Mykal Walker quietly had a very good rookie season. He was named to Pro Football Focus’s All-Rookie team for 2020 based on his excellence in coverage and all-around game, but he was also clearly third in the linebacker pecking order behind Deion Jones and Foye Oluokun, and thus only played 36% of the defensive snaps in 2020.
Here’s a rare confident prediction from me: That will change and change significantly in 2021. The Falcons will be needing to paper over some deficiencies on defense because they lack the dollars and draft picks to overhaul the entire defense in one go, and that means they’ll need to lean heavily on young, versatile players who can fill multiple roles.