Falcons Need Bigger Role for Tyler Allgeier: 3 Bye Week Changes

The Atlanta Falcons attacked their bye week with a plan.

Falcons head coach Raheem Morris said Monday the players received a packet full of rundowns on a variety of topics, all rooted in evaluating the team since its mini-bye week after a Thursday Night Football win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Oct. 3.

Atlanta hopes its packet holds answers to reigniting the spark in a team that once sat 6-3 before losing back-to-back games entering its bye. The Falcons are 1.5 games ahead of Tampa Bay in the NFC South, to maximize a season littered with potential, they need fixing.

Here are three potential solutions for Atlanta to ponder after its bye week ...

When running back Tyler Allgeier gets at least eight touches, the Falcons are 5-1 and scored at least 20 points five times. When he gets seven or fewer touches, Atlanta is 1-4 -- with its lone win coming over the Dallas Cowboys, when Allgeier scored one of his two rushing touchdowns -- and held to 17 or less points all but once.

This isn't advocating for Allgeier to match or significantly cut into star running back Bijan Robinson's workload. It is, however, bringing light to the idea that Atlanta's offense and overall team success is better when Allgeier is involved in the offense.

Allgeier is averaging more yards per carry (five) than Robinson (4.7), though on almost half as many carries. For the season, Allgeier has 86 attempts for 429 yards and a pair of scores while adding nine catches for 56 yards.

It's worth noting the Falcons naturally run the ball more when they're ahead as a clock-milking mechanism, and Allgeier's individual involvement alone doesn't determine whether the offense will perform well in a given week.

But there is a positive correlation between Allgeier's workload and Atlanta's win-loss record, and for the sake of both balance and keeping Robinson healthy, the Falcons should give Allgeier a more consistent role after the bye week.

The Falcons' pass rush is last in the NFL with only 10 sacks. Inside linebacker Kaden Elliss has just one of those, but he's been Atlanta's most efficient pressure player.

Elliss has blitzed 34 times, according to Pro Football Reference, and leads the team with 13 pressures and eight quarterback knockdowns. His nine total hits are tied with defensive tackle Grady Jarrett for a team high.

Atlanta's leading tackler with 97, Elliss has been lauded by his teammates as the defense's most underrated piece. In that same sect, it's worth noting he had seven sacks in 2022 with the New Orleans Saints.

Elliss can make a legitimate impact when asked to pursue the quarterback -- and for the pass rush-starved Falcons, that should become a more frequent demand after the bye week.

"Kaden Elliss is one of the guys we are expecting to get pressure as well; he's one of the guys I would like to hit the quarterback," Morris said Oct. 28. "We've got to find a way to rush five as one when Kaden’s going. We got to find a way to rush four as one when they're rushing.

"So, we've got to pick that up. That's definitely got to be increased."

It's well documented Falcons outside linebacker Matt Judon has endured a difficult -- some may even call it disappointing -- first 12 games during his time in Atlanta. The four-time Pro Bowler has only 2.5 sacks, three tackles for loss and four quarterback hits.

But Judon recently noted he's been given fewer pure pass rushing snaps this season than he has in prior stops with the Baltimore Ravens and New England Patriots.

"I’m trying to do what I do within the defense," Judon said, via The Athletic's Josh Kendall. "You play the call that has been played. They brought me here to do a job, and I have to be within the defense. If I come here and try to do what I did with the Ravens and the Patriots and not play within the scheme of the defense, that’s not being one of 11."

Judon's job was expected to be a bell cow pass rusher -- a plug-and-play solution on a unit searching for help in mid-August. Instead, his underwhelming production has been a key component to the Falcons' struggles sacking the quarterback.

So, how does Atlanta fix it? Perhaps letting Judon, who had 32 sacks in his previous 38 games before being traded to the Falcons in training camp, do more of what he's done in the past.