Ranking the Atlanta Falcons' Best Defensive Backs of the Past 20 Seasons

The Atlanta Falcons have had numerous high-level performers in their secondary over the past twenty seasons. Some of the players had short-lived peaks like Keanu Neal and others like Desmond Trufant stuck around and provided a consistent impact for the team over a long period of time.

Knowing how many impactful players the team has had over this time period, we’re going to highlight ten players (six corners and four safeties) throughout this article. We’ve highlighted all the other positions throughout the past few weeks and all of those features can be found here.

Honorable Mentions – Brian Poole and Keanu Neal

Brian Poole only played in 47 games for the Atlanta Falcons, but he was also a member of the team who reached the Super Bowl in 2016. He recorded nearly 200 tackles during his time in Atlanta and added an additional 4 interceptions, 4 fumble recoveries, and made 21 starts.

Keanu Neal should be much higher on this list, but injuries completely destroyed his career trajectory. After two standout seasons in 2016 and 2017, Neal only played in four games over the next two seasons due to various injuries. After returning in 2020, it was clear that Neal wasn’t the same player, and he left Atlanta after the season.

We’ll start by examining the three best safeties before moving onto the five best cornerbacks.