ATLANTA – A hush fell over the crowd of fans in attendance at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Friday night. The Falcons were running through one of their first 11-on-11 periods of the open practice when Dave Archer – who was emceeing the evening over the stadium speakings – spoke up.
"Everyone welcome back someone who we've missed since the middle of last season," Archer's voice boomed. "You know him. And remember his calling card..."
Archer paused for dramatic effect before lowering his voice a few octaves.
"You shall not pass," the former Falcons quarterback's voice echoed.
The cameraman zoomed in on Grady Jarrett, sandwiched between David Onyemata and Lorenzo Carter on the Falcons' defensive line, showing him clearly on the halo board at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The crowd gave the 10-year veteran the loudest cheer of the night.
This was just one singular moment of an evening made up of such moments as fans descended to the Falcons' stadium to see the team in their final open practice of training camp. The preseason starts next week, with the Falcons traveling down to Miami for joint practices against the Dolphins. A week from today, they'll be running out onto another stadium's field for their first of three preseason games.
Until then, though, the Falcons put in work.
Only this time with an audience.
Notes and observations
Sleeper picks: Last week, we wrote a bit about James Smith-Williams and the role he has seemed to assume as a starting outside linebacker in this scheme. His continued statement on that first-team defensive front got me thinking: Who are some other sleepers who have had sneaky good practices? Well, some other defensive linemen come to mind.
Eddie Goldman continues to get reps with the first team. Earlier this week, defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake said Goldman looks more the part now than he did when he first got to the facility this spring. Lake praised his conditioning, and it seems Goldman is getting more and more opportunities with the early defensive rotations.
Someone else to keep an eye on is Demone Harris. He was seen getting some first-team reps throughout Friday night's practice as well. Then, there's someone like Bradlee Anae, an outside linebacker who the Falcons had as a tryout player this spring. He's seeing increasing rotational work in certain packages.
Moving up the lineup: As each practice goes by, the more it seems the Falcons rely on Bralen Trice. With each snap, it feels like the Falcons are giving him more opportunities. Whether the first- or second-team defense was on the field, Trice was often there, too. He came in rotationally with the 1s, and "started" with the 2s. The Falcons' coaching staff likes him – that much is obvious. How quickly he can grow and mature into a key pass-rusher for this team? That we will have to put a pin in.
One more note about Trice, though, is that for as much as it feels like we're seeing more of him, it also -- at times -- feels like we're seeing less of Arnold Ebiketie. I don't have the breakdown in snap counts between the two, but a gut feeling is that Trice's would be the higher of the two.
"Koooooo": If Jarrett got the loudest reaction from the crowd, Younghoe Koo was a close second. During a two-minute drill, Koo nailed both of his would-be, game-winning kicks, one of which was a 53-yard field goal. There are very few training camp practices that can mimic the anticipation of a game-winning moment. This is as close as the Falcons will get until the season begins, and Koo didn't disappoint.
Speaking of two-minute drills: The situation was this...
The Falcons were down 23-21 with 1:05 on the clock. They had one timeout. Kirk Cousins and the first-team offense went through the situation first. Cousins went 4 for 4, hitting Kyle Pitts and Darnell Mooney once and Drake London twice. The Falcons got in field goal range for Koo with a handoff to Bijan Robinson. Cousins clocked it, and Koo came out for the game-winner from 41 yards out.
Something that was interesting about this run up to the field goal was that Jake Matthews – the Falcons' long-time left tackle – was not on the field until the field goal attempt. In his place was Storm Norton. This may very well be another example of the Falcons working to sure up their depth along the offensive line, giving reps to a backup in a stressful moment before taking on a live game situation.
Next came the second-team offense led by Michael Penix Jr. The rookie quarterback went 4 of 5 through the air, hitting Ross Dwelley twice to start the drive. After an incompletion to Rondale Moore, inside linebacker JD Bertrand had a nice blitz on second down that would have been a sack had the moment been truly live. Penix got back on track thereafter, hitting Moore and Josh Ali before clocking the ball at the 35-yard line. Koo came out to ice the moment with the aforementioned 53-yard field goal.
The final tally I know you want: I will preface this section of the camp report by saying these are the numbers I compiled from my notebook over the course of the practice's entirety. So, leave room for user error. But I can assure you that if these numbers are off, they can't be off by much.
Penix went 10 for 20 by my count, and had a couple bad-luck moments with receivers dropping a pass here and there, and a touchdown pass to Chris Blair ultimately called incomplete because Blair couldn't get a second foot down in the back of the end zone. Penix's best throw came early in 11-on-11s when he connected with fellow rookie Casey Washington as he was streaking towards the sideline.
As for Cousins, his night was nothing short of superb.
According to my notes, Cousins finished the night 19 of 21.
Yes, you read that right.
I only had Cousins throwing two incompletions on the night. Both were deep shots, which have a higher percentage of coming up incomplete anyways. After chatting with Will McFadden and Terrin Waack, we decided that there may have been one more incompletion in Cousins' total, but either way, the point still stands: Cousins was as accurate as you'd want – and need – him to be.
I also had Cousins connecting with six different pass catchers Friday night, but none more than London.
If the Cousins-to-Pitts connection took center stage at the Falcons' last open practice at Seckinger High School last weekend, then the Cousins-to-London connection was all the rage this week. There was little as exciting as Cousins hitting London down the sideline for a (let's just say) 30-plus-yard grab. London went up for the 50/50 ball, and came down with it. One could argue it was the best play of the entire practice, and the moment that left fans in attendance clamoring for more.
