Atlanta Falcons Cut Jaylinn Hawkins, Open Role for DeMarcco Hellams

The Atlanta Falcons parted ways with former starting safety Jaylinn Hawkins on Tuesday, officially releasing the fourth-year player and saving $1.3 million in cap space along the way.

Cutting Hawkins came as something of a surprise, as Falcons assistant head coach/defense Jerry Gray has spoken favorably of the 2020 fourth-round pick multiple times this year.

But ultimately, after starting all 16 games played last season, Hawkins fell out of the rotation with star free agent signing Jessie Bates III and incumbent Richie Grant dominating snap counts at safety.

Bates and Grant have played every defensive snap in each of the past five games. The former missed five snaps in the season opener while the latter has been on the field for every snap this year.

As a result, Hawkins saw his role diminish, playing only five snaps in each of the first two games and 11 in Week 3 before not seeing action in Week 4. He saw eight snaps in Week 5 but once again didn't play on defense in this past Sunday's 24-16 loss to the Washington Commanders.

While Hawkins was shutout in two of the last three contests, rookie safety DeMarcco Hellams received more playing time. Hellams, a seventh-round pick out of Alabama who led the Falcons in tackles this preseason, didn't see any defensive snaps the first three games but played 12 in Weeks 4 and 6.

In a direct correlation with Hawkins' snaps, Hellams didn't play on defense in Week 5.

And so, the picture becomes clearer and clearer that Atlanta didn't feel the need to carry both Hawkins and Hellams, and ultimately decided on the younger (23 vs. 26), contractually controllable (three years vs. expiring) option.

Gray initially attributed Hellams' emergence to the injury of starting linebacker Troy Andersen, as the Falcons implemented packages for Grant to slide down and replace Andersen in certain looks.

Hawkins saw his snaps when Atlanta used three defensive linemen, and both he and Hellams had their own packages, Gray confirmed prior to Week 5.

But evidently, Hawkins' package wasn't valuable enough to retain - even though Gray was full of compliments after Week 2 for how the former Cal-Berkeley standout handled his transition from starter to reserve.

“I know when you’re a starter and then you’re not starting, the first thing you think about is, ‘Man, what are other people going to think?’ And it’s like look, embrace your role and be ready because you never know,” Gray said. “One play, you are a starter again.

“He knows we have packages for him and when it’s time for him to go out there and play, he goes and plays. He does a good job. He does it in practice.”

Across three and a half seasons in Atlanta, Hawkins appeared in 48 games with 22 starts while making 124 tackles and four interceptions. His most productive campaign came last year, when he collected 84 tackles, six passes defended and two interceptions.

With Hawkins now gone, reserve interior offensive lineman Matt Hennessy, who's currently on injured reserve, is the last player remaining from the previous regime who's not been extended or acquired by the new decision makers.

And it's only fitting that Hawkins' departure comes at the expense of the rookie Hellams, who's now poised to see a consistent reserve role while taking more responsibilities on special teams.

The Falcons - with Hawkins out of the picture - return to action Sunday, when they'll travel to Raymond-James Stadium for a 1 p.m. EST kickoff against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.