'I Love Atlanta': Falcons DB Hoping to Return in Free Agency

When the Atlanta Falcons started this season at 6-3, safety Richie Grant thought the team was headed for the Super Bowl.

"But you know, it didn't end that way," Grant said.

The Falcons lost six of their last eight games and finished at 8-9, their seventh consecutive season with a losing record and no playoff appearance.

Perhaps nothing better summarizes Grant's season than that: high expectations, but a frustrating finish.

Grant entered 2024 expecting to compete with DeMarcco Hellams for the starting safety spot next to Jessie Bates III, though Grant often worked with the first-team defense this summer and appeared to have the inside track at the job.

When Hellams suffered what proved to be a season-ending ankle injury in the preseason opener Aug. 9 against the Miami Dolphins, Grant essentially secured the starting spot. But the following week, Atlanta signed four-time Pro Bowl safety Justin Simmons, who was immediately inserted into the starting lineup.

Suddenly, like with his Super Bowl aspirations, Grant saw his expectations crash. He played in every game and started in place of the injured Simmons in a Week 8 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but Grant played in only 162 defensive snaps this season, which is 15% of the team's total.

The 27-year-old Grant spent much of his time on special teams, playing 349 snaps -- 78% of the unit's total -- for coordinator Marquice Williams.

Grant finished the year with 14 tackles, two tackles for loss and a pair of pass deflections -- far from the season he expected to have before the arrival of Simmons.

"It was tough," Grant said. "I'm a competitor, man. I want to be on the field at all costs. I still got a lot of special teams reps, but obviously I got drafted to play defense, you know what I mean? But I love playing for Quice as well. So it was tough, man. Like, I want to be out there competing.

"I want to be out there helping the guys in whatever role possible. It didn't happen that way. God doesn't make mistakes, and I'll just leave it in his hands."

Grant acknowledged the situation was only made tougher considering he expected to start on the back end.

"I'm a competitor. I want to start. I want to play," Grant said. "Like, I don't care who you are -- you say you don't want to start in this game, you shouldn't be here. It was kind of weird taking that back seat. I wasn't happy about it, but at the end of the day, I'm a team player, and I wanted to be here.

"So, I made that sacrifice, and I lived with it."

Grant, a second-round pick in 2021, endured highs and lows in Atlanta. He played in 16 games as a rookie but didn't start, instead finding his niche at nickel but playing only 25% of the team's defensive snaps.

In his second professional season, Grant played all but five snaps while starting all 17 games. He had 123 tackles, three tackles for loss and two interceptions.

Grant started 15 of 17 games in 2023, though his role decreased down the stretch as Hellams, then a promising rookie, earned more playing time. Still, the former University of Central Florida standout finished with 103 tackles, three sacks and an interception.

And so, with two years of significant starting experience and production under his belt, Grant naturally assumed he'd be in line for a heavy dose of snaps in 2024. It didn't happen.

Grant feels he capitalized on the opportunity to view the game from a different perspective. He learned more about coaching and in-game adjustments, along with how to be a better teammate. He gained life perspective from Simmons, finding how to value family over football, which made football easier and more fun.

But not lost amid the year of growth is the end of a bizarre four-year arc, a sentiment Grant agreed with.

"It's been weird, I'm not going to lie," Grant said. "Especially just looking at other guys' careers who came through here. It's been weird, but it's not the end. I'm nowhere near the player I want to be, and I think that's a very positive thing. I put some good things on film.

"And I still can improve every year as always, but there's so much more I want to do and so much more I want to achieve, and wherever that ends up being, man, I'm just happy for the opportunity."

Grant's future is uncertain. His rookie contract expires this spring, meaning he'll be an unrestricted free agent when the legal tampering period begins at noon on March 12.

The Fort Walton Beach, Fla., product acknowledged he's unsure what's to come, but he has fond feelings toward the Falcons' organization.

"I love Atlanta, man," Grant said. "Atlanta's home. First team, obviously -- I feel like any athlete comes in (and) wants to finish with their first team, but I'm leaving it in God's hands. I'm sure I'm going to have plenty of talks coming up and whatever happens, happens."

When asked what he'll remember most from his time in Atlanta, Grant pondered for several seconds, re-racking his brain for words that may have been hard to find after four life-changing years.

"The first thing that always pops in my head is just the brotherhood," Grant said. "How many guys I came to know and want to continue to be friends with moving forward. I feel like, outside of this game, I just learned so much from so many different people, just life in general. How to be a man, how to carry yourself, financially -- just things I didn't know as a college athlete.

"I thought I was a mature guy, which I still consider myself, but there was so much more I had to learn. I felt like being here these four years, I got to experience a lot, and I'm going to take that moving forward."

Grant's future remains uncertain. But in a time of mixed emotions, he knows this: He feels fortunate for all the players he met and battled with across two regimes and four seasons with entirely different stories in each chapter.

And he's still open to penning more pages in Atlanta.

"I definitely made some lifetime bonds, even with a couple of new guys," Grant said. "And I'm really hoping to extend that coming here forward."