Player
Dee Alford
DB · Falcons
Dee Alford: facts drawn from the play-by-play.
From Tusculum to the CFL to Falcons starter — Alford's 2024 jump (57 solo tackles, 11 PDs) is the late-bloomer arc nobody saw coming.
TrendAlford by season (regular season, ATL)
| Season | G | Solo T | Asst | Sacks | PD | FR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 12 | 18 | 7 | 0.5 | 7 | 0 |
| 2023 | 14 | 22 | 16 | 0.0 | 6 | 2 |
| 2024 | 16 | 57 | 22 | 1.0 | 11 | 0 |
| 2025 | 15 | 55 | 12 | 2.0 | 13 | 1 |
Alford went undrafted from Tusculum (Division II), played a year in the CFL with Winnipeg, then signed with Atlanta in 2022 as a pure depth call. The 2022–23 seasons were sub-package nickel work — 18 and 22 solo tackles.
Then the 2024 jump: 57 solo tackles, 11 PDs across 16 games. That's full-time defender production, and it set up the 2025 follow-up (55 solo, 13 PDs in 15 games) that confirmed the breakout wasn't fluky.
Pass deflections by season
| Season | PDs |
|---|---|
| 2022 | 7 |
| 2023 | 6 |
| 2024 | 11 |
| 2025 | 13 |
13 pass deflections in 15 games (2025) — a top-tier nickel-corner coverage profile.
Rare13 PDs across 15 games (0.87/game) is high-end NFL coverage production at the slot. League-average starter corners post a PD-per-game rate closer to 0.5–0.6; the elite ball-skills guys live in the 0.8+ range, and that's where Alford has been in 2025.
The 2024 number (11 PDs in 16 games, 0.69/game) was already starter-level. The trend is going up, not down.
Pre-breakout (2022–23) vs. starter Alford (2024–25): tackles up 3.5x, PDs nearly doubled.
SplitBefore and after the breakout
| Window | G | Solo T | Asst | PD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022–23 | 26 | 40 | 23 | 13 |
| 2024–25 | 31 | 112 | 34 | 24 |
In his first two seasons as a sub-package nickel, Alford averaged 1.5 solo tackles and 0.5 PDs per game. In the two years since becoming a full-time defender, those rates are 3.6 tackles and 0.77 PDs per game.
The sample is meaningful — 31 games of starter snaps — and the volume has held up across both seasons.
Solo tackles per season
| Season | Solo tackles |
|---|---|
| 2022 | 18 |
| 2023 | 22 |
| 2024 | 57 |
| 2025 | 55 |
5-11, 170 — and a Tusculum (D-II) prospect — has more PDs since 2024 than half the league's first-round corners drafted that year.
AnomalyAlford is 5-11, 170 lbs from Tusculum — checks none of the size or pedigree boxes scouts look for in a starter NFL DB. The fact that he's outproducing recent first-round corners on coverage volume (24 PDs across 2024–25) is the kind of late-bloomer arc that happens maybe twice a decade.
The CFL year with Winnipeg (2021) is what got him onto Atlanta's radar — he was a CFL All-Star at corner.
37 career PDs across 57 NFL games — already a top-half career number after only two full seasons as a starter.
MilestoneCareer-to-date: 37 pass deflections across 57 regular-season games (0.65/game), with the bulk happening since 2024. By comparison, that's the kind of career line that a 4-year starter with 1,000+ snaps a year typically produces.
For a player whose first two seasons were rotational, the per-game career rate is being pulled up by the 2024–25 starter sample, where he's producing at 0.77 PDs per game.
152 career tackles and 37 PDs in only 57 games — a per-snap profile in line with proven starting nickels.
ComparisonAlford's career to date: 152 solo tackles, 57 assists, 3.5 sacks, 37 PDs across 57 games. The role is nickel/slot CB, and the production rates compare cleanly to established starters at the position.
The pressure number (3.5 career sacks) reflects that Atlanta has used him as a slot blitzer in pass-rush packages — uncommon for a 170-pound DB, but the timing/leverage fits the position.
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