Hello everybody! Hopefully you had a relaxing weekend with that Falcons win on Thursday night. I took a little time myself, so now I’m rolling out the snap counts a bit late.
Here they are, plus some interesting personnel notes.
Offense
QB Michael Penix Jr: 71
LT Jake Matthews: 71
LG Matthew Bergeron: 71
C Ryan Neuzil: 71
RG Chris Lindstrom: 71
RT Jawaan Taylor: 71
WR Drake London: 66
RB Bijan Robinson: 51
WR Jahan Dotson: 47
TE Charlie Woerner: 43
TE Kyle Pitts: 42
WR Olamide Zaccheaus: 24
RB Brian Robinson: 19
TE Nick
Muse: 17
TE Austin Hooper: 16
WR Zachariah Branch: 13
WR Chris Blair: 13
OL Corey Levin: 1
OL Kyle Hinton: 1
OL Mike Jerrell: 1
Kevin Stefanski and Tommy Rees had a reputation for leaning heavily on their tight ends last year, with Harold Fannin and David Njoku getting a ton of run. What flew under the radar a bit is that they fairly frequently used three tight ends, with Blake Whiteheart getting around 22% of the offensive snaps in 2025, and they’ve cranked up that usage mightily in 2026 in Atlanta.
Besides Pitts and Woerner getting a ton of run, Austin Hooper has been on the field for nearly 30% of the offensive snaps and Nick Muse is pulling down about 18%. The Falcons love Hooper’s well-rounded game—familiar to Stefanski from their shared time in Cleveland—and Muse has simply played himself into a real role as a blocking specialist. Because this team loves to run the ball, I don’t expect to see sharp declines in 13 personnel the rest of the way.
The other note here is that the Falcons are already experimenting with their receiver snap counts with nobody but London standing out, as Dotson’s having playing time chipped away by Blair and Zaccheaus. Somebody’s going to need to make the leap soon.
Defense
S Xavier Watts: 6
ILB Divine Deablo: 66
S Jessie Bates: 65
CB CJ Henderson: 63
CB Mike Hughes: 56
OLB Cameron Thomas: 45
ILB Harold Perkins Jr.: 43
CB Billy Bowman Jr.: 43
DL Brandon Dorlus: 43
DL Maason Smith: 34
OLB Za’Darius Smith: 33
DL Gervon Dexter: 30
ILB Kendal Daniels: 25
OLB Bralen Trice: 21
DL Zach Harrison: 19
DL LaCale London: 19
DB Sydney Brown: 18
OLB Yasir Abdullah: 15
CB Avieon Terrell: 13
OLB Jared Ivey: 8
S DeMarcco Hellams: 1
The Falcons have focused on building a deep group up front so they can pull different levers based on the matchup, and so far that’s working quite well. After getting a ton of snaps a week ago, Abdullah and Ivey took a backseat to Thomas (who dominated snaps off the edge) and Trice. Similarly, the Falcons used Perkins more than Daniels this week, and Perkins responded with his best game as a pro (while Daniels still did well, mind you). Riding the hot hand works, as Thomas, Dexter, and Dorlus (who also unsurprisingly got a ton of run) combined for 19 pressures on the day against Jordan Love.
Right now, the item to watch in the secondary is Hughes’ status. Henderson was lights out and is clearly going to start while A.J. Terrell is on the shelf, and Brown and Bowman are going to lock down nickel snaps. That leaves Avieon Terrell with a smaller role, but if Hughes continues to struggle, perhaps Terrell the Younger will take the job.
Special teams
Nick Muse: 21
DeMarcco Hellams: 20
Josh Woods: 20
Mike Ford: 17
Sydney Brown: 16
Harold Perkins Jr.: 15
Yasir Abdullah: 15
Christian Harris: 14
Chris Blair: 14
Nick Folk: 12
Charlie Woerner: 10
Kendal Daniels: 8
Xavier Watts: 8
Liam McCullough: 7
Jake Bailey: 7
Mike Jerrell: 5
Zachariah Branch: 5
Matthew Bergeron: 5
Zach Harrison: 5
Kyle Hinton: 5
Divine Deablo: 5
Ryan Neuzil: 5
Corey Levin: 5
Jake Matthews: 5
Maason Smith: 4
Gervon Dexter: 4
LaCale London: 4
Brian Robinson: 3
CJ Henderson: 3
Olamide Zaccheaus: 3
Austin Hooper: 3
Bralen Trice: 1
The Falcons have yet to unlock any sort of consistency from their return game. Zachariah Branch made a weird decision to return on that cost the Falcons yards, in the same way Brain Robinson hesitated in Week 1. There’s a lot of talent in this special teams group and some good blockers out there, so it’s probably just a matter of time.
Ford, meanwhile, has now missed three tackles in three games; he missed eight a year ago while piling up 13 tackles and now has 19 missed tackles on special teams in his two-plus seasons with the Falcons. If returners are going to keep putting him on skates, this might be his last year in Atlanta.
