When Jeff Ulbrich was appointed as the Atlanta Falcons’ defensive coordinator in January, he began by reviewing the team’s roster for the 2025 season. Ulbrich noticed several players with versatile skill sets and questioned whether this versatility prevented them from excelling at a single position. He decided to encourage these players to focus on mastering one role while still utilizing their broader abilities when needed.
One player fitting this profile is DeAngelo Malone, who joined the Falcons as a third-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft. Malone had made his mark primarily on special teams but had not secured a consistent defensive role due to frequent changes in coaching staff and defensive schemes.
Ulbrich saw potential in Malone after watching him play both off the edge and off the ball. This led to a new plan for Malone’s development.
“I made a concerted effort this offseason to say you’re going to become a stack linebacker first,” Ulbrich said about his vision for Malone, “and then we will start to toy around with some other stuff.”
This approach was evident during last Friday’s preseason game against the Detroit Lions, where Malone played inside linebacker in the first half before moving to an outside pass rusher role in the second half.
“DeLo was awesome in the game,” Raheem Morris said. “We played him at inside linebacker in the first half of the game and then the second half of the game we pulled some of those guys — whether it be Jalon (Walker) or James (Pearce Jr.) — and we were able to put DeLo out there at the outside backer position and so some of the rushing things from the outside edge and he was absolutely phenomenal.”
Malone’s main contribution has been on special teams, which has helped maintain his spot on the roster. However, coaches are now working to increase his value by developing him as depth at multiple positions.
Morris noted that Malone is considered “a starter” on special teams, describing him as “our barnyard bully when it comes to special teams.”
With strong competition for spots on the 53-man roster, versatility alone is not enough; players must also contribute across different roles. Ulbrich pointed out that other players like Kaden Elliss and Jalon Walker are undergoing similar development processes.
“Kaden Elliss had the same ask,” Ulbrich explained. “His super power has been his versatility, but its really cool to see him emerging as a legitimate stack linebacker in this league — an upper echelon one. Now, you add that to all of the other stuff he can do as far as blitzing internally, taking on big backs, coming off the edge, all the stuff that he does, it’s really cool. It’s the same thing we have with Jalon Walker — a guy who throughout his career at Georgia did a lot of different things but we are really trying to develop him as an edge rusher. Now, saying that, we’re still going to take advantage of his versatility and we are going to have packages that will feature some of the special stuff that he does.”
Malone commented on adjusting between positions: “Don’t overthink it,” he said. “Just shoot the gap.”
