The Atlanta Falcons are leaning into the notion that you don't need to make a lot of picks in the NFL Draft to make instant impact players. They entered the 2026 Draft with just five picks (and no first-rounder), they came away with six, yet still managed to address all of their most important needs.
For Ian Cunningham's first draft as the Falcons' general manager, the early returns have been positive. Avieon Terrell, Zachariah Branch, Kendal Daniels, and Harold Perkins Jr. have all shown flashes of becoming solid contributors, even if none of them have displayed All-Pro potential yet.
And that's exactly what Atlanta needs. Going 4-for-6 on draft picks in your opening draft (66.7%) is a solid hit rate, but it's a long season and we need to keep evaluating them. A player can look good now and struggle later, but in the case of these four, things will ebb and flow as they keep getting their feet wet.
So in doing that, we are bringing back the ever-familiar rookie stock report for the Falcons' rookie class. We'll be looking at the four we mentioned: Terrell, Branch, Daniels, and Perkins after the Week 3 win over the Packers since Ethan Onianwa was a healthy inactive and Anterio Thompson is still hurt.
So with that in mind, let's see how the rooks are doing.
Evaluating the Atlanta Falcons' rookie class through 3 weeks of 2026
CB Avieon Terrell
Second-round cornerback Avieon Terrell has been a bright spot for this Falcons' secondary across the first three weeks. He's been one of the top rookie corners in football, and has primarily started at nickel for this defense, but Billy Bowman Jr.'s return meant he was no longer working out of the slot.
When his big brother A.J. Terrell went down with an injury, the Falcons were expected to rely upon the 21-year-old to play a key role on the back-end--and was expected to get some looks on the outside. But with Bowman in the nickel and C.J. Henderson and Mike Hughes starting on the outside, his snap share decreased considerably as Avieon played just 13 defensive snaps in the 21-point victory.
The good news here is that all but one of these snaps came on the outside and he subbed in for both Henderson and Hughes on the boundary--and was not targeted all game. So while he played well again, it was seeing his snap share go down so much that makes it hard not to be a little discouraged.
Verdict: Stock a tiny bit down
WR Zachariah Branch
Like Terrell, third-round wideout Zachariah Branch played a career-low number of snaps on offense, but game script played a factor in this. Compared to the first two games, where the Dirty Birds were mostly playing from behind and were forced to pass, they led all game and leaned on the run game.
The good news is that he saw action with the Falcons' starters on the first two drives and seems to be bridging the gap between himself and Olamide Zaccheus for the WR3 job. He caught a seven-yard pass and did his thing on special teams--so his versatility is helping him find ways to stay on the field.
Branch was particularly effective as a run blocker on Thursday night (to the point he led the team in run blocking grade). He had a nice block on Keisean Nixon on one Bijan Robinson run. For a 5-foot-9, 177-pound receiver, that level of effort as a blocker is something Kevin Stefanski lives for.
Verdict: Stock slightly up
LB Kendal Daniels
Frankly, fourth-round linebacker Kendal Daniels has been the most impressive of Atlanta's rookies to date. He's started opposite Divine Deablo since Week 1 and has been making plays all over the football field, but Week 3 against the Packers saw things start to trend in an opposite direction.
In each of his first two NFL games, the 23-year-old played over 40 snaps apiece, but he also saw a decreased snap share in the dominant win. He played a career-low 25 snaps, while Harold Perkins Jr. played almost twice as many snaps--so the LB pecking order Jeff Ulbrich went for seems to have been flipped upside down.
It's weird because when he did play he had a couple of nice TFLs too, so it seems like Daniels is in a similar situation as Terrell. Unless this is Ulbrich trying to manage the workload of his prized rookie, I'm not entirely sure what is going on here.
Verdict: Stock slightly down
LB Harold Perkins Jr.
The Falcons knew they found a steal when they managed to land Harold Perkins Jr. outside of the top 200 a year after he was projected to be a first-round pick in 2025. The talent was there, but because teams didn't know where to play an undersized, versatile linebacker, they overthought it and he fell to the late sixth round.
Falcons fans quickly realized this guy was a stud, as it quickly became clear during training camp and the preseason. And that's seemingly carried over to the regular season, as Perkins took on a larger snap share in the win over the Packers, essentially taking on the Daniels role next to Deablo at LB2.
And the guy looked good. In 43 total snaps, 40 of them came in coverage, and he fared pretty well. I know not everyone loves PFF, but Perkins' 83.8 coverage grade led the team and was fifth among all linebackers in Week 3--while his 82.6 defensive grade was third among rookie LBs, only behind Arvell Reese and Sonny Styles.
That's two top ten picks, so essentially Perk is playing at a similar level as those first-round guys, and he should continue eating into Daniels' workload.
Verdict: Stock skyrocketing
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