Falcons 2024 season review: A breakdown of the defense and special teams

The Falcons finished in the bottom half (16th or lower) of the league in three of the four major categories: total yards (345.2, 23rd); passing (224.5 yards, 22nd), rushing (120.6, 15th) and points (24.9, 23rd).

Lake, a former college head coach and defensive coordinator at Washington, and defensive line coach Jay Rodgers were fired after the season.

“Over on the defense, and they showed in small segments and windows,” Falcons coach Raheem Morris said. “We’ve just got to make it more consistent.”

Here’s a position-by-position look at how the Falcons performed last season on defense and special teams:

Defensive line

The Falcons were hoping that the return of defensive tackle Grady Jarrett, would help lift the unit up front. The plan was for Jarrett and defensive tackle David Onyemata to provide the interior push in the pass rush.

Also, Eddie Goldman, who was out of the league for the past two years, was the nose tackle.

Defensive end Zach Harrison added weight to provide more muscle inside at tackle.

Jarrett had 53 tackles and 2.5 sacks, nine tackles for loss and 12.5 quarterback hits. Onyemata had 45 tackles, three sacks, eight tackles for loss and five quarterback hits.

Rookie Ruke Orhorhoro, who was drafted in the second round, showed flashes over his eight games that were interrupted by a high ankle sprain and stint on injured reserve. Rookie Brandon Dorlus, a fourth-round pick, was active for just two games.

Kentavious Street played 280 defensive snaps (33%) over 13 games. Ta’Quon Graham played in 10 games before suffering a torn pectoral muscle.

“You never say it’s not going to be an offseason priority, just for the philosophy of the organization that starts up front,” Morris said. “So, I mean, you can be number one in sacks or last, that’s still going to be a priority, right?”

The Falcons improved their pass rush with better stunts and blitzes after the Week 12 bye week. After that juncture, the Falcons were second in the NFL with 21 sacks.

However, they were 2-4 over the final six games and still finished 31st in the league with 31 sacks. Only New England (28) had fewer.

“If you can get after the quarterback, you can play really good defense,” Morris said. “That’s always going to be a priority for us. … But, the better you can make those (pass-rush) moments, the better you can make those things, the better you can be.”

Linebackers

Inside linebacker Kaden Elliss turned in a spectacular season alongside the gritty Nate Landman. Troy Andersen suffered a knee injury and played in only seven games. Rookie J.D. Bertrand played mostly on special teams, but received some late-season action.

“The development and the growth of Kaden Elliss over the course of this year, in the last couple of years, and who he’s become and all the things that he affects, whether it’s pass rush or run-fits and everything on our defense,” Morris said.

Landman was rugged against the run, but opposing quarterbacks had a 152.4 passing rating when they found him in coverage. He gave up three touchdowns and missed seven tackles.

Judon, Lorenzo Carter, Arnold Ebiketie, James Smith-Williams, Demone Harris did not provide much pass rush from the outside linebacker position. Ebiketie led the team with six sacks. Judon had 5.5 sacks.

“With the pass rush, we started off and we were last in the league, first nine games of the season,” Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot said. “And then after the bye, significant jump in pass rush. We were second in the league over that span, following the bye.”

Elliss was the Falcons' best pass rusher. He was blitzed 60 times and had six hurries, 11 quarterback knockdowns and five sacks, according to Pro Football Reference’s advanced statistics.

“Kaden Elliss had an unbelievable year, and he led the league in pass-rush rate,” Fontenot said. “So we have pressure players. We have to add to that. We showed ability, we showed improvement in that area, but that definitely needs to be an area that we continue to improve.”

Secondary

Basically, the Falcons had a poor season in coverage. Some of that can be attributed to the lack of a pass rush for most the season.

The Falcons allowed a touchdown on 5.9% of opponent passes, which ranked 31st in the league, according to Pro Football Network. The Falcons were ahead of only the Panthers. The last team to make the playoffs with a rate that poor was the 2016 Lions.

The groups’ numbers are not great — from safety Jessie Bates III to nickel back Dee Alford, who had a really rough season.

Opposing quarterbacks had a 117.9 passer rating when throwing at Alford, who gave up eight touchdowns and had 16 missed tackles. The fact that they didn’t use safety Richie Grant at nickel back more didn’t make much sense.

Opposing quarterbacks had a 105.8 passer rating when throwing at Hughes, who gave up three touchdowns and missed seven tackles.

Bates had an 89.1 opponent passer rating, gave up five touchdowns and had eight missed tackles.

Simmons had an 81.9 opponent passer rating, gave up three touchdowns and seven missed tackles.

Terrell had a 93 opponent passer rating, gave up four touchdowns and missed 13 tackles.

The Falcons were fine with Terrell’s play.

“I think it kind of starts with the core guys, and we talk about the core guys, (we’re) talking about A.J. Terrell,” Morris said. “The year he had this year was outstanding, and he played really well.”

Bates remains a key to the defense.

“We’re talking about Jessie Bates,” Morris said. “We’re talking about the things that he’s done and been able to do since he’s been here as a Falcon.”

The Falcons got lost in space at times while playing their zone defenses.

“You’ve got to play visual defense at times in zone, and when those things happen and your vision is off, you can mess those things up,” Morris said. “When you get thrown out (there), when you’re not the starter, some of those things can happen, bad things. But those are all things that you got to clean up.”

Special teams

Wide receiver KhaDarel Hodge, who did it all on special teams, from blocking kicks to scoring touchdowns, was named to the Pro Bowl. His six special-teams tackles ranked second on the team behind DeAngelo Malone, who finished with nine.

The kicking game was off.

Kicker Younghoe Koo ranked second in the league with the most missed field-goal kicks, with nine. The Falcons led the league with 12 missed field-goal attempts.

The Falcons ranked 29th in net yards per punt (38.8, 6.7% below league average) and 30th in percentage of punts downed inside the 20 (29.8%, league average: 41.3%), according to Pro Football Network.

“Obviously, we missed entirely too many kicks this year,” Morris said. “The brutal honest truth, that can’t happen. So, we got to find ways to make those kicks.”

Koo ended the season on injured reserve with a right hip injury.

“We (must) get Koo healthy, get him back,” Morris said.

Returner Avery Williams averaged 9.3 yards per punt return and 27.2 on kickoff returns.

“Obviously, we’re going to go into where we got to go to see who our returner is, to be able to see if we can activate some of those things more,” Morris said. “But from an overall standpoint, of us playing special teams, we had a lot of plays. We did. We scored touchdowns on special teams. We blocked kicks. We (did) a lot of really good things.”

The Falcons should have been on notice after Koo missed three kicks in an exhibition game in Baltimore.

“Once Koo was injured, we obviously put him on IR,” Fontenot said. “Our job is to make sure that we’re fixing that this offseason so ... we’re not having the same conversation (next season).”

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez