FLOWERY BRANCH — Falcons wide receiver Damiere Byrd has provided a much-needed spark to the NFL’s 29th-ranked passing attack.
He broke free for a 75-yard bomb against the Bengals and had a nifty 47-yard catch-and-run for a touchdown at clutch time against the Panthers in the Falcons’ wild 37-34 victory in overtime Sunday.
“We run the ball a lot, and we do it well,” Byrd told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday. “It’s effective. When you can run the ball in this league, you can really put yourself in a position to win games.”
But as teams started to move up to the line of scrimmage, the Falcons needed some way to make them pay.
“When you are able to aid it through the air and have explosives that way, they can’t pack the box,” Byrd said. “Play-action becomes a lot more effective, and it keeps them guessing.”
Falcons coach Arthur Smith is pleased with Byrd’s work.
“He’s taking advantage of his opportunity; he has been in our program and works extremely hard,” Smith said. “He wasn’t getting a lot of snaps earlier in the year, and when his number has been called lately, he’s been making plays for us.”
The Falcons were in a 28-7 hole against the Bengals and needed to strike quickly. Byrd ran a nice double-move route that spun Bengals cornerback Eli Apple around. Byrd hauled in the pass from quarterback Marcus Mariota and raced into the end zone.
“We were just kind of waiting for the opportunities as a whole,” Byrd said. “I don’t think we took a lot of shots prior to that, just the game plan and things like that. That was the perfect time and the perfect defense that they had up.”
The Falcons didn’t make the comeback against the Bengals, but now defenses around the league were on notice that the Falcons had a deep threat to go with the rushing attack.
“We were able to get that accomplished,” said Byrd, 5-foot-9 and 172 pounds. “Moving forward, hopefully our (receiver group) as a whole will continue to make contributions to our offense.”
Falcons running back Cordarrelle Patterson, who returned to practice Wednesday after a stint on injured reserve, knows what Byrd adds to the offense.
“That’s what they brought him in here for,” Patterson said. “That’s what he’s been doing his whole career. I’m just happy for that guy. He can just take the top off of any defense. It’s just going to open up some short things for a lot of guys.”
Mariota sees the value in Byrd’s presence also.
“Definitely a deep threat, a vertical presence,” Mariota said. “The way that we run the football, the boxes that we are getting, to show on tape that we’ll take shots. To show on tape that we’ll convert those shots and make plays down the field is huge, (and) not only in the passing game, but in the running game.”
Byrd’s speed threw a scare into the Panthers’ secondary on his 47-yard touchdown. They gave him a big cushion.
“I want to be a complete receiver,” Byrd said. “I want to progress to be that and not be one-dimensional. Being able to run short routes, intermediate and even go deep. That’s definitely a goal of mine.”
Byrd played at Timber Creek Regional High in New Jersey before he signed with South Carolina. He started as a freshman in 2011. He caught 68 passes for 1,265 yards and 10 touchdown over his career and ran track.
Byrd, 29, signed with the Panthers as an undrafted rookie free agent in 2015. He played with the Panthers through 2018. He’s also been with Arizona (2019), New England (2020) and Chicago (2021).
The Falcons are the fifth team for Byrd, a speedster who can run the 40-yard dash in 4.28 seconds.
“I just kind of saw the opportunity of a new head coach in his second year really kind of starting to build what he wanted in the team,” Byrd said of Smith. “I saw the opportunity to touch the field and play more and, you know, hopefully extend my career.”
Byrd, who signed a one-year, $1.1 million contract, is on his fourth team in four seasons.
“I was with Carolina for four years,” Byrd said. “They ended up changing coaches. Contract was over. And really the common theme was really I’ve been coming into teams that have been either starting to rebuild or toward the end of the rebuild.”
Byrd hopes to stick with the Falcons.
“Obviously, I would love to be in a place more than a year,” Byrd said. “But it seems that I’ve been either being attracted by new head coaches or coaches that end up not working out, and I end up getting a new regime coming in.”
How did Byrd end up at South Carolina from New Jersey?
“At the time all of the Northeast schools were going through stuff,” Byrd said. “Penn State had their sanctions going on. Greg Schiano just left Rutgers to go to Tampa (Bay). At the time, outside of those two, they were two big schools in the Northeast.”
He enjoyed his time in the SEC.
“I loved it,” Byrd said. “It was the best move for me. I mean, we had a lot of guys on that team, and throughout my four years we had a great run when we were in college.”
Byrd reiterated his desire to stick with the Falcons.
“For sure, definitely,” Byrd said. “It’s been four years of bouncing around to teams playing well throughout it, but I would love to be able to stay somewhere for more than a year and really kind of establish roots in one city.”
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The Bow Tie Chronicles
Atlanta Falcons 2022 schedule
Sept. 11: Saints 27, Falcons 26
Sept. 18: Rams 31, Falcons 27
Sept. 25 Falcons 27, Seahawks 23
Oct. 2 Falcons 23, Browns 20
Oct. 9 Buccaneers 21, Falcons 15
Oct. 16 Falcons 28, 49ers 14
Oct. 23 Bengals 35, Falcons 17
Oct. 30 Falcons 37, Panthers 34 OT
Nov. 6 vs. Los Angeles Chargers, 1 p.m.
Nov. 10 at Carolina, 8:15 p.m.
Nov. 20 vs. Chicago, 1 p.m.
Nov. 27 at Washington, 1 p.m.
Dec. 4 vs. Pittsburgh, 1 p.m.
BYE WEEK
Dec. 18 at New Orleans, TBD
Dec. 24 at Baltimore, 1 p.m.
Jan. 1 vs. Arizona, 1 p.m.
Jan. 8 vs. Tampa Bay, TBD
