‘Very rare’: How Kendal Daniels became Falcons’ versatile gem

FLOWERY BRANCH — The Falcons’ defense was in a dire situation, and it was still early August.

They already knew they’d be without ascending pass-rush standout James Pearce Jr., who had a suspension looming. They accounted for it. They didn’t account for losing Jalon Walker, their other rising star outside linebacker, to a torn ACL on the sixth day of training camp.

The Falcons’ hopes and dreams of a flexible, scheme-diverse defense hinged on their ability to answer an ever-pressing question.

“Who can handle this burden,” Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich said, “of a little bit extra, a little bit more?”

Ulbrich and his assistants didn’t need much time to find their answer. It was their fourth-round pick, a player who missed all of OTAs and minicamp while dealing with a nagging Achilles injury, a linebacker who didn’t start playing the position until the year before.

It was Kendal Daniels.

“We found out right away he was that guy,” Ulbrich said.

The Falcons had a general idea when they selected Daniels at No. 134 overall in April’s draft that he could learn, and compartmentalize, information. They held a formal interview with him at the NFL combine and met with him again after his pro day at the University of Oklahoma.

Those exposures lasted only 15 minutes each, Falcons linebackers coach Barrett Ruud estimates, but the team didn’t need any longer to see Daniels’ wiring.

“He really came across as a sharp kid,” Ruud said. “Usually, you can tell pretty quick if a guy’s got pretty good football intelligence, football IQ, that he’s been brought up and taught the right way. So, man, it didn’t take long for us to figure out that he understood football.”

Daniels’ last year in college — and his lone at Oklahoma — proved to be perhaps the biggest of his life. The Beggs, Oklahoma, native spent the first four years of his college career at Oklahoma State, where he burst onto the scene as a Freshman All-American safety, steadily added weight and, against his initial wish, accepted his fate as a hybrid linebacker.

At a career crossroads, he hit the transfer portal in the winter of 2024 with one year of eligibility remaining. He hated Oklahoma. He ignored the Sooners’ phone calls throughout the process. He couldn’t imagine himself leaving Oklahoma State for a bitter rival. His mother told him to hear them out. Finally, Brent Venables, who initially recruited him out of high school, called Daniels from his personal phone. They hit it off. Daniels committed. That’s when all this — the versatility, the mental capacity, the Falcons’ investment — began.

Venables, the Sooners’ head coach and a respected defensive mind, has a complex scheme that evolves weekly. Daniels had to master new installs and learn responsibilities for several different positions. Oklahoma used him at safety, linebacker and even put him in the slot at times.

The Falcons leaned on Venables and his staff. Ruud is innately familiar with Venables’ system and knows the intellect required to play within it. They also leaned on the tape and saw how Daniels fared across the board.

They were sold not only on his 6-foot-5, 242-pound build, his 79 ¼-inch wingspan and his sideline-to-sideline speed, but also his mind — hard to quantify, easy to value.

Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski said it was “obvious” how much information Daniels could absorb. Ruud said Daniels’ intellect about concepts and how offenses want to attack defenses stood out. Ulbrich marveled at his acumen.

“The way he can articulate the game is exceptional, especially for a young one,” Ulbrich said. “It doesn’t even matter to him, for anybody, for a 10-year pro — to be able to articulate the game the way he does is pretty special.”

But there’s always a degree of skepticism surrounding rookies until they translate it to the next level. Ulbrich has been around players who are elite articulators but can’t apply it once they’re on the grass. And because of the Falcons’ load management approach with Daniels during OTAs and minicamp, they didn’t get the chance to see which category he fell into upon arrival.

Ulbrich entered training camp hopeful he’d see it all come to fruition. He did.

“I started to see it really quickly,” Ulbrich said. “I’m like, ‘Man, we can put a lot on his shoulders.’”

A few days after Walker went down with his ACL injury, Daniels started seeing occasional snaps as an outside linebacker, lining up over offensive tackles. When team captain and starting middle linebacker Divine Deablo missed roughly two weeks of practice with an ankle injury in the middle of training camp, Daniels inherited the green dot on his helmet and began communicating play-calls.

There he was, a 22-year-old rookie, orchestrating the defense and taking snaps on the line of scrimmage a few weeks into his first NFL practices. Oh, by the way, he’d never done either. And he’s still only in his third year taking snaps at linebacker.

Daniels has made the miraculous commonplace, the unbelievable real.

He left the Falcons’ loss to the Chicago Bears on Oct. 18 in the back of an ambulance and went directly to Grady Memorial Hospital, then played — and won a game ball for his efforts — in the Falcons’ win over the San Francisco 49ers the next week. Stefanski isn’t sure he’s ever seen such a thing. Veteran teammates Samson Ebukam and Josh Woods, with a combined 19 years of NFL experience, are confident they never have.

Not as dramatic, but perhaps just as uncommon, is a fourth-round rookie wearing the green dot and, entering the Falcons’ bout with the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday in Madrid, ranks second on the team with 52 tackles and four tackles for loss.

And he’s done it all while wearing a vast assortment of hats, including one — as an edge defender — he had no clue he’d be given until the Falcons handed it to him in training camp.

“Very impressive, and don’t want to take that for granted,” Stefanski said. “I think it’s important to recognize that’s rare for players, period, and very rare for a rookie to be able to handle as much as he’s handling. As you’re around Kendal, and as you watch him work, it’s not that surprising. He’s just very, very intelligent.”

There’s crossover for Daniels at linebacker, whether he’s playing middle, strong-side, or weak-side. Sometimes, the coverage drops are the same.

But edge-rushing? That’s a foreign concept. The majority of his life, he was a safety, playing at the third level of the defense and relishing the chance to run and hit in space. Now, he’s taking snaps — not many, but a few sprinkled into each game — on the line of scrimmage.

Pearce and Walker aside, Daniels is also trying to fill the shoes of Kaden Elliss, the Falcons’ former do-everything linebacker and defensive leader the previous three years. Elliss was a college defensive end who converted to linebacker in the NFL. He was an effective blitzer, largely because his line-of-scrimmage responsibilities came naturally.

Ruud said the Falcons were “a little bit spoiled” with Elliss from a pass-rushing standpoint. Daniels falls into the category of most linebackers, Ruud spitballs, in that he’s more comfortable playing in space than on the line.

“It’s a work in progress, but man, he’s done a good job embracing it,” Ruud said. “And he’s getting better on a weekly basis, playing from the LOS.”

Ulbrich called it a “different monster” playing on the line of scrimmage, and it comes with natural growing pains. But the more Daniels tames it, Ulbrich says, the better he’ll get, and the Falcons’ defensive coordinator has already seen consistent growth.

Daniels can see it, too. He’s transparent about his struggles. When playing linebacker or safety, he said, it’s easier to read whether it’s a run or pass play. He’s still trying to figure out that aspect — reading offensive linemen in particular — when aligning as an edge rusher.

But with help from Ruud and veteran defensive assistant Dave Huxtable, Daniels has made strides.

“I feel like I’ve grown a lot,” Daniels said. “I still have a long way to go. … It’s fun, but it’s a lot of learning.”

That falls into a bucket outside of mental capacity. Daniels is also learning physically, as the Falcons are introducing new techniques to help him defeat blockers and win more reps against offensive linemen.

And as if he didn’t have enough on his plate already, the Falcons are giving him another side dish — special teams — to consume each week. Daniels has played nearly 35% of the Falcons’ special teams snaps thus far.

“He’s done great,” Falcons special teams coordinator Craig Aukerman said. “Kind of a big surprise for us, to be honest with you.”

A surprise in that Aukerman didn’t know how much he’d get Daniels in his room. Each week, Aukerman asks the defensive staff, ‘How much is Kendal going to be playing? Can he play on two phases? Three?’ Yet no matter how much more his defensive responsibilities escalate, Daniels’ role on special teams hasn’t fluctuated.

He’s bought in.

Unprompted, Daniels walks into Aukerman’s meeting room and pitches ideas. “Hey, coach, here’s what I’m thinking. What do you think about this?” Sometimes, after asking a bevy of questions during the special teams meeting, he’ll come back to Aukerman with more questions. “Hey, that detail you were talking about on punt return — can I do it a certain way?”

Everything the Falcons have asked Daniels to do, Aukerman said, has been answered with professionalism and attention to detail.

“Those things have really impressed me on how smart this kid is,” Aukerman said, “because he wants to learn, and he wants to get better. He’s out there early trying to work on technique and fundamentals. So, this guy has done such a great job for us, and I can see him only getting better.”