The Falcoholic
The Atlanta Falcons and Tennessee Titans spent a lot of time together this week. The team from Nashville made the trip down to Georgia early in the week and spent Tuesday and Wednesday at Flowery Branch, participating in two days of joint practice before the preseason clash.
The second day in particular was a highly emotional and hotly contested bout. By the time they kicked off against each other on Friday evening at Mercedes Benz Stadium, both teams were highly familiar with one another.
The Falcons seemed to have gotten the better of their neighboring southern football club in joint practice, but the Titans won the day during the official game, 23-20. The Falcons decided to once again withhold their entire lineup on offense as well as many defensive veteran starters.
The battle for final roster spots and potential practice squad places raged on. Here are some winners and losers from the second preseason game in 2025.
If you want a training camp story of football perseverance, look no further than Natrone Brooks, who’s currently in his third consecutive Falcons training camp since being signed as an undrafted free agent in 2023. He failed to make the 53-man roster heading into the season in each of the past two years, being among the final cuts each time, but has stuck on the practice squad (and was even elevated to the main roster a couple times last season).
Given that Atlanta’s cornerback depth seems more questionable than ever, Brooks seems to have a better chance than ever before of being on the Week 1 roster. He has been working as the primary outside cornerback opposite Lamar Jackson with the second team, after being in the contest for primary nickel CB in the very early days of camp.
Brooks had the play of the game for the Atlanta defense, intercepting Brandon Allen on a late second quarter play and returning it 33 yards to finally spark what was a dead Falcons team up to that point. He added in another pass defensed and was the only player to return any kickoffs.
Brooks’ arrow has been pointing up all camp (he’s also been the only Falcon to intercept Penix thus far in camp), and he’s now had his signature moment of brilliance. I would guess that he’s the top second string outside cornerback on the depth chart as of now.
Don’t look now, but the RB3 race is suddenly heating up, and it’s Nathan Carter staking his claim to that spot. The rookie out of Michigan State was the starting running back for Atlanta and he was by far the most effective runner, with Jashaun Corbin and Elijah Dotson each averaging a pitiful 1.2 and 1.0 yards per rush in their attempts.
Carter’s moment of the night came on a 3rd-and-10 early in the third quarter (with owner Arthur Blank on the broadcast), when he was given the handoff out of the shotgun, picked...
