The Good and Not So Good from Falcons Camp Day 8: Michael Penix INTs, Deablo Shines

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga – Day 8 of Atlanta Falcons training camp made for another cold, wet morning. With a second straight day of rainfall, the team opted to move practices indoors. 

There is just one more open practice remaining until Friday’s preseason game with the Lions, but see below for all of the reactions from Tuesday’s practice. 

Wide receiver rotations

With Darnell Mooney’s prolonged absence ongoing, the Falcons have looked to several different players to fill that void. As expected, Drake London has shone all through camp, but made some especially impressive plays today. 

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Casey Washington has continued to be a primary option as the ‘X’ receiver, and it appears that he has established himself as a fifth or sixth option at wide receiver. David Sills V has also made appearances with the 1s throughout camp and caught a touchdown pass from Michael Penix on Tuesday.

“He's faster than you think. He's stronger than you think,” head coach Raheem Morris said of Sills last week. “He's got great hands. He's a great guy. He's a smack talker. You like a lot about him. What I really love about him is the crossover talk that you get from the defensive backs. When you talk to an [Dee] Alford, you talk to all of those guys that play against him, and they talk about how unique his skill set is and some of the things that he can do. It kind of fires you up.”

Nick Nash took reps with the 2s and the 3s, but he only caught one pass apiece today from both Easton Stick and Emory Jones, while DJ Chark has been primarily with the 3s – Chark did come down with a nice touchdown catch on a Kirk Cousins pass, his first big play since signing with Atlanta. 

The wide receiver room remains very competitive. The Falcons will likely carry six, maybe seven, guys on their 53-man roster after keeping just five to start the season last year. 

There is a good chance that five of those spots may have already been claimed by London, Mooney, Ray-Ray McCloud, KhaDarel Hodge,  and Jamal Agnew (KR/PR), so whoever gets that final spot remains up in the air. 

Divine Deablo is called “the avatar” of the defense

The newly added Falcons linebacker has taken nearly all the reps with the 1s alongside Kaden Ellis so far, and he has taken advantage of his opportunity. 

“Man, he had a really good day today, and he had a really good day yesterday,” Kaden Ellis said about his running mate on defense. “From the jump, when he got here, you could tell he’s a great athlete. Coach calls him “the avatar,” like he has long limbs, he’s fast, and he can cover. He played safety, and he’s a special, special athlete.”

Deablo made several plays on the ball carrier today, mixing in a few tackles for loss. Ellis said he was just all over the place, saying he can be “special” when that energy gets set loose. 

Standing in front of the Falcons’ new linebacker, it’s exceedingly noticeable just how long he is. He measured 6-foot-3 and ¼” inch coming out of Virginia Tech with 33” arms. By comparison, offensive tackle Jake Matthews had 33 ⅓” arms.

That size and athleticism will add a lot to a room that was searching for someone to play alongside Ellis in the middle of the field. The open, attack-minded scheme from Jeff Ulbrich could help him unlock that next gear.

He may not hail from Pandora, but he does appear to have been a sneaky fantastic addition to the linebacker room this season. Through eight practices, Deablo is equally thrilled about coming to Atlanta. 

“Just the energy these guys bring,” he said about what he finds enjoyable about playing in this defense. “I feel like there’s no egos out there and everybody just wants to play for each other.” 

Deablo says it is his goal to take better care of his body this season, while continuing to dig into film study when he would normally take a break. 

Secondary rotations 

In the absence of Xavier Watts, Jordan Fuller appeared to run almost exclusively with the first team today during practice. This has been pretty consistent throughout camp, and the two have split time when both are active during the team portions of practice. 

Billy Bowman Jr. and Mike Ford got a few reps with the 1s today, too, but only for a handful of plays. DeMarcco Hellams, who we’ll get to in just a moment, looked very strong today. 

Like the wide receiver position, this will be an important group to monitor on Friday night. 

Interceptions  

Michael Penix Jr. was a little up and down this morning, throwing a few interceptions during various parts of practice. 

Ford came away with one – that, admittedly, may have hit the ground – on a deflected pass, Josh Thompson came away with one on a deep out route, and Hellams had one during the red zone drills. The latter of the two came on a pair of aggressive throws from Penix. 

On all three of these plays, the defense celebrated boisterously. 

“We’re trying to create these explosives in the run game and the pass game, which we’ll do, but [the defense] is so energetic,” Bijan Robinson said after practice. “If they make a big play, they’re gonna make it known.” 

Robinson admitted that energy has annoyed him at times during camp, but he also said that it’s something he wants in his defense because he said it makes the whole team better. 

“We want them to set that edge, have that edge,” he said. “Because we're gonna bring it on our side, so if they bring it on their side, too, we'll be a hard team to stop.” 

Special Teams notes

There was a lot of competition in special teams drills today, and this will be an important thing to watch for when the team sees its first preseason action on Friday. 

If the season were to end today, Jamal Agnew would be the presumed starting punt returner. Generally, he is the primary guy taking those reps during drills, but Ray-Ray McCloud and Mike Hughes also caught during that portion. 

Other notes

• Starting offensive tackles Kaleb McGary and Jake Matthews left early in practice and neither returned. Storm Norton was also unavailable today for unknown reasons. This is no reason for concern, but it allowed Jack Nelson and Brandon Parker to get extended work with the first team today in their stead. 

• Linebacker JD Bertrand was seen wearing a yellow jersey and was not involved in team activities.