Falcons nickel back Dee Alford: ‘Hey, I belong here’

Norton took over for Kaleb McGary at right tackle after he sustained a knee injury.

Alford, who played at Spalding High School and Tusculum, beat out Mike Hughes and Clark Phillips III for the nickel back spot. He started three of the five games.

“He’s really flourishing,” Smith said. “We went from where we felt we lacked depth to – I mean, we’ve got some really good football players. Like, we’re really high on Clark Phillips, Mike Hughes, and so, we feel really good about the depth there.”

No team has ever said, “We have too many cornerbacks.”

“It’s a good problem to have,” Smith said. “We feel like we’ve got secondary depth. So yeah, he’s embraced it. He’s taken off. He’s playing well.”

Texans rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud tried to test Alford, who came up with six tackles, two pass breakups and a tackle for a loss.

“I felt like everything went pretty good,” Alford said. “There were a few plays that I could have made. I gave up a catch on one particular play. But other than that, I was locked in and focused. I got the job done.”

Alford played in 16 games last season and played 246 defensive snaps (23%). He’s already up to 236 defensive snaps (73%) this season. He has 19 tackles, including 13 solo tackles and two tackles for losses and three pass breakups.

Playing well in the NFL is long way from Alford’s days in college and in the Canadian Football League with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

“It’s crazy, yeah, I was just having a conversation with Jessie (Bates),” Alford said. “A lot of times when I step on the field, I have to realize ‘hey, I belong here’ and different things like that.”

Alford opened the season with a strong performance against the Panthers. His job was to play man-to-man on veteran receiver Adam Thielen. He held him to two catches for 12 yards.

At 5-foot-11 and 177 pounds, some teams have tried to test Alford in the run game. He’s been stout against the run.

“You can tell the way that I’m playing that I feel more comfortable with myself and all that type of stuff and mentally,” Alford said. “So far, I’ve been doing pretty good. I know that there is always room for improvement and I will continue to get better and grow as a player.”

Alford has tried to tap into the knowledge that Bates has. He often travels across the locker room to discuss football and real-life situations Bates.

“(We) have a great relationship, on and off the field,” Alford said. “He’s a great leader. I just try to see the game like he sees it.”

Alford’s teammates have noticed his play.

“Great coverage,” linebacker Kaden Elliss said. “Dee is a guy who is a fast guy who can go cover and run all of these routes with receivers.”

He also is packing a wallop in the run game.

“But at the same time, he’s stepping into the box and coming in to fill in some run gaps, (and) that is tough for nickels for to do,” Elliss said. “He’s not doing it in a way, ‘oh, I got him down.’ He’s been getting some big hits. It’s been awesome to watch.”

Alford is benefitting from a lot of teams that like to run sets with three wide receivers.

“A lot of speed on the field,” Alford said. “You (must) have an extra (defensive) back on the field. Technically, sometimes I play a whole game, and sometimes I might not play a whole game with a team who runs a lot of regular, big personnel and different things like that.”

Alford plans to keep growing into the position.

“As a (defensive back), you want to have coach who can be like, we can play man,” Alford said. “We know that you guys are going to cover and that’s the type of group that we’ve got. We can play man the whole game or we can play zone. We can switch it up. We have got a good, versatile group.”

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