After a tough season, Alford may not return to Atlanta.
For the first two years of his career with the Atlanta Falcons, Dee Alford was a quality-to-impressive player, one who thrived as the team’s nickel cornerback in 2023 with Ryan Nielsen at defensive coordinator. After one rough season in 2024 with Jimmy Lake at the helm of the defense, Alford may not be returning to Atlanta.
Per FOX Sports reporter Greg Auman, the 27-year-old Georgia native and former CFLer will not be tendered. Because he was a restricted free agent, that opens the door for him to hit the open market unless team and player can (and want to) hammer out a cheaper pact before free agency opens next week.
Falcons will not be tendering restricted free agent cornerback Dee Alford, which would make him an unrestricted free agent next week. Finished third on the team with 83 tackles last year, so still possible he returns on a lesser deal before free agency.
— Greg Auman (@gregauman) March 6, 2025
Alford was the most targeted defensive back for Atlanta by a fairly wide margin last year, seeing a 41 more targets headed his way on 150 or so more snaps than he had in 2023. Those 41 additional targets turned into 33 additional catches, 273 additional yards, and five more touchdowns than he allowed in the prior year per Pro Football Focus, and a rise in missed tackles to go with that, though he didn’t come close to having the highest rate in the secondary. The eight touchdowns he allowed were tied for the league high with C.J. Gardner-Johnson and Jack Jones, while PFF also had him for the 12th-highest yards allowed in the NFL.
As you might gather, that all added up to a down year, one we’re hoping Alford will talk more about if he’s able to join Kevin Knight and company on our live show.
I be seeing his Comments after/before every Game ! Set it up @TheFalcoholic We bout to Break down the Defensive play , play by play . Good & Bad . Maybe it’ll help more fans understand what’s really going on in a NFL Game https://t.co/Eegbl6owax
— GLOMAN2️⃣.0️⃣ (@AlfordGlo4) February 24, 2025
The fact that Alford was a real contributor the two previous seasons before the 2024 season went awry and is still fairly young should work in his favor in terms of finding a home, be it in Atlanta or elsewhere. Lake’s defense clearly played a role in the stark downturn in play from guys like Alford, Nate Landman, and Justin Simmons, who were all solid at worst contributors-to-quality starters before this past year, but obviously Alford struggled regardless. The fact that this free agent cornerback class (and draft class) are both pretty good means Alford may be waiting until the second wave of free agency to find a home if he doesn’t return, though, especially coming off a down year. He should still have little trouble finding work as a reserve, at minimum. and could potentially re-join newly minted senior defensive assistant Ryan Nielsen with the Buffalo Bills if he’s not back.
That’s not to say I’m ruling out a return entirely. With a new defensive coordinator in town in Jeff Ulbrich, there’s certainly the chance that Alford still winds up back in Atlanta on a team-friendly one-year pact if he’s willing to take one, with the expectation that he’ll fare better than he did under Lake. But the lack of a tender reflects both the team’s cash-strapped current moment and likely indicates that Alford will either have a new home or will have to compete for the job he held down the past couple of seasons, with the team likely to add someone to replace or push Alford regardless. We’ll find out which avenue the team is taking soon enough.