Falcons: Grading each defensive position vs. Lions
Coverage linebackers – Mykal Walker, Rashaan Evans, Dorian Etheridge, Nate Landman
This position for the Falcons still has a lot of uncertainty to it. The Falcons did not have rookie Troy Anderson, Nick Kwiatkowski, and obviously Deion Jones.
Those are two, if not three (although unlikely with Kwiatkowski), linebackers who will probably make the roster.
It really is a crowded position, as you figure that Troy Anderson, Rashaan Evans, and Mykal Walker are basically roster locks. And then you have Deion Jones who will probably make the roster barring anything unsuspected.
Anyways, that is beside the point, Mykal Walker and Rashaan Evans only got ten snaps each and they struggled a bit, both allowing a catch on one target, and they deserve part of the blame for the Lions being able to walk right through the Falcons’ defense on their first drive.
Past those two, you only have Dorian Etheridge and Nate Landman, two promising young players.
As you can probably guess, these two guys got a lot of snaps. Etheridge got 33, while Landman got 69 snaps which were by far the most on the team.
Dorian Etheridge was decent, but the real star of the show was Nate Landman who could end up creating a problem for the Falcons coaching staff during roster cuts — a good problem.
Landman did everything, he rushed the passer, he dropped into coverage, and he defended against the run. He was targetted two times in coverage and only allowed one catch for three yards with 40 coverage snaps overall, that is phenomenal.
The coaching staff obviously has a lot of intrigue with Nate Landman. While some of it has to do with the fact they only had two backup linebackers, they gave him 23 more snaps than any other player on the team. He held this unit up.