Last season, the Falcons had just 29 sacks from their edge defenders, which wasn’t exactly impressive. And Bud Dupree, the team leader with eight sacks, is now with the Chargers. So, someone is going to need to step up from the edge.
It could be that Arnold Ebiketie, selected in the second round of the 2022 draft out of Penn State, is ready to do just that. Last season, on just 175 pass-rushing snaps, Ebiketie amassed seven sacks and 28 total pressures. As the Falcons didn’t do a ton in the draft or free agency to accentuate their outside pass-rush, it’s possible that the team sees Ebiketie as the proverbial Next Man Up.
.@AtlantaFalcons EDGE Arnold Ebiketie had 28 pressures in each of his first two NFL seasons. The difference in 2023 was that his sacks went up from three to seven. He's a guy that defense can build a pass-rush around. pic.twitter.com/ZFUBnEPVKl
— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) May 23, 2024