The Falcons got good young players who may well be instant contributors.
We wanted the Atlanta Falcons to go into the 2025 NFL Draft focused on the defense. Regardless of where they went with their limited picks, I mentioned that the work already done to the roster in recent years would be critical, with this class unlikely to have a game-changing impact because of the number of early selections.
I may need to eat those words. After the Falcons traded back into the first and up in the third to grab preferred targets, and after they came away from the first four rounds with four players I think have a legitimate chance of starting for a defense that badly needed the help, this may well prove to be a class that makes a splash right now.
On one hand, it’s not actually a surprise to see the Falcons buck recent history and go heavy on defense. Raheem Morris saw the value of young defenders in his first go-around with Atlanta, when Vic Beasley, Deion Jones, Keanu Neal, Grady Jarrett, and others drove their success, and he certainly saw it with the Rams as their defensive coordinator. Adding Jeff Ulbrich and knowing the defense dragged the team down far too frequently in 2024, Morris would of course want to prioritize fixing Atlanta’s major pass rush and secondary woes, and Terry Fontenot delivered ready-made solutions. Neither one of those men want to be out of a job next year, but I struggled to see how they could get more than a couple of starters with the capital they had.
Instead, they grabbed:
- Jalon Walker in the first round. Walker’s going to join a rotation where only Arnold Ebiketie and Leonard Floyd were guaranteed to play significant snaps and play a lot right away, and his experience and ability to work as an off-ball linebacker means the Falcons can experiment with moving him around to get other players on the field.
- James Pearce Jr. in the first round, also. The trade up portion of this will be controversial, but Pearce could be a lethal edge rusher at the next level with his speed and savvy. The Falcons like to rotate their edge rushers and Pearce will probably play a lot on obvious passing downs, with Walker, Ebiketie, Bralen Trice and Floyd mixing in more often on early downs.
- Safety Xavier Watts in the third round. Watts will need to beat out Jordan Fuller, a familiar face for Raheem Morris, but is a certified ballhawk and heady player who could easily do so to start Week 1 next to Jessie Bates. He’ll get some work as the third safety even if he’s not an immediate starter.
- Billy Bowman Jr. in the fourth round. A college safety who dabbled at cornerback and linebacker, Bowman is going to play the nickel in the NFL, per Jeff Ulbrich. His superior ball skills and aggressive coverage ability makes him an early favorite to beat out Dee Alford and Clark Phillips, assuming Phillips isn’t going back to being a top reserve outside after this draft pick.
It’s safe to assume not every single one of these four guys will start, but the path to significant snaps is there for all of them, and they’re all good enough to make a positive impact for what sure looked like a lackluster defense heading into Thursday. We can bring up the usual caveats about this all being on paper if you like, but the Falcons may well have tackled their biggest needs and grabbed four impactful defenders when they came into draft week with just three picks in the first four rounds.
With the offense mostly set, getting the defense in order was priority one, and for once the Falcons tackled that problem with the laser focus and intensity it demanded. They’re no longer betting entirely on a bounceback from Dee Alford or a productive shift to the nickel from Clark Phillips. They’re not putting all their eggs into the Jordan Fuller/DeMarcco Hellams basket next to Bates. And perhaps most importantly of all, they’re no longer asking Ebiketie and Floyd to carry an edge rushing group when neither player is capable of doing so. Long-term it’s easy to be excited about these players, but I wasn’t expecting to be this intrigued by the 2025 prospects for this class.
There’s much we don’t know about how these players will fit and how they’ll hit the ground running, but what we do know is that the Falcons have added smart, seemingly NFL-ready players to their defense with an emphasis on getting instant contributors. The floor and the ceiling for this team in 2025 both figure to be higher as a result.