It’s not just household names like Jessie Bates and AJ Terrell holding it down for the Falcons defense. This defense is fast, athletic, physical, and getting it done, and it’s thanks in large part to a bunch
of guys the average NFL viewer has never heard of.
Take last Sunday’s win against the Bills as an example. The Falcons had four sacks, three tackles for loss, and two picks against Josh Allen and the Bills offense, and that doesn’t even come close to encapsulating the sum total of what they did on that field.
Divine Deablo’s impact on Monday went so far beyond the box score that he received Secret Superstar honors from SB Nation’s Doug Farrar for his five-tackle game vs. the Buffalo Bills. Zach Harrison’s stat line just shows two tackles, but his pressure on Allen was key on the two picks, and these guys — along with other under-the radar players in Atlanta — have been difference-makers for the No. 1 team in defensive DVOA so far this season.
On Friday, I asked Raheem Morris about the impact Harrison and Deablo have had on this dramatically improved Falcons defense.
“Zach, he’s been contributing right from the beginning, and he has been absolutely outstanding, particularly on some of the past things where you don’t see him that way, but he’s kind of working some things on the edge for us. He’s working some things inside, the interior, has the length, has come to play,” Morris said of Harrison. “You thought he had some of those skill sets because of his pass rush that he’s showing on punt return when he was able to rush the punters, to do some of those different of things, and he’s really showed up in a big way for us. And his contributions on Monday night were awesome, particularly ending games like that, but going out there and playing throughout the course of the season where he’s been one of our guys up front, who at one point was leading in sacks — it is a lot of fun to see him grow and watching and they go out there and play.”
Harrison, who joined the Falcons via the third round of the 2023 NFL Draft out of The Ohio State University, has played in 38 games for Atlanta with six starts — including all five games so far this season. He’s contributed 6.5 sacks, four pass breakups, a forced fumble, nine tackles for loss, and nine quarterback hits over that span.
Deablo, a third-round pick out of Virginia Tech for the Raiders in 2021, looks like a player who just desperately needed a coaching staff to understand how to make the most of his skill set. Over four seasons with the Raiders, he had six pass breakups, two fumble recoveries, two sacks, 10 tackles for loss, and two QB hits over 59 games with 47 starts. In Atlanta, he has four pass breakups, one fumble recovery, half a sack, one tackle for loss and one QB hit — over FIVE GAMES, five starts.
That’s a pretty outstanding for a guy whose current deal accounts for just 1.77% of the total salary cap this season.
“I don’t know that he’s been quiet at this point. I think it’s kind of been really loud on how well he’s been playing and how good he’s been playing and how awesome he’s been,” Morris said of the Secret Superstar. “Just to watch him move around, make tackles, he can cover, do all the different things he’s able to do.”
Other notes from Friday’s practice:
- Worried about Jake Matthews’ status for Sunday? Raheem Morris isn’t. “I’m expecting 184,” he said about Matthews, who has 183 consecutive starts for the Falcons since being drafted in 2014.
- Whatever is keeping Ray-Ray McCloud away from the team, it’s an excused absence and a personal matter. Raheem Morris said it isn’t related to the firing of Ike Hilliard and McCloud’s close relationship with the former WRs coach who was fired after the shutout loss to the Carolina Panthers. “I sent him home. He’s going through some things right now that are private with my young man, and we’ll figure those things out as we go,” Morris said. Morris also said that he wouldn’t call it “a disciplinary thing.”
- Morris was also asked about Dee Alford’s improvement this season. “He didn’t have a great year last year. He had a tough year. This year, he’s really shown out. I think that’s what happens in football, you get placed in some roles, and you have to do certain things and things don’t go well, you know, it’s kind of a landslide and to watch them be able to bounce back, you know, become the backup at both outside corner and inside corner, and it’s shown up in this early part of the season, but I’m having to start him at both positions sometimes — two games on the outside, I believe, one in, inside at nickel, and he has his role when he just goes in there himself, and what he’s been doing on special teams really is underrated, and I’m super proud of him. He’s super intentional about his growth, his belief, and it is nice to have a guy to go out there that you’ve got a lot of confidence in.”
