Breaking down the minimal changes at the Atlanta Falcons safety position - tchieu

The Falcons have faith they have the right people in the building.

Safety was one of those best of times, worst of times positions for the Atlanta Falcons in 2023. When things were going well—90% of Jessie Bates’ games, early encouraging efforts from Richie Grant, DeMarcco Hellams seizing a role—safety was undoubtedly a strength for the defense. When they weren’t—rare Bates lapses, Grant’s coverage woes, Hellams looking like the rookie he was—it was a problem.

Given that, I was very interested to see what a coaching staff heavy on defensive backs coaches would do with safety beyond thank their lucky stars that Bates is playing in Atlanta. Interestingly enough, we’re now in mid-May and the team has made very few changes to the safety depth chart, potentially indicating a high level of comfort with at least the top three-to-four options they have today.

Let’s dive in, headfirst, to how safety has changed.

Changes: Minimal

When you have Jessie Bates, you’re probably more than halfway to a good safety room. But it’s striking that the Falcons have not elected to make more significant changes to a depth chart that has real questions marks outside of the great Bates.

We’ll start with him, though. Bates is coming off a season where he managed a career-high 132 combined tackles, a career-best six interceptions, three forced fumbles, 11 pass deflections, three tackles for a loss, and a defensive touchdown. He swung the outcome of a couple of games effectively by himself, and it would be more than fair to argue that Bates managed one of the great defensive seasons in Falcons history last year. He’s still just 27 years old, too, and has a strong case for the best defender on this football team. The Falcons signing him last offseason was the coup of all coups, and with apologies to A.J. Terrell, Bates is the best reason to feel good about this secondary.

The competition opposite Bates is less of a sure thing. Richie Grant would appear to be the front runner for that job with the coaching staff talking him up, and his underrated work as a pass rusher and properly appreciated work in run support makes that a fair proposition. Grant’s struggles have centered on inexplicable tackling and angle-taking lapses, but last year’s coverage woes were the real reason he fell out of favor with the coaching staff and wound up ceding work to Hellams. Grant allowed 68.4% of the passes thrown his way to be completed—that was tied with Hellams for the worst percentage in the secondary among starters—for 543 yards and six touchdowns last year, including some truly awful work downfield. To put that in perspective, no other Falcons defender allowed more than four scores, and Grant’s yards allowed were just nine yards behind A.J. Terrell for the team lead, and Terrell was targeted 24 more times on the season. If Grant is going to seize the job back and win a long-term starting role in Atlanta in what’s effectively a contract year, he’s going to have to improve significantly in coverage.

Hellams quietly did very well as a rookie, especially a late rounder. While that 68.4% completion percentage doesn’t look shiny, he allowed a relatively stingy 8.8 yards per completion (Grant allowed 13.9) thanks to better-than-expected coverage chops and consistently reliable tackling. A force for good against the run on his best days, Hellams has the floor of an extremely useful third safety and could push Grant out of a starting role if he has a good summer, and I think he’s a reason the Falcons seem relatively content with their safety situation.

Beyond him, there’s core special teamer Micah Abernathy and a small handful of potential practice squad options and deep reserves, including recent signing Dane Cruikshank. We’ll get to him below, but it’s safe to say the Falcons could add another experienced safety to this group if they want more insurance.

Key additions

• Dane Cruikshank. He has a decent chance of making this roster with a strong summer, because the special teams value has historically been there and the fourth/fifth safety on this roster is likely to largely work in that kind of role. The fact that a 30-plus special teamer who appeared in two games last year is the only player who belongs on this list says a lot about how little the Falcons have done to augment safety.

The Falcons may not be finished here. If Grant and Hellams don’t wow the coaching staff by the summer, it seems like a safe bet that a safety market still chock full of quality free agent options will be worth exploring, and the team may have more cash in hand after a seemingly inevitable A.J. Terrell extension to work with at that point. Hell, after the Ade Ogundeji release last week, they have a little bit to work with, though I’d expect most of that to go to the rookie class.

Otherwise, we’ll see a young player with upside paired with the phenomenal Bates, with another young player with upside serving as the third safety. That’s not the worst situation for the Falcons to find themselves in, given that their coaching staff has long experience in coaching defensive backs and there’s evident talent here. So long as Bates is Bates and one of Grant or Hellams can step up, the Falcons should be in good shape here, and that’s without mentioning the possibility that one of their many cornerbacks (like Dee Alford, who has been specifically mentioned by Raheem Morris) might get a little time at safety.