We’ve had a day to sit and ponder this Week 1 loss, and I know what you’re thinking: Snap counts would help me process this. Fortunately, I have those for you to start your Tuesday morning off right.
QB Cooper Rush: 60
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LT Jake Matthews: 60
LG Matthew Bergeron: 60
C Ryan Neuzil: 60
RT Jawaan Taylor: 60
WR Drake London: 59
RG Chris Lindstrom: 51
RB Bijan Robinson: 46
WR Jahan Dotson: 38
TE Kyle Pitts: 38
TE Charlie Woerner: 37
WR Zachariah Branch: 18
WR Olamide Zaccheaus: 18
RB Brian Robinson: 15
TE Austin Hooper: 14
WR Chris Blair: 10
RG Kyle Hinton: 9
TE Nick Muse: 5
T Mike Jerrell: 2
The Falcons lost Lindstrom to a concussion, which puts his status for Week 2 up in the air. The Falcons can’t run the ball as effectively behind Kyle Hinton, but he’s at least a seasoned fill-in starter with quality pass protection chops, so it’s not fatal if he has to step in for a short time. The line was, it must be noted, a bit shaky against a very good Steelers front overall.
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Atlanta did far more shuffling of their skill position players than we were used to from Zac Robinson, with all five receivers getting on the field for at least ten snaps and tons of two tight end looks to help protect Cooper Rush. I think we’ll see some creative usage when there’s a quarterback who can spread the ball around more effectively.
Otherwise, it’s hard to take much away from this one. The line is a concern after that one, Rush is a major concern if he has to start again, but this was the Diet Lite with Splenda version of the Falcons offense and I’m not sure we can make any sweeping conclusions about it based on the performance or these snap counts.
ILB Divine Deablo: 68
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S Xavier Watts: 67
S Jessie Bates: 67
CB Mike Hughes: 67
CB A.J. Terrell: 62
ILB Kendal Daniels: 45
DL Brandon Dorlus: 42
DL Gervon Dexter: 40
DL Maason Smith: 39
OLB Samson Ebukam: 39
DL LaCale London: 35
OLB Cameron Thomas: 34
S/NCB Sydney Brown: 30
ILB Harold Perkins Jr.: 24
CB Avieon Terrell: 23
OLB Jared Ivey: 18
OLB Za’Darius Smith: 16
OLB Bralen Trice: 14
DL Da’Shawn Hand: 7
CB CJ Henderson: 6
ILB Yasir Abdullah: 2
S DeMarcco Hellams: 1
CB Mike Ford: 1
Josh Woods: 1
A few interesting notes from this one, starting with the fact that C.J. Henderson is your first man up in case of injury. He slotted right in when A.J. Terrell went down, while Sydney Brown and Avieon Terrell split nickel reps. Brown is clearly going to get playing time split between working as the third safety and nickel corner, especially when Jeff Ulbrich wants a bigger player out there. The younger Terrell had a nice debut, but even though he’s the starter, his playing time will be dependent on matchups.
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Heavy rotation, of course, is already a feature up front. The Falcons dug deep in their outside linebacker group in Week 1 and got waiver claim Jared Ivey and practice squad elevation Bralen Trice rolling, and I thought Ivey was fairly impressive given how short of a time he’s spent with the team. The defensive line used Dexter, Smith, Dorlus, and London often and all four were effective, helping limit the Steelers ground game and push Aaron Rodgers out of his comfort zone. The biggest difference next week is going to be that we hopefully see more Hand, assuming he’s healthy.
Finally, Daniels is the starter but Perkins has a legitimate role, and the team will split snaps a bit next to Deablo in order to get as much as they can out of both. Unsurprisingly, both players looked terrific against the Steelers.
DeMarcco Hellams: 24
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Josh Woods: 24
Mike Ford: 24
Nick Muse: 23
Sydney Brown: 19
Yasir Abdullah: 18
Charlie Woerner: 16
Kendal Daniels: 14
Harold Perkins Jr.: 14
Jake Bailey: 14
Chris Blair: 12
Divine Deablo: 11
Liam McCullough: 11
C.J. Henderson: 9
Nick Folk: 8
Zachariah Branch: 6
Maason Smith: 6
Gervon Dexter: 6
LaCale London: 6
Brandon Dorlus: 5
Matthew Bergeron: 5
Kyle Hinton: 5
Olamide Zaccheaus: 5
Corey Levin: 5
Austin Hooper: 5
Jake Matthews: 5
Mike Jerrell: 4
Xavier Watts: 4
Bralen Trice: 4
Chris Lindstrom: 4
Brian Robinson: 3
Jawaan Taylor: 1
Ryan Neuzil: 1
No surprises here. If Muse is going to play a ton on special teams and play well, he may earn a permanent call-up to the active roster here soon. Abdullah was signed for his special teams track record and predictably joined Hellams, Woods, Ford, and Brown as the team’s core pieces.
We’ll hopefully see better next week from Folk, who only had missed three times on field goal tries in 2025 before missing twice yesterday.
