Duke Riley showed signs of improvement against Jets

Falcons linebacker Duke Riley showed signed of improvement against the Jets, coach Dan Quinn said Saturday.

Riley started and made three tackles. He played 40 snaps on defense and 10 on special teams.

“I would say, I saw improvement, and I would say there is more (room for improvement,)” Quinn said. “The reason I’m saying that is because in practice I’ve seen even better technique.”

Riley, a third-round pick in 2017, opened last season as the starting weakside linebacker as a rookie. But he finished the season as a reserve after missing too many tackles.

“I would say (he) definitely improved from a tackling standpoint,” Quinn said. “I want to give as many opportunities as we can to do that. Technique-wise I thought he was really on point. As far as a couple of moments, scheme-wise, technique-wise he was on it.”

It wasn’t a perfect outing for Riley.

“There were probably two or three examples where he could have laid a good hit if he’d continued to run his legs through the contact,” Quinn said. “We’ll continue to work on that as we go. I thought it was definitely an improvement for him.”