Cover 9@9: Falcons let trade deadline slip on by

They also traded linebacker Duke Riley, who was clearly beaten out by Foye Oluokun, to the Eagles to get safety Johnathan Cyprien.

The highlight for the Falcons this season was defensive end Takk McKinley announcing that he would not be traded, thereby taking himself off the market.

The NFL’s trading deadline was 4 p.m. Tuesday.

Teams called the Falcons about trading for McKinley, who’s been battling a groin injury since the second game of the season, but there was not much follow up to a handful of meek offers.

The Falcons were not pleased with the offers. Seattle landed Carlos Dunlap, a 10-year veteran, from the Bengals for a seventh-round draft pick. Detroit reportedly gave up a sixth- or a conditional fifth-round pick for veteran defensive end Everson Griffen.

It’s reasonable to conclude that the Falcons were not being offered a fourth round pick for an injured McKinley.

Now, the Falcons can hold onto McKinley and if he leaves in free agency, he could possibly bring back a fifth-round or more likely a sixth-round compensatory pick in 2022.

McKinley, who did not play in the last game against the Panthers, was injured against Dallas on Sept. 20.

Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@

Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@

McKinley played 23 of 62 defensive snaps (37%) against the Lions and had only one tackle.

McKinley was drafted in the first round (26th overall) of the 2017 draft. He has finished with six sacks in 2017, seven in 2018 and 3.5 last season. He has one sack and seven quarterback hits this season.

McKinley, who played at UCLA, had his $10.3 million fifth-year option turned down by the club this offseason and was looking to have a big season going into free agency.

Falcons president Rich McKay stated Oct. 12 and Oct. 23 on NFL Network, that the team would not trade its veteran assets after coach Dan Quinn and general manager Thomas Dimitroff were fired.

Both quarterback Matt Ryan and wide receiver Julio Jones said they wanted to stay in Atlanta. Both of their contracts would have been hard to deal even if the team wanted to move them.

“The problems in Atlanta are much bigger than Matt Ryan,” ESPN analyst Louis Riddick noted before the last game. “From a coaching perspective, they have had some serious mismanagement in terms of how they turned over coordinators multiple times under Dan Quinn. On the defensive side of the ball they have missed badly as far as trying to upgrade the defensive line in particular. The secondary has been poor.”

So, there you have it. The new GM and coach are getting a QB and WR.

And Takk can probably announce where he’s signing in March.

2. Center stage. The Falcons passed on former LSU standout center Lloyd Cushenberry in the draft and selected Matt Hennessy with the 78th overall pick in the third round. The Broncos selected Cushenberry five picks later and he has started every game this season for the Broncos.

Hennessy was alternating at left guard with James Carpenter for the first five games. He has played just one snap over the past three games. He’s played 76 snaps this season.

Cushenberry has played 475 snaps.

3. Playoff probability. The Falcons have a less than 1% chance of making the playoffs.

4. Series history: This will be the 15th regular-season meeting. The Broncos lead the series 8-6. The Falcons won the last meeting 23-16 on Oct. 9, 2016. In their only postseason meeting, the Broncos beat the Falcons 34-19 on their first trip to the Super Bowl on Jan. 31, 1999.

5. Blitz book: The Falcons have sent players on blitzes 135 times this season, according to profootballreference.com.

Here’s the breakdown: Foye Oluokun (31 times), Deion Jones (28), Mykal Walker (22), Dante Fowler (12), strong safety Keanu Neal (11), Isaiah Oliver (seven), Damontae Kazee (four), Edmond Robinson (four), Jamal Carter (three), A.J. Terrell (two), Darqueze Dennard (two), Ricardo Allen (two), Jaylinn Hawkins (two), LaRoy Reynolds (one) and John Cominsky (one).

Over 526 defensive snaps, the Falcons have 13 sacks, 29 hurries and 32 knockdowns.

Here are the defensive snap counts for each game: Seattle (62), Dallas (82), Chicago (82), Green Bay (63), Carolina (65), Minnesota (56), Detroit (62) and Carolina (54).

6. Dennard return: The return of Darqueze Dennard is key to the Falcons continued improvement in the secondary.

He’s the only player with positive coverage numbers.

Dennard’s passer rating allowed when targeted is 75.4, the best on the team.

Here’s are the rest of the secondary’s passer ratings allowed when targeted: Allen (131.2), Terrell (129.9), Walker (128.7), Oliver (126.9), Deion Jones (121.7), Kendall Sheffield (118.7) and Neal (116.9).

Another stat to consider is completion percentage allowed on targets, Dennard’s rating is 62.5 %, second best on the team behind Allen’s 50%.

Here are the other completion percentage allowed on targets: Terrell (78.1%), Neal (76.5%), Sheffield (73.7%), Oliver (72%) and Deion Jones (72.4%).

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

7. Red-zone defense/offense: The Falcons have allowed 20 touchdowns on 27 red zone trips (74%) by the opposition, which ranks 29th in the league.

The Falcons' red-zone offense is ranked 27th in the league after scoring touchdowns on just 2 of 6 possessions in the 25-17 win over the Panthers on Thursday. The Falcons have scored touchdowns on 16 of their 30 drives (53.33%) inside the opposition’s 20-yard line this season.

The Falcons are averaging 3.8 red zone trips per game, which is 12th in the league. The two red zone touchdowns per game is tied for 20th with Cincinnati and Philadelphia.

8. Third-down wins: If the Falcons can get to third down on defense, they are doing just fine. They held Carolina to 2 of 10 on third downs and for the season have allowed 34 of 90 conversions (37.8%) which is eighth-best in the league.

The offense is 47 of 109 on third-down conversions (43.1%), which ranks 16th in the league..

9. DEPTH CHART: Here’s a look at the official depth chart for the Denver game:

OFFENSE

QB -- Matt Ryan, Matt Schaub

WR -- Julio Jones, Christian Blake

WR -- Calvin Ridley, Olamide Zaccheaus

WR -- Russell Gage, Brandon Powell

TE -- Hayden Hurst, Luke Stocker, Jaeden Graham (Team actually list Graham ahead of Stocker. Stocker has played more snaps)

RB -- Todd Gurley, Brian Hill, Ito Smith, Qadree Ollison

FB -- Keith Smith

LT -- Jake Matthews, Matt Gono

LG -- James Carpenter, Matt Hennessy

C -- Alex Mack, Matt Hennessy (Team lists Justin McCray as the backup, but when Mack was injured against Detroit, Hennessy played so we move McCray to backup right guard).

RG -- Chris Lindstrom, Justin McCray

RT --Kaleb McGary, Matt Gono, John Wetzel

DEFENSE

DE -- Takk McKinley, Allen Bailey, Charles Harris

DT -- Grady Jarrett, Marlon Davidson, Deadrin Senat

DT -- Tyeler Davison, John Cominsky

DE -- Dante Fowler, Steven Means, Jacob Tuioti-Mariner

LB -- Deion Jones, LaRoy Reynolds

LB -- Foye Oluokun, Mykal Walker

CB – A.J. Terrell, Jordan Miller

CB -- Kendall Sheffield, Blidi Wreh-Wilson

CB -- Isaiah Oliver, Tyler Hall

FS --- Ricardo Allen, Sharrod Neasman

SS – Keanu Neal, Jaylinn Hawkins

SPECIAL TEAMS

K -- Younghoe Koo

P -- Sterling Hofrichter

LS -- Josh Harris

KR – Brandon Powell

PR -- Brandon Powell

Falcons' next four games

Broncos at Falcons at 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 8

Bye Week

Falcons at Saints at 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 22

Raiders at Falcons at 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 29

Saints at Falcons at 1 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 6

The Bow Tie Chronicles Podcasts:

For more content about the Atlanta Falcons

Follow me on Twitter @DorlandoAJC

On Facebook at Atlanta Falcons News Now

Atlanta Falcons coverage on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Have a question? Email me at dledbetter@ajc.com