Mostly because of injuries, the Falcons have a full-blown youth movement underway on defense.
In recent games, as many as seven rookies or second-year players have been on the field at the same time. They’ll be charged with stopping rookie quarterback Mike Glennon and the Tampa Bay Bucs (1-8) at 1 p.m. Sunday at Raymond James Stadium.
“When you start doing the math, there are a lot of rookies out there,” Falcons coach Mike Smith said.
The Falcons planned to start rookie cornerback Desmond Trufant from the day they drafted him. They thought they could bring the rest of the draft picks along slowly and develop their undrafted linebackers.
In addition to Trufant’s 582 defensive snaps played, second-round pick Robert Alford has played 261 snaps. With injuries to Sean Weatherspoon, Stephen Nicholas and Akeem Dent, rookie linebackers Joplo Bartu and Paul Worrilow have played 582 and 338 defensive snaps, respectively
With the season-ending Achilles injury to defensive end/linebacker Kroy Biermann, second-year man Jonathan Massaquoi (266) and rookies Malliciah Goodman (151) and Stansly Maponga (54) have seen major action.
“It’s encouraging to get them experience and to find out what they are going to be capable of doing,” Smith said. “But there are going to be mistakes that come with those snaps. We know that. That’s inevitable when you are playing young players.”
Defensive coordinator Mike Nolan went to the sidelines from the coaches’ booth for the first Tampa Bay game to get a better look at his young flock. He likes to look in their eyes to see if there is some confusion or if they are agitated in some kind of way.
“Another reason why I came down was with as many young guys as we have, I’m uncertain about where some of them are at during the game,” Nolan said. “I like the group. They are a resilient group. We’ve faced a lot of adversity along the way.”
Worrilow, who has racked up 38 tackles over the past two games, has made the most of his time.
“He’s not getting JOPs as we call them, ‘jumps on pile,’” Nolan said. “He’s tackling people. He tackles well. Knock on wood that he keeps it up because he’s done a good job.”
Worrilow, an undrafted rookie free agent from Delaware, has stepped up at the weakside and strongside positions. Nolan also believes he can play the middle if necessary.
“Early on we saw that he was sharp enough mentally to at least pick them up,” Nolan said. “He did it in training camp, and he’s had to do it already in the season. He’s had to play two of the three positions during the season. We were down to three guys a couple of times in a game. If something happened, he’d have to go play the one position, the third one.”
Even with the return of Weatherspoon, Worrilow will stay in the lineup.
“He’s a good football player,” Nolan said. “He’s instinctive. He’s a good tackler. If you noticed out in the middle of the field against Carolina, he tackled the back in space a couple of times. He tackled that big back (Marshawn Lynch) last week a couple of times in space by himself.”
Worrilow had 21 tackles in the first seven games. According to Stats LLC., his back-to-back 19-tackle performances are tied for the best single-game total by any Falcons defender since 1994.
“The biggest thing that stands out is that he’s instinctive,” Nolan said. “For a young guy, last week he was one of the team captains.”
Since Nolan has coached from the sidelines, he has witnessed Worrilow’s in-game persona.
“When I call him over, he has a good way about him,” Nolan said. “He’s very poised. I don’t know what’s going on inside of his body, but he definitely doesn’t act like it’s his first rodeo.”
Weatherspoon, who’s been out with a sprained ligament in his foot, has coached the youngsters.
“Those are my guys,” Weatherspoon said. “We get together and talk about the plays that are going on the field. We talk about certain things that we see on tape, and we try to help each other. I just try to chime in with them every now and then, when I feel I can share something, share some knowledge.”
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