Jessie Bates pick-six recognized as best play of 2023 for the Atlanta Falcons

Jessie Bates pick-six recognized as best play of 2023 for the Atlanta Falcons

The NFL social media team showed a highlight for what they believed were the top ten plays for the 2023 Atlanta Falcons, and there were some worthy competitors, but one play was representative of the positive aspects of last year’s Falcons team. In week 12, on November 26, 2023, New Orleans Saints quarterback Derek Carr believed that wide receiver Rashid Shaheed had beaten his man to the inside on an angle route in the end zone. What Carr didn’t see was safety Jessie Bates sitting and waiting to jump the route and take it 92 yards to give the Falcons a 7-3 lead at the end of the first quarter. Atlanta went on to win this game against their hated rivals 24-15.

The 2023 NFL season, in many respects, was an objective failure for Atlanta. The team ended the season with a mediocre 7-10 record for the third-straight season, fired head coach Arthur Smith and fielded one of the league’s worst offenses (27th in EPA/play) despite sinking three straight top-ten picks into building up the infrastructure on that side of the ball. On the other side of that coin, the Falcons sunk a lot of off-season capital into building their defense (13th in defensive spending), the first time they’ve allocated those kinds of resources on that side of the ball since 2016 (5th in defensive spending). The headliner for Atlanta’s free agency frenzy and their new-look defense was Bates, who was to patrol over the top of defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen’s aggressive man-coverage-base defense from the Cincinnati Bengals.

Shockingly, this was the only highlight that was on the defensive side of the ball. The other plays to make the list were all on the offensive side of the football:

10) Week 7 - Kyle Pitts’ one-handed grab against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

9) Week 14 - Pitts wheels behind the Tampa Bay defense for a 36-yard touchdown

8) Week 6 - Drake London mosses Washington Commanders CB Benjamin St-Juste for a 32-yard gain

7) Week 9 - Jonnu Smith shows off his speed, taking a screen 60 yards against the Minnesota Vikings

6) Week 2 - Mack Hollins puts Green Bay Packers safety Darnell Savage on a poster after 45-yard flea flicker

5) Week 18 - Bijan Robinson skates by the Saints defense for 71-yard receiving touchdown

4) Week 17 - Tyler Allgeier takes screen pass 75 yards against the Chicago Bears

3) Week 14 - London makes spectacular grab between two Buccaneer defenders for 45 yards

2) Week 5 - Bijan pins the ball one-handed and jukes a Houston Texans defender to score the touchdown in the red zone