For former Baltimore Ravens standout Courtney Upshaw, it was a simple matter of geography.
The native of Eufala, Ala., who played at Alabama in college, selected the Falcons after also receiving interest from the Jets, Patriots and 49ers during free agency.
“It was close to home,” said Upshaw, who signed a one-year $1.25 million contract in March. “I felt like if I was going to play anywhere, one-year and try to get a long-term deal, it would be here. I talked to my agent and he said Atlanta was in play, so we decided to come here.”
Upshawreceived the star treatment during free agency.
“I met with the coaches, coach Richard Smith and coach (Bryan) Cox,” Upshaw said. “Coach (Dan) Quinn and I went out to dinner. I felt the vibe and it was great. It was definitely a place where I wanted to be. Just being here for the offseason workouts has been great.”
When in Seattle, Quinn and his staff were able to elevate the level of play of free agents Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril from their previous stops in Tampa Bay and Detroit, respectively.
His Atlanta staff is hoping to find the limits of Upshaw, a former second-round pick by the Baltimore Ravens, who’s 6-foot-2 and 272 pounds.
“At the (defensive end) position, a little three technique and (defensive) linemen,” Upshaw said is where the Falcons told him they wanted to see him play. “They are trying to figure out where they want to play me. I’m just trying to learn every position that they want me to learn. So that I can go in there and compete.”
Upshaw, 26, started 51 games over the past four seasons. He helped the Ravens win a Super Bowl amassed 183 tackles, five sacks, seven passes breakups and three forced fumbles for the Ravens.
“He’s a big man so you can see just from the end of the line how hard it is to run over to his side so we’re going to put him at defensive end,” Quinn said. “I know he can play (strongside) linebacker, so we’re going to try him at some defensive end this spring and see what that looks like.
“As we get closer to it we’ll navigate the roles, but now’s the time, in my opinion, to create the experiments. What you can do and see if we can have the vision for the player come to life.”
