The Falcons heavily invested in their defensive line in this year’s draft, but their two leading sack getters in Bud Dupree and Calais Campbell currently aren’t on the roster, and they will be relying on some young players to make an impact this season. In the secondary, the Falcons lost Jeff Okudah and Tre Flowers in free agency, and haven’t done much to address the lack of depth at the position at all this offseason. Which position group is more of a concern? The Morning Shift debated it earlier today.
Beau Morgan is of the opinion that the Falcons pass rush is still the team biggest weakness because even though they addressed the defensive line and pass rush in the draft that doesn’t automatically equal results.
“It’s nice to say well we did this in the draft, but until I see it play out, I mean I sat here and told you Desmond Ridder was going to be fine and he wasn’t. They told us he was going to be fine and he wasn’t.” Beau goes on to say “I know what their weakness was last year and they haven’t made an edition at that position that I have seen on the field in the NFL and seen contribute, so until one of these guys steps up it’s a weakness to me.”
Tiffany and Mike are on the side of cornerback being the Falcons’ biggest weakness right now because of the fact they lost one of their starting cornerbacks in Jeff Okudah while also losing his back up last year in Tre Flowers. Now, the Falcons did sign cornerbacks Kevin King and Antonio Hamilton and do still have A.J. Terrell, Clark Phillips, and Dee Alford on the roster, but they did not draft a corner in the draft this year, and Mike calls the depth at cornerback “alarming”.
Both the Falcons defensive line and cornerback rooms are filled with proven guys, young guys that have shown flashes and will need to step up, and unproven guys, so at this point it seems like neither position can be categorized as a strength right now, and that may be more important than which group is the weakest. However, the Falcons defensive line does at least have a lot of good potential coming in because of who they drafted this year, and you can’t say the same for the Falcons cornerback room.