Falcons training camp 2025: Day 2 recap and practice notes

The Falcons attracted quite the crowd of fans for Saturday’s practice, and the on-field action didn’t disappoint. Day 2 featured an impressive showing by the defense, some young players stepping up, and some nice throws by Michael Penix and Kirk Cousins.

Atlanta Falcons fans are in a frenzy over this year’s team. Likely the mixture of rejuvenated optimism in quarterback play combined with this being the first weekend day of camp practice in Flowery Branch open to the public in two years, the amount of people on the hill was incredible.

In all my years attending camp practices, both reporting for this website as well as being a fan on the hill myself, I have never seen as many cars in the various parking lots across the complex as I did today.

In the post practice press conference, owner Arthur Blank began at the podium by thanking the fans and talking about how important that connection with the fans will be to the team’s success on the field. He also gave an estimation that there were around 5,000 people who showed up to view practice today.

Here are some observations from Day 2 of Falcons Training Camp this year!

Defensive aggressiveness makes for a day to forget for Drake London

New defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich had his fingerprints all over today’s practice, as we witnessed a number of blitzes dialed up throughout the 11-on-11 scrimmage portion. The new DC has also made it an emphasis for his defensive players to try and punch the ball out when they can (a philosophy dating back to the Dan Quinn days), and his troops followed orders to a tee.

Despite the fact that there are still no pads and physical contact is limited, the defense was as aggressive as I’ve ever seen it while in shorts and t-shirts.

The primary victim of that aggressiveness was star WR Drake London, who fumbled the ball twice in 11-on-11 drills — the first forced by S DeMarcco Hellams and the second forced by CB Mike Hughes. London also committed a clear drop at another point, and was visibly frustrated multiple times throughout the practice session.

Hellams had another impressive play, driving in hard and forcing an incompletion on a pass intended for WR KhaDarel Hodge on what ended up being a collision between the two.

There was another strip fumble forced on RB Nathan Carter, although I could not see who exactly forced it from my vantage point, but I did see CB/S Billy Bowman recover it. Overall, the offense suffered four total fumbles today, with the other being a pre-snap mistake.

Michael Penix looks sharp but is victimized by pass catcher mistakes

If you look at the pure completion percentage today, you would think that QB Michael Penix Jr. had a rough go of it — he was an overall 6-13 with most of the work coming against the second team defense — but context matters a lot here.

Four out of seven of those incompletions came by way of blatant drops from his pass catchers, including three on consecutive plays. WR Ray Ray McCloud had one bounce off his chest, Hodge had a drop in the aforementioned collision with Hellams, London dropped a pass near the sideline and the worst was when RB Bijan Robinson toasted his defender one on one and had the ball come completely off his hands on what would have been a home run pass down the sideline after it was dropped in the bucket.

Penix also had an impressive play early on where he side stepped a blitzing linebacker and drew a defensive pass interference penalty on CB Clark Phillips III on a downfield pass to London near the sideline.

By my count, there were only three passes which were “misses” from Penix today, with the rest being on the money.

Kirk Cousins statistically dominates against the first team defense

Following a very solid start to camp Monday, QB Kirk Cousins had himself a day leading the second team offense against (mostly) the first team defense in 11-on-11 drills.

Cousins went an overall 9-10, including hitting on his last eight consecutive passes of the morning. The only incompletion of the day came on a still very good throw to WR Casey Washington, who was not able to come up with the ball amid tight coverage from CB A.J. Terrell Jr.

Cousins unloaded a little bit more as opposed to Thursday, when it was mostly short passes within five yards of the line of scrimmage. By my count, four of the nine completions went at least 8+ yards beyond the line of scrimmage in terms of air yardage, including the best throw of the day on a home run pass to WR David Sills V, who beat Terrell one on one to catch a perfect home run pass down the sideline for the longest gain on Day 2.

The only hiccup with Cousins’ unit was when a pre snap motion resulted in the snap bouncing off the motion man and into a fumble during a play which eerily resembled the disastrous turnover in Week 1 last season.

Defensive line forces some real pressure

There was a bit more mix and match between 4-3 and 3-4 looks today as opposed to Thursday, when it seemed like over 85% of the time the defense lined up in a 3-4.

The mixes combined with the blitz heavy philosophy this morning may have resulted in some confusion along the offensive front and we saw the defensive line overwhelm them at some points as a result.

OLB/DE Khalid Kareem had a strong performance and may have been credited for two sacks, while DE Zach Harrison got in the backfield multiple times and DT Ruke Ohrorhoro completely broke through the middle for a sack during a play.

Xavier Watts and Billy Bowman get their looks with the first team

The biggest development of the day from a lineup standpoint was seeing third round rookie S Xavier Watts lining up next to S Jessie Bates with the first team a majority of the time today, after he exclusively ran with the second team on Thursday.

Watts looks to be in a battle with free agent signing S Jordan Fuller, who was relegated to more work next to Hellams with that second team.

The competition to be the starting nickel seems even more fierce as rookie Billy Bowman continued competing with CB Dee Alford, with both getting their looks with the first team.

If both Brooks and Watts end up starting come Week 1, the Falcons could feasibly have come out of this draft with four Day 1 starters, which is incredibly difficult to do.

Other Notes

• OLB/DE James Pearce Jr. and OLB/DE Jalon Walker got the majority of their work with the second team after having more rotation in with the starters on Thursday. Whenever one is on the field so is the other, on the opposite side.
• The starters at the edge spots continue to be OLB/DE Arnold Ebikete and OLB/DE Leonard Floyd.
• DT David Onyemata continues being the primary nose tackle in the 3-4 look, but I did see DT Morgan Fox get a little bit of run in that spot.
• The best day among receivers was had by David Sills V, who is quickly emerging as Cousins’ favorite target. He caught three of Kirk’s nine passes today — one short, one moderate and one very long and has caught everything thrown his way so far. He’s one to watch in that battle for the last wide receiver spot.
• While TE Kyle Pitts Sr. was out there, he did not participate in 11-on-11 drills as far as I saw. It may have been a maintenance day for him.
• New free agent signing WR D.J. Chark Jr. was present and practicing today.

That’s it from us for Day 2 of camp. Back at it tomorrow for the third day. For more coverage, you can follow us on Twitter (X): Adnan’s Twitter, Kevin’s Twitter.