Falcons sign CB Antonio Hamilton

The 2023 nine game starter should be in the mix for a significant role.

The Atlanta Falcons finally signed a defender from outside the organization, and it’s a player who may well be competing for a starting role. Especially with the mouse whisper-quiet of the past couple of weeks for this team, that’s big news.

The player in question is cornerback Antonio Hamilton, who joins Atlanta with 98 games and 18 starts spread out over eight seasons in the NFL. Half of those starts came last year for the Arizona Cardinals, as Hamilton was pressed into action a few weeks into the season and wound up playing significant snaps the rest of the way. His quality games included a clean day against the Falcons in Week 10, and he finished the year with one interception, 11 pass deflections, and per Pro Football Reference, 323 yards allowed against three touchdowns on 49 targets against him.

What Hamilton brings is a recent track record of stepping in to the starting lineup and playing solid football, as he’s a reliable tackler and run defender for the position and has a solid-if-unspectacular history in coverage. For a team without proven starters outside of A.J. Terrell, Hamilton provides you with an option to push Clark Phillips and any other young players you might be looking to bring in for a starting role. If he gets that, he can likely hold it down and play well enough to keep the job for half a season or the entire year, depending on the team’s need. If he doesn’t, he’s excellent, proven depth with extensive special teams experience, adding stability and talent to a cornerback group that certainly could use more of both.

We’ll see what the draft brings, but for now I’d pencil in Hamilton vs. Phillips as one of the more intriguing camp battles ahead of us. The Hamilton signing doesn’t carry a ton of fanfare, but there’s a good chance he winds up being a very valuable player for this Falcons defense in 2024.