In his first offseason as the Atlanta Falcons' general manager, Ian Cunningham made his fair share of trades.
He brought in Maason Smith in exchange for Ruke Orhorhoro and a couple of draft-board manuevers, but his most intriguing move was acquiring Sydney Brown away from the Philadelphia Eagles. A highly- versatile DB who needs a scenery change for the low price of two pick swaps? Sign me up.
The Falcons have quickly been vindicated for making this move. Brown was one of their biggest standouts during training camp, and he also led the team with both six tackles and with an 82.6 tackling grade from Pro Football Focus in their preseason opener against the Denver Broncos.
Atlanta has experimented with the veteran DB as both a safety and a nickel cornerback, but ultimately that's not even scratching the surface of his usefulness. Jeff Ulbrich will get a playmaker like Sydney Brown on the field plenty often in 2026, but the ripple effect goes much deeper than this...
The Atlanta Falcons have every reason to love the Sydney Brown trade
In that trade with the Eagles, the Dirty Birds sent picks 114 and 197 to Philadelphia in exchange for Brown and picks 122 and 215. With that 215th pick, Atlanta drafted LSU EDGE/LB Harold Perkins Jr., who's been one of the winners of training camp and looks like one of the steals of the 2026 Draft.
Perkins has gotten more reps with the first-team defense than you would expect from a guy selected outside the top 200 picks due to his unique skillset. Since he's a bit of a tweener who can get to the QB and play off the ball, he's the most qualified candidate to replace Jalon Walker and Kaden Elliss.
Let's go back to that 122nd pick, because it's also important. Cunningham managed to send it to the Las Vegas Raiders in exchange for pick 134 and 208--and it was at 134 where the Falcons landed the second half of their young dynamic duo in fellow LB Kendal Daniels: another riser up the depth chart.
By that logic, this is how the full trade would look:
In the days where Divine Deablo was sidelined due to injury, Daniels took on his role with the starters--and he stepped in as the green dot. The safety-turned-linebacker is the closest thing to Deablo the Falcons have, and he's still gotten some run with the starters since his teammate returned to practice And many of his teammates (as well as Kevin Stefanski himself) have sung his praises.
Between Harold Perkins Jr. and Kendal Daniels, Atlanta found two players with the potential to become cornerstones for their defense, which is all because they took the chance on potential with the Sydney Brown trade--and it helped them pick up Anterio Thompson at pick 208 as well.
Even though this deal helped the Eagles get Makai Lemon, he's struggled to stay healthy in camp and Howie Roseman made neither pick the Falcons gave Philadelphia in the Sydney Brown deal. And since it helped them land both Kendal Daniels and Harold Perkins Jr., it's bound to age well for Atlanta.
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