Atlanta Falcons: Ade Ogundeji was impressively bad in 2022

Adetokunbo Ogundeji went into his second year with expectations to be the Atlanta Falcons' starting edge rusher—which he did technically accomplish, just without delivering on any further expectations.

Also Read: Why this isn't Cordarrelle Patterson's final season in Atlanta.

To be perfectly candid, he was one of the worst players in the NFL last season. That isn't just including players who started for most of the year, every single player in the league.

Atlanta Falcons OLB Ade Ogundeji was a complete disaster in 2022

The Atlanta Falcons had an awful pass rush, once again, in 2022. Much of that is due to one of their starting outside rushers by the name of Ade Ogundeji.

Ogundeji was a fifth-round pick by the Falcons in the 2021 NFL Draft. He played sparingly in his rookie season and showed the occasional flash. He was bumped up to a starting role for essentially all of 2022.

Ade started all 16 games he played in, only missing one game due to injury (week six vs. San Francisco). Now you might ask, if he was so bad then why did he start every game? Answer: I have absolutely no clue, it was an unjustifiable move by the coaching staff.

If you didn't notice how bad he was last year it was probably because you didn't notice him at all. The biggest impact he made in a game came in week 16 against the Ravens on a blocked field goal. When your starting edge rusher makes his first real impact in week 16 and it isn't even on defense, you know there is a huge problem.

Anyways, let's get into how awful Ogundeji was in his second season. Here were his stats, according to Pro Football Focus:

• 16 games
• 541 snaps (218 as a pass rusher)
• 26 tackles
• 10 missed tackles
• 0 batted passes
• 4 hurries
• 0 QB hits
• 2 sacks

If you cannot tell, those are bad stats, like really, really bad stats. It is honestly impressive that he managed to start 16 games and rush the passer 218 times while only managing four hurries, zero quarterback hits, and two sacks.

Thanks to PFF, there is even more proof that he was a child amongst men on the gridiron. He had a pass rush win percentage of 2.6% and a PRP of 0.6 (a stat that takes sacks, hits, and hurries, compared to how many snaps they play rushing the passer). Compare that to Rashan Gary's league-leading 33.8% win rate and 18.2 PRP, and it is safe to say that those are two completely different players. It is also worth mentioning that Gary sustained a season-ending injury in week nine so it wasn't a full workload.

Ogundeji's PRP, Win %, batted passes, QB hits, and hurries all ranked dead last among edge rushers who played at least 200 snaps. And his two sacks were tied for the seventh-fewest.

Keep in mind, this is a starting edge rusher we are talking about. The guys that rank close to him are all backup/rotational players. Yes, Ogundeji did rotate with the other young guys but there is no reason he should have been given more snaps on the outside than everyone not named Lorenzo Carter for the Falcons.

Hopefully this upcoming season Ade Ogundeji will play like a totally different player—or just stays off the field entirely. Fortunately, the Atlanta Falcons are in a much better position with their defensive line.