It was no secret to anyone that the Atlanta Falcons needed to improve their pass rush and get better upfront on defense in 2025. While first-round picks Jalon Walker and James Pearce, Jr. are expected to help fix that, the Falcons may be getting help from within.
Defensive tackle Brandon Dorlus was a fourth-round pick out of the University of Oregon in the 2024 NFL Draft and pretty much took a redshirt year as a rookie. It took him a while to get used to the pace of the NFL, but now he’s starting to get several of the coaches’ attention.
“I brought him up in a meeting the other day, and some of the things he’s doing have looked really well,” Morris said Monday. “I started to see a little bit last year in practice, when he was giving us a look on the other side.
“I had high hopes for him, and he’s done a lot of really good things going through this camp, going through those games, playing significant minutes, and what he’s done in practice and what he’s done in the games has been really good. I look forward to watching his role clean up and defined as we go. He’s done a nice job.”
Brandon Dorlus getting attention of his position coach
Dorlus has a renewed confidence in year two with Atlanta and the defensive line coach is pleased with what he sees so far. Nate Ollie wanted to see Dorlus overpower the pocket more often and so far he’s improved tremendously.
“Dorlus has been really good. [I’m] liking the way he’s doing his approach,” Ollie said last week. “He’s going to be really big for us.”
Dorlus spent five years at the University of Oregon and compiled 58 solo tackles and 12 sacks. Not eye-popping numbers, but he should be able to fill up the stat sheet a little better in the pros with more snaps.
Jeff Ulbrich thinks Dorlus is becoming a “complete player”
Defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich is probably happy to answer any questions that don’t involve draft-day prank phone calls. So, there is a chance that he jumped at the opportunity to actually talk about football and one of his rising defensive players.
Ulbrich is excited to see more fire from Dorlus.
“The part that we wanted to take to another place was this physicality and this mindset, and just find that internal dog in him,” he said. “A lot of rushers don’t necessarily have that side to them. [Dorlus is] finding that side, and he’s becoming that complete player.”
Shortly after Dorlus was drafted last year, Falcons’ assistant director of college scouting Michael Ross acknowledged that he was a tweener, but saw that as a positive.
“He is a tweener in terms of versatility on the defensive line,” Ross said. “He can play inside, he can play outside. They played him at multiple weights over his years (at Oregon). But this year he was more inside and just his ability to penetrate as a pass rusher really stands out on film.”
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