The Falcoholic
Who’s at the top of the leaderboards? Names you’d suspect, by and large.
The Atlanta Falcons have an exciting, pretty young offense to roll out, and they’re trying to get younger on defense as well. It will not surprise you to learn that with an exception or two, the defense and special teams active leaderboards for a host of statistics are nonetheless veterans, from big name free agent signings to homegrown stars to players who took a unique journey to Atlanta.
We’re very much in the quiet part of the summer, so now’s a fine time to look at those leaderboards for defense and special teams. Let’s do so now.
Tackles: 233, A.J. Terrell, 34th
Interceptions: 10, Jessie Bates, 24th
Sacks: 14.5, Arnold Ebiketie, 35th
Tackles for a loss: 14, David Onyemata, 33rd
Quarterback hits: 35, Arnold Ebiketie, 8th
Interceptions returned for touchdowns: 2, Jessie Bates, 10th
Pass Deflections: 49, A.J. Terrell, 5th
Forced Fumbles: 7, Jessie Bates, 14th
Safeties: 1, Dee Alford/Zach Harrison, tied for 4th
The players on this list are largely the ones you’d expect. Ebiketie has been the team’s most consistent pass rushing threat over the past three seasons (as depressing as that is, given his modest sack totals), Bates is the author of big plays at a clip that makes him a real threat to best the team’s all-time leader in interceptions returned for touchdowns, forced fumbles, and so forth, and Terrell has been around long enough and has played well enough to be rolling through pass deflections and tackles. The only surprises here might be tackles for a loss with David Onyemata—again, per Pro Football Reference’s numbers—and the safety total.
Bates is the mind-boggling one, as he’s authored some of the biggest plays in recent memory in a very short stint in Atlanta. To put his numbers in some perspective, the all-time record for interceptions returned for touchdowns in Atlanta belongs to Deion Jones with five, and only Deion Sanders and Kevin Mathis have more than Bates’ two. Bates’ seven forced fumbles are a long way behind all-time leader John Abraham’s 24, but he’s third on the all-time list for forced fumbles from a defensive back, behind Keanu Neal (8) and William Moore (11) and has a realistic shot to catch both.
Fascinatingly, Alford and Harrison represent nearly 1/8th of the team’s all-time safety total and they’re both currently playing for Atlanta. The Falcons only have 17 all-time safeties.
Punt returns: 20, Dee Alford, 33rd
Punt return yardage: 160, Dee Alford, 32nd
Punt return average: 8.0 yards, Dee Alford, 39th
Kick returns: 14, Ray-Ray McCloud, 56th
Kick return yardage: 361, Ray-Ray McCloud, 46th
Kick return average: 25.8, Ray-Ray McCloud, 12th
With Avery Williams departing, this list really only has one year of work on it for both punt and kick returns. Alford isn’t going to be in the mix often for punt returns unless he’s A) a backup and B) something happens to Jamal Agnew,...
