2025 Atlanta Falcons

[footballenthusiast]

The 2025 Atlanta Falcons are a team that follows the typical caste formula characterized by a few white starters at the approved positions and a dozen or so white players on the roster in total. Over the past few years it appeared that the team was lightening up a little. After all, they went from 4 white starters in 2022 to 7 in 2024. However, the 2025 Falcons have relapsed to typical caste form under the tutelage of Raheem Morris. Now the team is back down to just 4 white starters after the benching of QB Kirk Cousins, the departures of C Drew Dalman and ILB Nate Landman, and the placement of RT Kaleb McGary on IR.

There are quite a few familiar faces on offense this year. Kirk Cousins was benched in December of 2024 in favor of Michael Penix Jr. Keep in mind that Cousins signed a four-year, $180 million contract in March of that year. It remains to be seen how Atlanta will handle this situation. Backup TE Charlie Woerner is back again. Also returning are LT Jake Matthews and RG Chris Lindstrom. Last year's backup C Ryan Neuzil is back, but this time as a starter after the departure of Drew Dalman. On defense, Kaden Elliss is back and starting at LILB instead of RILB. Accompanying him are two backup ILBs Troy Andersen and JD Bertrand.

The Falcons added three new faces in 2025: RT Jack Nelson, WR David Sills V, and TE Teagan Quitoriano. Nelson is a seventh-round draft pick and second-stringer while Sills and Quitoriano have bounced around various practice squads for a while in typical caste system fashion, but at the moment they are listed to the team's active roster as third-stringers at their respective positions. Time will tell if they get the opportunity to make an impact. The Atlanta Falcons could use all the help they can get seeing as how they have not won double-digit games or made the playoffs since 2017.

Offense:
QB - Kirk Cousins
WR - David Sills V
TE - Charlie Woerner, Teagan Quitoriano
LT - Jake Matthews
C - Ryan Neuzil
RG - Chris Lindstrom
RT - Jack Nelson

Defense:
LILB - Kaden Elliss, JD Bertrand
RILB - Troy Andersen

Special Teams:
P - Bradley Pinion
LS - Liam McCullough

Injured Reserve:
LT - Storm Norton
RT - Kaleb McGary

Practice Squad:
QB - Easton Stick
OT - Ryan Hayes

Number of White starters: 4
Total number of White players on 53-man roster: 13
Grade: F

 

[Don Wassall]

Solid write-up.

Troy Andersen is one of the leading poster children for the epidemic of injured White players over the past couple of years. A second round draft pick he played in every game as a rookie in '22, mostly as a backup and put up 69 total tackles, then missed all but 2 games in '23 with a knee issue when he was set to start in the middle, then missed most of last year after another knee injury and now is starting '25 on IR. He's immensely talented with a nearly perfect 9.98 RAS and had perhaps the best individual game of any defensive player last year, racking up a huge amount of tackles and adding a pick-six. But he somehow hurt his knee in that game and he was done for the year again right when he was exploding into stardom. Now, even if he can somehow get healthy for once he'll probably remain a backup as it's hard to trust a player that injury prone. Being on a team with veteran hard-core Caste acolyte Raheem doesn't help his cause either.

 

[Freethinker]

Agree, good write up.

Just have to be the bearer of bad news with Sills. He was cut before week 1 for a literal journeyman bust of a DE who has like 8 career tackles. Sills did land on their practice squad so maybe he’ll come back up. Until then, Falcons are down to 12 and 4. Yuck.

 

[footballenthusiast]

Agree, good write up.

Just have to be the bearer of bad news with Sills. He was cut before week 1 for a literal journeyman bust of a DE who has like 8 career tackles. Sills did land on their practice squad so maybe he’ll come back up. Until then, Falcons are down to 12 and 4. Yuck.

Thanks! I saw that about Sills but he is currently listed as active on the NFL's official site and as a third-stringer on the Falcon's depth chart on ESPN.

 

[footballenthusiast]

Solid write-up.

Troy Andersen is one of the leading poster children for the epidemic of injured White players over the past couple of years. A second round draft pick he played in every game as a rookie in '22, mostly as a backup and put up 69 total tackles, then missed all but 2 games in '23 with a knee issue when he was set to start in the middle, then missed most of last year after another knee injury and now is starting '25 on IR. He's immensely talented with a nearly perfect 9.98 RAS and had perhaps the best individual game of any defensive player last year, racking up a huge amount of tackles and adding a pick-six. But he somehow hurt his knee in that game and he was done for the year again right when he was exploding into stardom. Now, even if he can somehow get healthy for once he'll probably remain a backup as it's hard to trust a player that injury prone. Being on a team with veteran hard-core Caste acolyte Raheem doesn't help his cause either.

Thanks Don! I agree about Andersen. Wish he could stay healthy and be the superstar that we know he can be.