FLOWERY BRANCH — Aug. 30 was the third best day of Timmy Horne’s life. It was surpassed only by the day he got married to his wife, Jasmine, and the day Jasmine gave birth to their daughter Simone.
No. 3 was the day he learned he had made the Falcons’ opening-day roster as an undrafted free-agent defensive tackle out of Kansas State. He recalled the moment for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution earlier this week. Horne was headed to Chick-fil-A when he got the call from a cousin, who had seen the news on ESPN.
“He called me and he said, ‘Congratulations,’” Horne said. “I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ He said, ‘You made it to the NFL.’”
Horne pulled over to call his wife and his mother. He broke down in tears.
“Of course, yes,” Horne said. “The emotions start flowing because your dreams came true. You’re just seeing things happening and unfold out of God’s plan.”
Horne rewarded the team’s confidence by exceeding reasonable expectations for an undrafted rookie. He played in all 17 games last season and even started five. His 385 defensive snaps were the third most of any rookie defensive tackle in the league, according to Stathead.
“I just got out there and just put my best foot forward and just kept improving,” Horne said.
As a thank you for his contributions, the Falcons are making him fight for his job again. On Sunday, I asked coach Arthur Smith what he envisioned for Horne.
“He’s a guy that’s trying to make the team and contribute,” said Smith, his mustache filtering out any traces of puffery. “Timmy played some for us last year. There’s good competition. I feel like we’ve got a lot of depth on the D-line.”
Horne is empirically a better player than he was a year ago when he made the team. But, in the third season of the regime of Smith and general manager Terry Fontenot, that and a quarter will get you an expression rendered irrelevant by inflation.
The bar has been raised. While Horne made it through the Falcons’ door a year ago as a rookie, the new and improved version – who proved himself effective and trustworthy enough to play a third of the Falcons’ defensive snaps and now benefits from that experience – may find himself turned away when the team makes its cutdown to the 53-man roster.
Horne’s situation is indicative of what has been bubbling in training camp. Through the draft and free agency, the floor of the roster looks like it will be higher than it was last year, and that is progress for the Falcons.
The signing of David Onyemata from the Saints, the return of Ta’Quon Graham from a season-ending knee injury and the continued excellence of Grady Jarrett have firmed up the defensive tackle spot, mirroring improvements made across the defense. While roster decisions are fluid, Horne likely is competing with Albert Huggins – picked up over the summer – to be the fourth tackle.
A move made by the Falcons on Sunday was an even more significant sign of an upgraded defense with new coordinator Ryan Nielsen – the release of linebacker Mykal Walker, who started 12 games last season and 20 over the past three seasons. More than Horne’s plight – and also more than any sound bite – that Smith and Fontenot jettisoned a starter from last season’s defense with two exhibition games still to play confirms the jump that the club should make on defense.
A 2020 fourth-round pick, Walker was made expendable by the development of 2022 second-round pick Troy Andersen and free-agent signee Kaden Elliss.
Walker made what proved to be his final appearance in a Falcons uniform Friday in the exhibition opener at Miami, when he was given most of the defensive snaps in the first half, but was not impactful and incurred a needless penalty. The Bears picked him up the day after the Falcons released him.
In the same game, Horne caught the attention of Smith and his coaching staff. On a fourth-and-2 from the Falcons’ 3-yard line in the second quarter, Horne drove back the center into quarterback Mike White, helping force an incompletion to end the drive. On the Dolphins’ next possession, on a third-and-2 from the Falcons’ 5, Horne surged between the center and left guard to turn a run play into a 1-yard loss.
“Somebody’s going to emerge that’s going to be in the rotation, that’s going to help us,” Smith said. “Certainly, (Horne) has had a good camp so far.”
The reality is that it ought to be this way. The Falcons in Smith’s first two seasons finished 26th or worse in total defense each season, so it wasn’t like they just needed to apply touchups to the Mona Lisa. And with more salary-cap space this offseason, an infusion of talent was to be expected.
But as the days leading to the start of the season are dwindling – the Falcons play their second exhibition game Friday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium against Cincinnati – moves like the release of Walker and the heightened competition for roster spots indicate that the plans of Smith and Fontenot are being realized.
Huggins, Horne’s principal competitor, is a man fighting for a secure home in the NFL. Since entering the league in 2019 as an undrafted free agent (like Horne), he has been on the active roster or practice squad of six teams. The Falcons would be the seventh. Huggins, who won two national championships at Clemson as a backup on the Tigers’ star-studded defensive line, has been transacted no less than 30 times – signed, waived, elevated, acquired, etc.
He had an in with the Falcons – in 2021, he played for the Saints, whose defensive-line coach was one Ryan Nielsen. But he tore his ACL last preseason and was a player without a team until he earned a spot on the Falcons’ 90-man roster off a tryout during their minicamp in June.
“He was the reason why I was in New Orleans,” Huggins said of Nielsen. “He’s the reason why I’m here.”
Most likely, in a few weeks, either Horne will celebrate the fourth best day of his life or Huggins will get closer to having a foothold in the NFL. Either way, the Falcons will be beneficiaries.
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