A position group with one standout and a lot of needs.
Aside from one brilliant game from Troy Andersen, the story of the inside linebacker room in 2024 was the story of Kaden Elliss. He had a bit of a slow start to the year and then was arguably the team’s most impactful defender over the final stretch of games, and everyone else was either hurt (Andersen), hurt and a rookie (JD Bertrand), or struggling through a rough season (Nate Landman).
Elliss is a fun chess piece and a key player for the Falcons in 2025, but this past season should have served as a sobering wakeup call that the team simply doesn’t have a good enough, deep enough room at this position group. The problem is that it’s hardly the only one, but as a former linebacker himself, Jeff Ulbrich is likely to push hard for needed upgrades here. The hope is that the Falcons pull in another
Let’s take a look back at the year that was for a position group likely set to undergo significant change. As a reminder, I’m using Pro Football Focus for these statistics.
Kaden Elliss
Age: 29 | Experience: 6 seasons
2024 Stats: 17 starts, 151 tackles, 5 sacks, 43 pressures, 52 run stops, 13.2% missed tackle rate, 52/64 receptions/targets against, 439 yards allowed, 3 touchdowns, 1 interception, 2 pass deflections, 1 forced fumble
We know what Kaden Elliss doesn’t do well. He lacks the range and acumen to be a high-end option in coverage, something he was pressed into doing far too often in 2024. At times he misses tackles he shouldn’t and takes poor angles to the ball, and that’s frustrating.
But these flaws showed up more in 2024 because Elliss was asked to do too much, a product of weak depth and Troy Andersen’s injury. What Elliss does well is pretty much everything else, and even with a massive workload, he was an impressive player in 2024.
He led the team in pressures (!), tackles, and nearly led them in sacks, all while playing a familiar quality level of run defense the team badly needed. With so much falling apart around him, Elliss overcame a semi-slow start to the season to become a dervish the rest of the way, with his post-bye breakout as a pass rusher coming at a very welcome time. Elliss is one of the a handful of Atlanta’s best and most vital defenders, and what the 2024 season underscored is that the Falcons badly need to add help at inside linebacker so they can have him focus on the things he’s really, really good at.
Elliss is back in 2025 and will again be counted upon as a vital cog for the Falcons, hopefully with less frequent coverage responsibilities and more work focused on the run and chasing down quarterbacks, where we know he excels.
Troy Andersen
Age: 25 | Experience: 3 seasons
2024 Stats: 7 games with 4 starts, 47 tackles, 2 pressures, 13 run stops, 11.5% missed tackle rate, 18/20 receptions/targets against, 157 yards allowed, 1 interception, 1 defensive touchdown
Andersen was quite good against the Steelers, scuffled a bit against the Eagles and Chiefs, and then had the game of his life against the Saints. It was an uneven start to the season, but there were suggestions of real growth for the talented linebacker. Then it was basically all over, as Andersen only played in three more games and barely looked healthy when he did.
That was deeply frustrating because Andersen has coverage skills every other inside linebacker on the roster simply does not possess, and big play ability that could have helped swing other games had he been able to play in them. While there were a handful of injuries that helped derail a season that went wildly off the tracks for a dozen reasons, Andersen exiting in favor of an overmatched Nate Landman and rookie JD Bertrand is an underrated problem.
Injury has defined Andersen’s career thus far, as he has appeared in just nine games over the past two seasons, and the Falcons may not be able to count on him being a starter in 2025. The intriguing talent will still make him an important player for the Falcons if he can stay healthy.
Nate Landman
Age: 26 | Experience: 3 seasons
2024 Stats: 13 games with 9 starts, 81 tackles, 1 pressure, 21 run stops, 10.4% missed tackle rate, 25/27 receptions/targets against, 261 yards allowed, 3 forced fumbles
If 2023 was all about Landman being a very pleasant surprise—and he was—the 2024 season was about his limitations and the dangers of being heavily reliant on a player who is fairly one-dimensional. The Falcons in 2023 had Landman chiefly working against the run, used him sparingly but effectively as a pass rusher, and worked hard to limit his coverage exposure. The result was a season where Landman was a tremendous asset against the run, an occasionally very useful pass rusher, and only a mild liability in coverage.
Under Jimmy Lake, things went far worse for Landman. He was worse in coverage, less impactful as a run defender, and both sparingly used and poorly used as a pass rusher—he had 20 snaps chasing a quarterback in 2024 and just one pressure versus 40 snaps and eight pressures in 2023—and his slow foot speed and reaction time in space was exposed repeatedly. There were still stretches where we saw what Landman does well—he’s built to jump into the gap the running back is trying to get through and make them rue that decision—but there were also stretches against teams like Denver and Minnesota where he looked like one of the worst defenders on the field.
As an RFA in 2025, Landman could be back with an original round tender and does deliver early down and special teams value, but the need for an upgrade at the position and the presence of Elliss, Andersen, and JD Bertrand might conspire to have him playing elsewhere.
JD Bertrand
Age: 24 | Experience: Rookie
2024 Stats: 12 games, 23 tackles, 1 sack, 4 pressures, 3 run stops, 13.6% missed tackle rate, 16/17 receptions/targets against, 136 yards allowed
Bertrand looked like a rookie, and he was completely overmatched in coverage in a way that suggests significant improvement will be needed before the Falcons feel they can play him as more than a lightly used reserve on defense. His special teams value was there, however.
There were flashes of the player the Falcons really liked coming into the draft, though. He was a useful run defender—useful enough that he might supplant Landman this year—and found real utility as a blitzing option, being sent as a pass rusher the same number of times as Landman and coming up with one more sack and three additional pressures. If he can improve his tackling and coverage skills, Bertrand should be able to find his way into an occasional role as a blitzer and run defender to spell Kaden Elliss and Troy Andersen.
Josh Woods and Rashaan Evans
I could do whole writeups for both of these guys, but it’s the offseason for me too, and they each played one defensive snap. Chances are neither one will return to the Falcons in 2025 unless something goes quite awry.