Secondary coach Marquand Manuel said he’s been impressed with Robenson Therezie’s progress since the Falcons signed the undrafted rookie in May.
Manuel said the Falcons signed Therezie as an undrafted free agent out of Auburn because of his innate speed and ability to hit.
“He has come a long way from OTA days,” Manuel said. “He’s a gifted guy who wasn’t highly ranked and recruited coming out of college. But he’s a guy who has natural instincts, speed, power and everything you look at in the position and he’s another guy who’s eager to learn. He’s filtering knowledge right now.”
Manuel said Therezie’s eagerness to improve since OTAs has been a pleasure to coach. He said Therezie is learning how to be a professional in how he prepares and how he plays.
Therezie said he’s finding a lot of time to get into the pro mindset without the distractions of playing college football.
“Coming out of college, I had class and practice, but in this situation now, I graduated and I can have more time to study the playbook and more time in learning some techniques and learning about the game,” Therezie said. “(I’m) just taking in the coaching and trying to learn how to be a pro.”
Coach Dan Quinn said Therezie performed exactly the way he does in practice in Therezie’s first professional start Sunday in the Falcons’ 48-21 win.
“I thought he performed exactly like we thought (he would),” Quinn said. “He’s such a conscientious guy in terms of the details for the defense. He did a good job tackling, and he had a bit hit over the middle and lowered his strike zone. Those are the things we were hoping we’d see.”
In his first career start out of Auburn, Therezie tied Allen Bradford to lead the Falcons’ defense with five tackles and deflected one pass.
Cornerback Robert Alford said he’s seen promise of a professional career in Therezie’s determination.
“From practice field to the game, he’s always (working),” Alford said. “He’s always out there competing. It was good for him, the game that he had this past week, to (start) his first game and (hopefully for him there’s) more to come.”
As a rookie, Therezie said Alford has provided him with valuable insight and communication when learning to play as a defensive back in the NFL.
Therezie started Sunday in place of Ricardo Allen at safety after Allen injured his knee against the Cowboys in Week 2. Allen had limited participation in practice Wednesday and Thursday. Quinn said from Wednesday through Friday in practice, he saw improvement in Allen’s strength as the week went on.
“He’s looking exactly as I was hoping he’d look,” Quinn said Friday. “I had a sense he would be back … but I wanted to make him go through the week to find out and make sure he was good.”
Therezie said although he was listed below Allen on the depth chart, he never stopped preparing like a starter.
“Before (Allen’s) injury, my thing is just prepare like I’m going to play and just by thinking that way,” Therezie said. “Doing that helps me to be better prepared when filing in for him anytime he gets hurt and just do my job.”
Therezie said a large part of that mindset on the defensive backs is because of Manuel and the standard he places on them to always be in control of the game.
Therezie said all the defensive backs strive to keep that mindset and finish well.
“All the defensive backs, we have a standard where we have to finish, communicate and do all the things right in order to be successful and cause those turnovers,” Therezie said. “Just by being faithful to our fundamentals and not being bored of doing our jobs.”
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