Carolina safety Thomas DeCoud’s knowledge of the Falcons’ offense and personnel means they’ll have to add some new wrinkles when they face their old teammate on Sunday.
DeCoud started 78 of 80 games for the Falcons from 2009-2013. The Falcons released DeCoud after last season and he’s now a starter for the Panthers.
“Thomas obviously is a very good player; he was with us for a long time, very productive, we won a lot of games with Thomas here,” Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan said. “And he knows our schemes. He practiced against us every day for a long time. We’ll have to make some adjustments. We always do that in division to make sure we will break a few tendencies and do some things a little bit different.”
The Falcons selected DeCoud in the third round of the 2008 draft out of Cal. He became a full-time starter in his second season and was voted to the Pro Bowl in 2012 but his play declined dramatically last season, most noticeably with poor tackling.
The Panthers signed DeCoud to a two-year contract in April that included a $500,000 signing bonus and is worth up to $3.75 million.
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