After an active offseason the Atlanta Falcons invested well over $40 million into their defensive unit. The path to success for Atlanta seems to be a ground-and-pound offense backed up by a hard-nose defense. However, have the Falcons done enough to bolster their defense, specifically, their pass-rush?
Jon Chuckery isn't sold this defensive unit. On Thursday's edition of "The Jon Chuckery Show," Jon shared a few players the Falcons should be looking to add before training camp.
The lack of a pass-rush has plagued the Falcons since the days of Dwight Freeney. Over the past two seasons, the Falcons' defense have totaled just 39 sacks. The Philadelphia Eagles had 70 sacks last season. Atlanta has to get some pressure off the edges if they want to take the next step and win a NFC South division that is wide open this year.
After their moves, Atlanta has approximately $10 million in cap space left. Just enough for one of three consistent veteran edge rushers that are still on the open market: Melvin Ingram, Justin Houston, and Yannick Ngakoue.
Chuckery believes that Houston should be the guy the Falcons target. Stating that they could bring him in and Houston, who played college in Georgia, could be their new version of Freeney, and could be a mentor to Arnold Ebiketie. Similar to how Freeney mentored Vic Beasley.
Despite being 34 years old, Houston racked up nine sacks last season. That number would have been the most by any Falcon last year and by a wide margin. Could Houston be that productive veteran player to really unlock this defense?