Atlanta's secondary now borders on surreal. This was the team that just two years ago had to call up a practice squad prospect and instantly start him across from a second-year mid-rounder making only his second career start (the first was the garbage time game to end the prior season). Two years later... Jessie Bates and Justin Simmons are the starting safeties, A.J. Terrell, Mike Hughes, Clark Phillips and Dee Alford all return at CB, and free agent additions Kevin King and Antonio Hamilton are coming on strong in the CB group as well. Projected starter Richie Grant is now the top depth player at safety or featured packages (dime back or "big nickel"). Micah Abernathy leads the pack to round out the top four in the safety group, but we should also keep in mind that DeMarcco Hellams might be able to return for the second half of the season. Only two practices in camp were open to the public due to construction at the team facility, and one of those open sessions was in the early days of no pads, no contact. So it's really only now in the exhibition games that we're getting to see the second wave and prospects at CB and get a feel for how everyone stands. After the Miami exhibition game, I'd say the depth chart released by the team was close to "truth". The offensive line didn't play out like the chart, but the CBs did work out as listed on the chart. If that really is the picture of how things stand, it would mean Mike Hughes is currently pegged to start across from Terrell with Alford in the slot. All three were kept out of the Dolphins game, which adds weight to them being the trio of starters. Phillips and King are listed as the backups on the outsides with Hamilton as the #2 nickel, but I think that's more a case of just putting down all the names. It looked like there was a lot more mix-and-match going on in the open practice at MBS and in the Miami game. Also noteworthy is that Phillips came on strong last year and stepped into a starting role late in the season. He was thought to be the most likely starter across from Terrell going into OTAs, but Hughes came on strong in the off-season to emerge as the new projected starter. But... Hughes can certainly play nickel. And it looked to me like Hamilton was playing some on the outside against Miami. So to me it's a big mix-and-match, which is a Good Thing. Even if three guys get banged up, the team will be able to field a full CB group, especially keeping in mind that safety Richie Grant got playing time at nickel in his rookie season. So now the question is whether everyone can even fit on the roster. That's tricky... if they don't want to lose Hellams for the year by putting him on IR in preseason, he'll have to be one of the 53, at least for a day. Once he's moved to IR, I'd guess that the team would want to keep all 10 of the other players named so far on the active roster. The other challenge is that the team is also insanely deep on the defensive line. And on the offensive line. You can't stash extra players in every group, so it's possible someone expected to make the roster ends up without a chair when the music stops. That's bad news for safety prospect Lukas Denis, cornerback prospect Anthony Johnson and the rest of the DB hopefuls, as the team simply won't have the openings this year like it did two years ago. But for the rest of us... wow... Justin Simmons and Jessie Bates, and a CB group so deep that veterans like Hamilton and King are having to compete to win a spot on the roster. It seems pretty clear that the Falcons are full tilt in "win now" mode.
Not too shabby. Stay healthy and a lot can happen. And guess what? The Falcons are tied for 31st in 'strength of schedule', opponents win% of just .433... I personally dont put too much stock in SoS, but it may be something, thats why they play the games.
