Falcons secondary coach Joe Whitt Jr. said the plan, at least as of Tuesday, is for third-year cornerback Isaiah Oliver to remain the team’s starting right cornerback.
However, Whitt noted that the secondary depth chart has not been finalized for Monday night’s game against the Green Bay Packers. Oliver has started each of the Falcons' three games this season.
“To answer your question, yes,” Whitt said when asked if Oliver will continue to remain in the starting lineup. “But we’re upstairs right now putting the whole depth together. We don’t necessarily know from a health standpoint who is where and what right now. Once we get all that put together, we’ll put a unit out there with our best 11 that gives us a best chance to win.”
Oliver has struggled at times in the early going of the season. In Sunday’s 30-26 loss to the Chicago Bears, Oliver missed an open-field tackle after Bears receiver Allen Robinson caught a curl after rounding his route at nine yards. The play came on second-and-6 with 4:29 left in the game.
After Robinson curled, Oliver hit Robinson in his upper body and then tried to strip the football out of his hands. Robinson held on and turned up the field to finish a 37-yard touchdown. This play proved crucial because it helped cut the Falcons' lead to 26-23.
The Falcons led by as many as 16 points in the fourth quarter.
Oliver also gave up a 38-yard touchdown to receiver D.K. Metcalf in the team’s 38-25 season-opening loss to the Seattle Seahawks. Oliver owned up to the play by explaining the mistake he made with his technique a few days after the game.
“I drop-stepped with my left foot, which is going to put me behind the receiver immediately,” Oliver said. “The hands part of it was fine, I wasn’t worried about that. But it’s with the feet. I have to move more with a 45 (degree angle) than drop-stepping and opening up like that. When you do that with a good receiver, you’re always going to be a couple of yards behind, kind of on any route he runs. That’s what happened there.”
Although Oliver has had his share of ups and downs, the Falcons may not be in position to tinker much with the starting alignment of the secondary. On Tuesday, the Falcons were forced to place cornerback Darqueze Dennard on injured reserve, which will keep him out for at least three weeks. Rookie starting cornerback A.J. Terrell missed Sunday’s game against Chicago after being placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list with his status in jeopardy for the coming game against the Packers.
Cornerback Kendall Sheffield has missed the first three weeks of the season because of a foot injury, although Falcons coach Dan Quinn, during a radio appearance with 92.9 The Game, said he is anticipating his return to practice Thursday. If Terrell and Sheffield are again unavailable, then three of the team’s top four cornerbacks will be on the bench against Green Bay’s sixth-ranked passing offense (288.0 passing yards per game).
Whitt said cornerback Blidi Wreh-Wilson definitely will play this week but deferred a question on second-year cornerback Jordan Miller’s availability to Quinn, who won’t speak to the media again until Thursday. Miller recently was activated from the reserve/suspended list. In addition, practice squad cornerbacks Delrick Abrams and Tyler Hall could be called up on game day, as they were for the game against the Bears.
Perhaps no position group has been hit harder by injuries than the Falcons' secondary. But it also is a group that has given up a lot of passing yards thus far. The Falcons rank 31st in the NFL when it comes to passing yards allowed per game, with 350.3. Although Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky was replaced by Nick Foles in the third quarter of Sunday’s game, the two combined for 316 passing yards and four touchdowns.
In the fourth quarter, Foles completed 13 of 23 passes for 154 yards and three touchdowns.
This is a position group that was hoping to improve upon last season’s performance, especially with Whitt’s arrival as the secondary coach with a passing-game coordinator title. The Falcons finished 22nd in 2019 by allowing 244.9 passing yards per game.
Regardless of injuries, improving the passing defense is an area of emphasis for the Falcons moving forward. But of course, life in the secondary won’t be any easier with a Monday night matchup at Green Bay against quarterback Aaron Rodgers up next.
“Right now this is something we need to solve,” Wreh-Wilson said. “Now is the time to ask ourselves these tough questions as we have an extra day this week to think about some things and get ready for this work week. We have a lot on our plate, and we need to fix some things.”
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