Film Study: Why did the Atlanta Falcons sign Jessie Bates? 

You guys are all sleeping on the Falcons. T Fonz is quietly putting together a GM of the year campaign.

Because the defense was horrible last year. That’s why. They don’t need to address the “QB problem” yet because they’re testing out Ridder, a 3rd round pick. Ridder improved in each of his 4 starts and looked poised and confident. Why not test him out for a year to see what he’s got and sign a decent back up. That’s why they signed Heinicke. Low risk, possible high reward

They had $60m in cap space and have a best player available mentality, so getting the best free agent safety sounds right on brands with how they want to build

If Atlanta didn’t pay Bates, someone else would have. Also, this notion of Atlanta building “from the backend to the front” would only apply if that meant they had nothing up front. Grady Jarret is there, Ta’quan Graham is there who was emerging before his injury, and a signed Onyemata is there who is a proven talent at dt. Eddie Goldman was reinstated after coming back from retirement.. and we have a few pass rushers most notably Arnold Ebiketie who ranked among the top in the league in terms of pass rush win rate. They brought in Ellis who like Onyemata is an ex ain’t and played extremely well off of each other. These acquisitions will enhance what we already had on this team and will really bring to light the talent that was hidden due to poor play in spots around them. If we bring in Calais Campbell, he’ll give us an extremely deep defensive interior that will keep others fresh. Terry has improved this defense as a whole and Bates was essentially the icing on the cake, which is important being that we do play in a passing league. With the draft around the corner, there are opportunities to improve. People need to look out for this squad because if not for wacko mishaps last year… we could easily have taken the nfc south. We did after all play in 13 1-score games with 7 wins when most thought we’d win 2 games. We shall see what happens in ‘23.

Great Bengal! We wish him the best & sry we couldn't💰! I remember that draft I was like.. who? Lol but the tape looked good & he's been a star

Because he’s good?

Falcons low key putting together a solid squad‼️

We’re definitely competing this year. We’ve been rebuilding for 5 years now. I’m sick of it.

Once we draft Christian Gonzalez and release Casey Hayward as a Post-June 1 cut, our secondary is SET. The Defense has completely transformed. EDGE you have Ebiketie and Lorenzo, then you've got Jarret, Onyemata, Goldman, and Campbell. Ellis, Troy, and another LB (maybe Evans if he resigns) is a much better front 7 than last year. Grant and Bates are a good Safety combo. Then AJ, Christian and Mike Hughes. Definitely not the best defense or even top 10. But I'd say we can surely fall between top 15 and 20, average, as opposed to 31 or 32 like last year. We're running single high safety with more blitzing from our super fast LBs and now have the secondary to cover. I think we got get 30+ sacks this year. We got 22 last year and Campbell, Ellis and Onyemata combined for 17.5 just between the three of them last year.

Offense did decent but most of our problems came from defense mostly the secondary and linebacker core so we are building from the back to the front

Now do Tremaine Edmunds

Aye I missed the exit music

He is the best safety in the league

Because I wasn’t on thremarket anymore

Who needs a qb when you got the best guard/safety duo in the league? Am I right? Idk if it’s just me but it looks like Watson was pretty late in that first clip.

I love seeing the bengals get dismantled. Going to be even worse next off season

PFF is trash, regardless Jesse bates is a top 5 safety.

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