Fire and Ice to Spark Atlanta Falcons Secondary

While teams can win with an abundance of one personality trait, the Atlanta Falcons hope to do it with different ones. From the Grits Blitz to Prime Time to the Dirty Birds, the franchise thrived with a mix of personalities. 

As Steve Bartkowski and Matt Ryan presented a calm demeanor, others, like Deion Sanders, provided a different vibe. That aura, as any younger generation will tell you, is that varied atmosphere means that the team can come together with an array of different viewpoints and attitudes.

The Falcons invested heavily on the defensive side of the ball in April’s draft, including a pair of defensive backs who could end up starting sooner rather than later. Third-round pick Xavier Watts has the inside track to start at safety next to Jessie Bates, and fourth-round pick Billy Bowman was taken to push for the starting nickel spot. 

Bowman, for all intents and purposes, is an undersized defensive back who relies on speed and feistiness to succeed. Meanwhile, Watts approaches the game far differently. Yet, each holds a key to the secondary's success. 

In Watts, you see a safety with ball skills and range that will make plays, hoping to form an elite safety combo with Bates III. On the other hand, Bowman will eventually win the nickel spot, with the opportunity to make plays.

 "The personality difference isn’t consequential to the Falcons, though, because Bowman and Watts are remarkably similar players: offensive standouts in high school who helped their teams to undefeated state championship seasons with a track record of impressive interception numbers and went on to have decorated careers at major universities,” wrote Josh Kendell on The Athletic. 

 "Both players were draft values for the Falcons, too, according to The Athletic’s Dane Brugler, who had Watts projected as a second-round pick and Bowman as a third-round pick,” Kendall continued. “The 6-foot, 204-pound Watts was Brugler’s third-ranked safety, and the 5-10, 192-pound Bowman was his fifth-ranked safety.”

Of course, Brugler graded the Falcons 30th out of 32 teams despite his own company’s analytics giving the Falcons an ‘A’ with Brugler’s draft rankings. But that’s another story. 

Of the two, Bowman is the one who will gamble on an interception, while Watts will cheat downfield, giving himself a bit of cushion in coverage. Similarly, Bowman's t-step will find him downhill on tackle attempts. Some of them he will miss because of a limited tackle radius and reliance on aggression. 

At the same time, Watts will put his face mask into place, taking on as many blocks as possible. While the Oklahoma standout seems reckless, his track record of big plays speaks for itself. Teams, especially good ones, need that type of madman to take the fight to the offense and not vice versa.

The Atlanta secondary, except for A.J. Terrell and Bates, could not cover. They were left in acres of space by playing off receivers and got very little support from the pass rush. Teams openly disrespected the Falcons with long, methodical, and largely successful scoring drives. 

While the two first-round edge rushers have gotten most of the attention since the draft, Fire and ice on the backside can be just as impactful.