Among Falcons, his name isn’t the first to come to many minds. His mightn’t be in the top dozen. Ryan, Julio, Freeman, Sanu, Coleman, Gabriel, Mack, Matthews, Beasley, Babineaux, Bryant, Freeney – there’s 11 right there, not counting the injured Desmond Trufant. But half, I note, were on the roster under different management. And if you ask me who’s the prototype for these Falcons, Dan Quinn’s Falcons, I’d say:
Keanu Neal.
He wasn’t the first player drafted under Quinn. Vic Beasley Jr. was, but he was a no-brainer: A team without any vestige of a pass rush grabbed the best pass rusher of his class. Most every organization would have taken Beasley No. 8 overall.
Neal was different. The Falcons took him with the 17th overall pick of Quinn’s second draft. Not many teams considered him a first-rounder. (Pro Football Focus rated him this class’ 176th-best player.) But he fit the profile of a DQ Guy and played a position — strong safety — vital to DQ’s defense, and by golly DQ snagged him.
Neal missed the season’s first two games – the Falcons yielded 31 points in the first and 28 in the second – with a knee injury. He made his NFL debut against the Saints, who scored 32. Indeed, five of the Falcons’ first eight opponents broke 30, which is why their defensive numbers look as awful as they do. (They were 27th in points yielded, 25th in yards against.)
But here’s how many of the Falcons’ past 10 opponents have managed 30 points – one, and that was New Orleans, which scored the final 19 points in a regular-season finale it lost 38-32. The Falcons are by no means a shutdown defense, but they’re better than they were and, in concert with this raging offense, that might be enough to win a Super Bowl.
Some of the defensive upgrade, maybe even a lot, is due to Neal. He has been exactly as advertised – big and fast and strong. (Preparing for the draft, Quinn would watch film of Neal and say, "Look at that physicality.") No, he's not the greatest in coverage, and the Patriots, with their many tight ends, will seek to exploit that. But the Pats better hold tight when they do catch the ball. Neal will hit a lick.
Said defensive tackle Grady Jarrett: “You meet Keanu off the field and he’s a real cool dude, real chill, funny, likes to have a good time. You get on that field, he’s a whole other guy. He’s a monster.”
Let’s recall that, on the night of Neal’s drafting, Yahoo! Sports and SI.com graded the pick a C; the aforementioned Pro Football Focus awarded a D. At Flowery Branch the next afternoon, Quinn defended his chosen defender, saying: “If we were playing all ‘34’ and he was a half-field player, it’d be different. This player for us is like an enforcer at the line of scrimmage. If we want a fast and physical team, we have to add physical players.”
Then: “Not every team values players the same way. But certain guys got cool stuff and you say, ‘That’s how he’d play in our system.’ ”
Then: “I wish some other people could understand: If we were a half-field safety team, then he wouldn’t be the right fit. But if you told me, ‘I want a physical guy who’ll knock the hell out of people’ … well, I know what that looks like. And he’s now in our building.”
Just to clarify, Quinn never told Neal he wanted him to be “our Kam Chancellor.” Said Neal, smiling: “They wanted me to be their Keanu Neal.” But he has studied film of the Seattle template – “He’s an awesome player; he’s a guy I look up to” – and he has provided Quinn’s new team with a reasonable facsimile thereof.
In hindsight, does Neal see his drafting as a tone-setting moment? “I believe so. To be able to let guys know that we’re fast and physical and we can play ball and we’re not going to lie down for them.”
As the plane bound for Texas taxied at Hartsfield-Jackson, Neal looked out the window and saw the Renaissance hotel, where his Florida Gators had bunked in December 2015. He nudged fellow rookie and former Gator teammate Brian Poole: “Last year we were staying there getting ready for the (SEC championship) game.” Now this.
Did he figure it would be this easy – get drafted, start as a rookie and crash the Super Bowl? “I don’t look too far into the future. My plan for whoever drafted me was to help them get to the Super Bowl. I wanted to win a championship. I got drafted by the Falcons, it’s a blessing and here we are.”
The Falcons’ defense is seen as this Super Bowl’s weakest unit. It mightn’t be all that weak, though. “We’ve grown overall as a defense,” Neal said. “The communication, the understanding of the defense, the ability to play together –that’s why (Quinn) says we’re a better version of ourselves. We’ve come a long way. After that (November) bye week is when our talent and our game really skyrocketed.”
On Oct. 30, Green Bay and Aaron Rodgers came to the Georgia Dome and scored 32 points. In the NFC championship game, the Packers scored 21 – all in the final 25 minutes after the Falcons had seized a 31-point lead. This defense of January isn’t the defense of September. These guys can really run and really hit, and Neal runs fastest and hits hardest.
“I’m happy to be a part of it with him,” Jarrett said. “And I’m glad I’m not a receiver on the other side of the ball.”
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