Let’s look.
Defensive line
Starters: Grady Jarrett, David Onyemata, Ruke Orhorhoro, Zach Harrison
Rotational options: Brandon Dorlus, Eddie Goldman, Ta’Quon Graham, Kentavius Street, LaCale London
Reserves/roster hopefuls: Zion Logue, Willington Previlon, Tommy Toigai
Atlanta made a considerable investment up front in this draft class, with a pair of intriguing young players and a late size/strength gamble added to a line that already featured two of their stronger defensive starters. Whether that translates into greatness remains to be seen, but this is a much deeper group now.
Functionally, I think the four players I’ve listed above will play starter’s snaps, though the configuration of those players is what we’ll need to see. Jarrett is the first name worth mentioning as the team’s heart and soul, a proven high-end starter who is one of the league’s most effective defensive tackles against the run and a player capable of bringing pressure regularly. So long as Jarrett is healthy—and we do have to start worrying a little bit more about that after year and with his age—he’s one of the league’s better players up front, and a crucial piece of this line.
Onyemata had a tremendous year when healthy in 2023, showcasing a disruptive ability this line had been missing next to Jarrett. With good health, he’ll play a considerable number of snaps and should help the Falcons boast one of the league’s most frustrating interior groups, but the health is a bit of a question mark after he missed three games and was banged up down the stretch. The infusion of youth should help the Falcons keep him fresh.
Orhorhoro will end up playing starter’s snaps by the time all is said and done, even if he’s learning on the job. The Falcons will line him up across the line to try to give him favorable matchups where his alarming strength and speed can help him defeat blockers, and with time and energy he ought to be another high-end run defender and, if we’re lucky, a year one force as a pass rusher. At the very least, when he gets hot he’s going to be a problem.
Harrison should be in line for a major role after the end of the season saw him transform into a werewolf in a Falcons jersey, with some stretches of borderline dominance in the final weeks. Young, rugged, and showing the kind of improvement that should make him a quality starter in this league at minimum, Harrison will be asked to provide significant snaps and make life hell for opposing tackles, and for once I’m actually optimistic that a Falcons draft pick will deliver on that promise.
Dorlus will be a high-end rotational option who played all over the place at Oregon, offering relentlessness and pass rush ability that should get him playing time immediately in Atlanta. If Goldman is healthy, has the rust knocked off, and is willing to play this year, he’ll provide a useful option at nose tackle. That would leave a solid all-around veteran in Street competing with Graham (a promising but inconsistent young player) and London (who was terrific in limited opportunities a year ago) for a couple of spots; if Goldman is out I can see the team choosing to keep all three.
Logue’s fortunes may depend on how much the Falcons like his summer progress, as otherwise the numbers game could have the mammoth defensive lineman ticketed for the practice squad in his rookie season. The complete overhaul of the line likely means Toigai and Previlon are competing for practice squad roles, as well.
EDGE
Starters: Lorenzo Carter, Arnold Ebiketie
Rotational options: Bralen Trice, James Smith-Williams
Reserves/roster hopeful: Demone Harris, DeAngelo Malone
Carter’s a rock solid player, if not an exciting one. Fast, effective against the run, a useful player in coverage, and a player capable of being quite disruptive in stretches, he was a coveted target for Dean Pees, fared well for Ryan Nielsen, and now is a favorite to remain a big part of the defense under Jimmy Lake and Raheem Morris. There’s a capped upside here, especially as a pass rusher, but he’ll play plenty and do what’s asked of him in 2024, giving the EDGE group a distinct floor.
Ebiketie is sort of the opposite case. A player prone to sometimes frustrating lapses—he let a scrambling quarterback escape for a crucial gain more than once a year ago—Ebiketie misses a lot of tackles and isn’t yet the asset in coverage the team would like him to be. He offers generally solid run defense, however, and is easily the most high-upside EDGE player the Falcons have in terms of pass rush ability. He’ll be asked to go after the quarterback more than any other player in this group, and is the sole option here I’d consider remotely likely to get to double digit sacks. With a little refinement and a cleaning up of some of his weaknesses, Ebiketie will be a true asset across the board, but either way he’ll likely post 6-8 sacks and be among the team leaders in pressures, making him a vital player.
Trice slots somewhere in the middle of those two poles. A big, tough defender with the kind of tenacity coaches pray is innate to their players, Trice isn’t the most refined pass rusher but is fairly well-developed. His all-around value mimics Carter’s—he’s a plus run defender out of the box and acquitted himself well in coverage in college—but Trice also has the upside to be a six-plus sack and consistent pressure player in the NFL. He has to clean up his tendency to miss tackles and continue to work on his pass rushing toolkit to reach his full potential, but he’s an immediately useful defender.
Smith-Williams hasn’t added much as a pass rusher in his career, but as the fourth guy in this group, he at least gives you some coverage chops and solid run defense. I’m not sure he’s going to get as much run as he would have if the Falcons hadn’t drafted Trice.
Malone is firmly on the roster bubble at this point, but I like his chances of pushing his way onto it if there’s room. The Falcons drafted him because he’s a tough, athletic player with some real upside as a pass rusher and run defender alike, but the changeover to Ryan Nielsen as defensive coordinator stalled his fortunes a year ago and led to him spending much of the year as an inactive. If the new staff likes him and he shows improvement, Malone could be a valuable reserve piece for this defense.
Harris had some fun moments in last year’s preseason and will need another strong one to stick around; he’s likely ticketed for the practice squad.
If this group has a looming problem, it’s missed tackles, with everyone but Carter having a concerningly high rate there.
Inside linebacker
Starters: Kaden Elliss, Troy Andersen
Reserves: Nate Landman, JD Bertrand
Roster hopefuls: Donavan Mutin, Milo Eifler
Things are pretty cut and dry in this group.
Elliss was a durable, really solid starter last year, proving he can rush effectively from the middle and serving as one of the run defense’s most reliable pieces. Even though Nielsen is gone, Elliss is going absolutely nowhere in 2024, and should be set up for another strong season.
Andersen has a lot to prove. The hyper-athletic linebacker is a player the Falcons dreamed could be a special player at the position, with the range and chops to cover tight ends and
Cornerback
Starter: A.J. Terrell
Competing to start: Clark Phillips, Dee Alford, Antonio Hamilton, Mike Hughes
Reserves/roster hopefuls: Kevin King, Natrone Brooks, Jayden Price, Anthony Sao, Trey Vaval
The only sure thing in this group is Terrell. Occasionally maligned for his very visible mistakes, Terrell is a good starting cornerback at worst and capable of much more than that, and he’ll be re-united with his rookie year head coach (sort of) and hoping to turn a big year into a big deal.
Beyond Terrell, it’s all up for grabs. Phillips is my personal favorite for the job opposite him, as the second-year cornerback has the tenacity, physicality, and ball skills to become a solid starter at minimum, and there’s talent here to be more than that. It’s just a question of how well Phillips fares this spring and summer.
His chief competition is Hamilton, a veteran the Falcons signed this spring to serve as competition. Hamilton has plenty of starting experience under his belt, including several games in 2023 with the Cardinals, and is a perfectly decent option if the Falcons need him to be thanks to his consistently fine work in coverage. No one is going to be particularly excited if Hamilton starts, but he’ll hold down the fort for half a year or a full season and be good enough to keeps things humming.
At nickel, Alford should be the favorite. He somewhat mysteriously lost the favor of the coaching staff a year ago, perhaps partially because he was taking on returner duties, but is a sure tackler who is far more physical than his size suggests, is an aggressive playmaker at heart, and more than held his own in coverage in his starts. If the Falcons want to go young and talented—and they should—Alford should start.
His chief competition is Hughes, whose ineptitude as a returner last year is the primary reason Falcons fans are not...well, fans of him. Over the course of the season, Hughes settled in when called upon and delivered a solid year as a cornerback, with a fairly stingy yards per reception and completion percentage number and a lower missed tackle rate than I remember. His lapses in coverage were truly glaring, but he’ll get a fair shake against Alford and could be solid in this role if he gets it. Just don’t let him handle punt returns again.
Everyone else is vying for a role. King will need to prove he’s healthy to have a chance of catching on, though his size, experience, and ties to the coaching staff should give him a leg up. Brooks was here last year as an undrafted free agent and did enough to at least make him an early favorite for the practice squad. Everyone else is an undrafted free agent hoping to latch on.
Safety
Starter: Jessie Bates
Competing to start: DeMarcco Hellams, Richie Grant
Reserves/roster hopefuls: Micah Abernathy, Tre Tarpley, Lukas Denis
Bates is an unquestioned starter and one of the league’s best safeties, a player who managed to be worth every cent of the huge deal he signed in the 2023 offseason. A big-time playmaker and force for good in coverage and against the run, Bates is one of the best reasons to believe this defense will be any good.
He’ll be joined in the starting lineup by either Hellams or Grant, with Grant seemingly having an early leg up with Raheem Morris praising him recently. The former second round pick has been a frustrating, up-and-down player, but when he plays well he’s a tough, hard-to-shake tackler who offers really good run defense and an ability to rush the pass. He’s going to have to improve the consistency and strength of his coverage to stick, however, and whether Grant does that will likely determine whether he gets the job and how long he keeps it.
Hellams will be nipping at his heels. An impressive special teamer out of Alabama, Hellams was a player the Falcons evidently fell in love with and was starting late in the season, showcasing a surprisingly solid skillset for a player who wasn’t expected to contribute right away. With more development time and another offseason under his belt, if Hellams can further improve in coverage, his tackling and instincts are already in the right place to turn him into a productive long-term starter. If not, he’s a great third safety for this group.
Abernathy probably has the leg up on a fourth spot, given his special teams track record, with Tarpley and Denis fighting over a practice squad spot. Don’t sleep on the possibility of Dee Alford dabbling at safety after Morris alluded to that possibility earlier in the spring.
This is a defense with potential, but also an unsettling number of question marks. There are multiple starting jobs up for grabs without clear, high-end starters to step into them, and depth questions on the back end that will dog this team until they prove we worried for nothing.
The Falcons are going to rely on the strength of their coaching staff and expected improvements from young players to fuel growth here, and it has to work for the team to field the kind of above average defense that will make major 2024 success possible. I’d feel better about that possibility with a couple more additions between now and training camp, though, and I don’t think this unit is as close to being complete as the offense. Regardless, we’ll have to hope that many things—from Grady Jarrett’s health to Troy Andersen’s development to Richie Grant’s potential bounceback—go in Atlanta’s favor.
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