Fresh off their fourth loss in five games, the Atlanta Falcons will be a seller at the trade deadline, moving safety Jessie Bates to the Jacksonville Jaguars for a 2027 second round pick and 2028 fifth round pick. The team’s huge free agency splash in 2023 is gone after a fantastic run in Atlanta that spanned about three-and-a-half seasons, and the Falcons are loading up to try and remake their roster in 2027.
Per Jonathan Jones, who I cited above, the Falcons will eat some of the contract to facilitate a move. That’s not surprising given that they’re going to be sitting on plenty of cap space next year and clearly want more early draft selections for next year and beyond. With Bates moving to Jacksonville, I’d have to expect that DeMarcco Hellams, Sydney Brown, or both will be taking on his snaps next to Xavier Watts, but we’ll get more clarity on that in the week ahead.
For the moment, let’s appreciate what Bates gave the Falcons while he was here. Few safeties in franchise history were more impactful than Bates, who had 14 interceptions, three interceptions returned for touchdowns, 11 forced fumbles, and a fumble returned for a touchdown in his time in Atlanta. While he was typically solid-to-excellent in coverage and provided sure tackling throughout his tenure, the big plays were why the Falcons signed him and the big plays were worth every penny. He was a game changing player who lifted lousy defenses and headline great ones, and it goes without saying that this will be a greatly diminished Falcons defense in 2026 without him. I’ll miss watching him play for my favorite team, and I’m grateful we got to do so for the past four years.
The Falcons looked at the writing on the wall for their 2026 and clearly felt their chances of making a real run were not worth as much as the long-term lift they could get from another second round pick next year; time will tell as always whether that calculus was the right one. It will be incumbent on a front office that has had some promising signings and trades to make sure that trading away a safety as good as Bates doesn’t come back to haunt them.
In the short term, as I said above, I’d expect run for Hellams and Brown. Getting Brown back at safety full-time would free up snaps at the nickel for Mike Hughes and Avieon Terrell, who seem likely to split that role going forward on most Sundays; I’d welcome seeing more of Hellams’ big hits as well.
We wish Bates well in Jacksonville, thank him for the phenomenal plays and fond memories, and hope the Falcons can turn their new draft picks into players who can help to create the next great team in Atlanta.
