The Falcoholic
The Falcons have added multiple new faces to inside linebacker, but the sure things are few and far between.
Inside linebacker is not at the top of the list of needs for the Atlanta Falcons, but it is still a position with more question marks than the Riddler’s favorite pajamas. Outside of one established veteran about to hit 30 years of age, the group is young players who are new to the team and young players who either don’t profile as starters or have had their careers derailed by injury.
It all adds up to a very unsettled picture. I can’t tell you with a high degree of confidence how much Jalon Walker is going to play off-ball linebacker, whether Troy Andersen will be and can stay healthy, and whether Divine Deablo will grab and keep a starting job. That uncertainty means this is a group with one sure thing and many questions that will have to be answered over the summer; the ideal version of this group will offer the Falcons the potential to rotate players based on situations and could be a legitimate asset, while the worst case scenario has the Falcons leaning heavily on Elliss again with others struggling or hurt.
We’ll keep this one relatively brief because of that uncertainty, but let’s go.
The one slam dunk in the group. Elliss is no great shakes in coverage, but he does just about everything else well, from consistently useful run defense to impactful pass rushing and solid tackling, even if he missed a few too many in that last category a year ago. The Falcons have at times figured ways to get Elliss going as a pressure player and it has paid massive dividends, but it’s the run defense that’s going to be especially key with the Falcons having a largely untested line working in front of him.
The Falcons should—and will try—to limit Elliss’s coverage responsibilities as much as is reasonable while keeping him on the field as much as possible to take advantage of everything else he does well. Durable, reliable, and at times phenomenal when he gets going, Elliss is one of the small handful of defenders the Falcons know they can rely on, which makes him an absolutely critical player in an unsettled position group.
Andersen is on a fast track to becoming the latest in a line of tantalizing players who have had their careers wrecked by injury, joining Peria Jerry and Marlon Davidson as fairly recent examples of the genre. Andersen appeared in 17 games in an uneven but promising rookie season, but the past two years has been in just nine games, putting together a couple of dominant efforts in that limited sample size but otherwise either missing games entirely or looking something less than 100%.
If he’s healthy, Andersen still has the coverage ability and raw tools to be a useful starter, but the Falcons...
