Why Darnell Mooney Holds the Key to Unlocking Falcons’ Explosive Offense

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga – Darnell Mooney may be a key for the Atlanta Falcons in unlocking their explosive offense. The veteran wide receiver missed all of training camp with a shoulder injury before returning to the field for the Falcons’ Week 2 matchup with the Vikings. 

Mooney’s return to the offense was thought to be critical, given how much of an impact he has in the down field passing attack. He was a weapon in this regard last season, and he set a career mark in yards per reception (15.5) in his first year in Atlanta. Pairing him with a quarterback with a rocket of an arm was thought to be throwing kerosene onto a fire. 

That expectation has not come to fruition to this point in the season. While Mooney’s been healthy, his impact still has yet to be felt on Sundays. 

“That's definitely a goal that we have, to get him involved,” Falcons head coach Raheem Morris said. “He's in week two of really coming back. I'm fired up to see what he does in week three and week four, and then progressing, obviously, past the bye and what's going to happen next.”

In his two games, Mooney has been targeted 15 times, but he has caught just six passes for 64 yards. After missing all of camp, it feels like his connection with quarterback Michael Penix Jr. has been missing, but the young quarterback pushed back on that thought.

“I don't think so,” he explained. “I feel like we had a good offseason and I feel like our offseason was good enough to where like those couple of weeks that he [Darnell Mooney] did miss, we didn't –we weren't a step behind. I felt good about where we were, so I wouldn't put it on that.”

But the deep passing attack as a whole has been noticeably absent thus far this season. The Falcons rank dead last in deep passing rate (4%, according to PFF) and Penix is just 1-of-17 with an interception on passes of 15+ yards this season. 

After the way last season ended, most believed this team would find that extra gear early in 2025. Penix, from Weeks 16-18, threw for 316 yards on those same 15+ yard attempts, which was the second-highest total from that period. 

Offensive coordinator Zac Robinson said last week that it had more to do with the way defenses were playing them than anything else, but the lack of explosiveness has been glaring. Mooney’s return was supposed to bring that back, but he hasn’t. 

Despite leading the wide receiver room in snaps against Carolina, Robinson says it is just a matter of him getting his legs back under him.

“Everybody else had good callus throughout training camp to get ready for the season, [Mooney] is still getting back into it, he's getting his legs back,” Robinson said. “That's probably the most he's ever taken himself out of a game in Carolina the other day, because he typically – I mean, you can't get him off the field, and so that tells a lot that he is still working back into it. He's working his wind up. He's working his legs back, but anticipate that that's just going to continue to grow, continue to get better, continue to have confidence in his shoulder and everything in terms of taking hits and those types of things. So, I have no doubt that Mooney will get this thing rolling and should feel a lot like last year when we had those top two guys rolling. We were hard to stop in the pass game.” 

Regardless of how teams are playing them, the Falcons should be able to dictate their own terms, especially given the level of talent and investment they have made into this offense. They did it well on the ground in Week 2 against the Vikings, but then it disappeared in Charlotte their next time out. 

A good portion of that comes back to not getting Mooney involved enough in the offense. It was not for a lack of effort, they targeted him 11 times on Sunday against the Panthers. Penix just misthrew several of those passes and did not give him a chance to make a play. 

“Just keep giving him [Darnell Mooney] opportunities,” Penix said, taking the onus on himself to get his veteran the ball. “Obviously he's a great pass-catcher. He's a great route runner and he's going to get open. So just giving him those opportunities and putting him in position to be great. And like I said, the ball is in my hand every play. So I have to find a way to get him the ball.”

The connection between Mooney and Penix is imperative, and the lack of success deep is a perfect example of what can happen when that connection is broken. When Mooney is going, he’s as threatening as anyone on this offense. When Mooney is involved, he forces defenses to account for him on every play. 

“You feel his speed. You feel even when he's motioning in the run game, all the eyes are on him, ‘What's he going to do? Is he running a route? Oh, we're handing it off,’” Robinson said last week. “So, I think all that stuff with just his presence out there, obviously he's a huge comfort for all of our skill guys because he's such a smart player.”

To this point, defenses have been able to take Mooney away entirely. That may change in the weeks to come as he ramps back up, but the onus will be on the Falcons to make sure that next step comes sooner rather than later. Any eventual return to success with this offense may depend on it. 

“You’ve definitely got to get him going, and that's something that we definitely look forward to doing,” Morris finished. “When he's going and he's explosive, we're explosive. When he's going and he's not explosive, we’ve got people underneath explosive. I think that stuff all kind of ties into it for all of us.”