Atlanta Falcons free agency 2021: Top 5 targets

If the Falcons are going to make any moves in free agency this spring, it will be to address the secondary. With Allen being released, this leaves a gaping void at safety for Atlanta to try and go about solving. Given that Fontenot was a former strong safety himself for the Tulane Green Wave, we know he will make revitalizing Atlanta’s secondary a priority. But what about a familiar face?

Though he is not a familiar face with Fontenot, Desmond King did spend the second half of the 2020 NFL season on the Tennessee Titans with the new Falcons head coach. Yes, Smith is an offensive-minded guy, but the Titans ran a similar defensive scheme that the Falcons will run under Pees. What makes King such a valued commodity is his inherent versatility in the back-end.

Before arriving in Nashville, King was an All-Pro with the Los Angeles Chargers. Despite his fifth-round status coming out of Iowa, King did take home the Jim Thorpe in his unanimous All-American season playing for the 2015 Hawkeyes. Simply put, King is a Swiss army knife in the defensive backfield. He is the type of playmaker Pees will love to move around the chessboard.

Ultimately, it is hard to gauge what a player like King could make on the open market. His highs are very high, but there are reasons why he was a former fifth-round pick a year after winning the Thorpe and was dealt by the Chargers only two years after an All-Pro season. In short, King is a guy who could plug and play in a lot of coverage packages for a rebuilding team like the Falcons.