The big roundup.
The Atlanta Falcons have wrapped up another season, and that means it’s also time for us to wrap up our weekly snap counts with a final look at the year that was.
Here are the complete snap counts for the 2024 season, with notes on usage and what the Falcons will have to look to replace in 2025.
Offense
LT Jake Matthews: 1,118 (97.8%)
LG Matthew Bergeron: 1,105
RG Chris Lindstrom: 1,099
RT Kaleb McGary: 1,041
WR Drake London: 1,032
WR Darnell Mooney: 988
WR Ray-Ray McCloud: 981
QB Kirk Cousins: 913
RB Bijan Robinson: 861
TE Kyle Pitts: 707
C Ryan Neuzil: 577
C Drew Dalman: 554
TE Charlie Woerner: 457
RB Tyler Allgeier: 287
WR KhaDarel Hodge: 231
QB Michael Penix: 230
T Storm Norton: 127
TE Ross Dwelley: 105
G Kyle Hinton: 82
WR Chris Blair: 27
RB Jase McClellan: 19
C Matt Hennessy: 12
WR Casey Washington: 9
OL Elijah Wilkinson: 1
Your stalwarts remained your stalwarts in 2024. The Falcons were fortunate to have four of their offensive line starters play over 90% of snaps this year, with Drew Dalman (who split snaps pretty evenly with Ryan Neuzil owing to injury) the one exception. The Falcons should prioritize retaining their quality depth and adding more, because you can’t necessarily depend on that good fortune, especially with a pair of over-30 tackles.
London, Mooney, and McCloud all played over 85% of the offensive snaps, too, as the Falcons were one of the most reliant teams in the entire NFL on their starting trio of wide receivers. As terrific as McCloud was in his breakout season, I’d love to see the Falcons prioritize a third receiver upgrade and make McCloud one of the better fourth options in the NFL, allowing the team to vary up their personnel usage a little more. As much as I love KhaDarel Hodge, he’s best used in limited fashion as your fifth receiver, and the Falcons quietly had a depth issue that wasn’t tested because their top trio did stay healthy.
Bijan, meanwhile, took off as the lead back. Allgeier played about a quarter as many snaps at Robinson, who was one of the league’s best backs, and likely won’t break that mark in 2025 unless something happens to Bijan. Allgeier is one of the best backups in the NFL, but the Falcons can’t count on keeping him around in that role once he hits free agency in 2026.
The Falcons could also use a third tight end who is a compelling pass catching option. Kyle Pitts did improve as a blocking tight end in 2024 and is likely here barring a trade as the top man on the depth chart, while Charlie Woerner is a premier blocker who is an essential piece of the offense. Dwelley offered Atlanta little, and with a mostly established offense, depth upgrades are something this team absolutely needs to tackle.
Finally, it’s worth remembering how little Penix actually played in 2024, and he managed to put three mostly impressive efforts out there once he took over for Cousins.
Defense
Kaden Elliss: 1,095 (98.4%)
Jessie Bates: 1,095
A.J. Terrell: 1,085
Justin Simmons: 1,017
Grady Jarrett: 744
Dee Alford: 723
Mike Hughes: 720
Matthew Judon: 655
David Onyemata: 567
Nate Landman: 544
Arnold Ebiketie: 543
Lorenzo Carter: 409
Clark Phillips: 407
Eddie Goldman: 331
James Smith-Williams: 306
Troy Andersen: 285
Kentavius Street: 280
Zach Harrison: 268
Demone Harris: 216
Ta’Quon Graham: 193
Richie Grant: 162
JD Bertrand: 157
Ruke Orhorhoro: 148
DeAngelo Malone: 90
Kevin King: 71
Natrone Brooks: 40
Antonio Hamilton: 39
Khalid Kareem: 32
Brandon Dorlus: 19
Rashaan Evans: 1
The problems with Atlanta’s defense are partially illustrated by these snap counts. Your best players (Terrell, Bates, and Elliss) played a ton, but after that the team leaned heavily on aging players (Jarrett, Onyemata, Judon, Goldman) and ones who struggled (Alford, Landman, Carter), with only Hughes and Simmons delivering solid veteran starting snaps. Their younger players tended to play less, from Ebiketie (who was at least involved) to draft picks Orhorhoro, Dorlus, and Bertrand to Harrison.
The team’s heavy reliance on Jarrett in particular just can’t continue into next year, which is where Orhorhoro in particular will have to come in. Jarrett has bursts of extremely effective play as always, but this was the first year where I felt like we truly saw his performance dip. He and Onyemata are best relied upon for closer to 300-400 high impact snaps if they’re here next year rather than 600-750; the Falcons have young talent up front right now to take some of those snaps and can add more.
The story is similar at EDGE, where Smith-Williams is decent and Carter struggled mightily, and ideally you’d replace both of their snaps while making a decision on Judon. The Falcons have needed help there badly for a long time, but the return of Bralen Trice to go with Ebiketie and (maybe) Malone at least gives them options to pick up some of that slack. For the thousandeth year in a row, the Falcons need to invest significant resources.
They do at inside linebacker, too. The Falcons were caught flat-footed by Andersen’s injury and forced to rely heavily on Landman, who struggled this year in this scheme, and Bertrand, who was a rookie and looked like one much of the year. Even if the belief in Andersen is there after he looked really good for a brief stint at the beginning of the year, having a better fallback plan is an absolute must, with Bertrand a perfectly solid fourth option.
Oh, and the secondary has an impending free agents at cornerback (Hughes, Hamilton, King), a struggling starter they may want to replace (Alford), and two potentially departing safeties (Simmons, Grant). Phillips is a player the Falcons want to do more with, I believe, and the return of DeMarcco Hellams in 2025 gives them a young option as a third safety at minimum. But the Falcons have to replace a lot of snaps here, ideally with more productive players.
In summary, the defense was pretty bad much of the season and is going to go into 2025 needing to replace a lot of players for reasons both performance and free agency related. Fun spot to be in.
Special teams
Avery Williams: 364 (81.6%)
DeAngelo Malone: 363
Richie Grant: 349
KhaDarel Hodge: 241
Charlie Woerner: 240
JD Bertrand: 238
Bradley Pinion: 205
Tyler Allgeier: 204
Antonio Hamilton: 166
Ross Dwelley: 166
Kevin King: 161
Natrone Brooks: 160
Liam McCullough: 130
Zach Harrison: 125
Micah Abernathy: 110
Clark Phillips: 100
Josh Woods: 89
Jake Matthews: 82
Ray-Ray McCloud: 82
Storm Norton: 82
Kyle Hinton: 82
Matthew Bergeron: 81
David Onyemata: 80
Younghoe Koo: 77
Ryan Neuzil: 75
Kaleb McGary: 74
Nate Landman: 71
Chris Lindstrom: 68
Troy Andersen: 56
Lorenzo Carter: 51
Casey Washington: 47
Kentavius Street: 45
Dee Alford: 43
Ta’Quon Graham: 42
Eddie Goldman: 38
Arnold Ebiketie: 37
Dane Cruikshank: 37
Kaden Elliss: 36
Mike Hughes: 24
Khalid Kareem: 22
Chris Blair: 20
Riley Patterson: 20
Ruke Orhorhoro: 19
Matt Hennessy: 18
Lamar Jackson: 18
Demone Harris: 11
Carlos Washington: 11
Jessie Bates: 8
Jase McClellan: 8
Elijah Wilkinson: 8
Justin Simmons: 6
Brandon Dorlus: 6
Rashaan Evans: 5
Jovaughn Gwyn: 2
James Smith-Williams: 1
Darnell Mooney: 1
Kyle Pitts: 1
There’s a non-zero chance this group could look very different next year. Liam McCullough is an extremely reliable long snapper and is a lock to return, and KhaDarel Hodge has to come back after serving as a one-man wrecking crew throughout the year and earning a Pro Bowl nod for doing so.
Beyond that, you’ll have your usual turnover of core special teamers, but for the first time in a bit I think your specialists might turn over as well. Koo is coming off a year where he was both hurt and ineffective, and Pinion went from a quietly effective punter in 2023 to a below average one in 2024, with the lowest percentage of punts landed inside the 20 in the entire NFL. Avery Williams was a solid but not spectacular returner, meaning he is not an absolute must-sign unless the Falcons think he’ll be better another year removed from injury.
The Falcons have rarely been let down by their kicker and punter in recent years, and Williams looked like one of the best punt returners in the league two years ago, but they now have a fresh set of question marks that will test their ability to adapt.