The air in Flowery Branch carries the crisp scent of change – and the faint echo of cleats racing toward obsolescence. Remember that electric preseason moment in 2024? Raheem Morris‘ Kevin King, after two and a half years exiled from the NFL, snatched a Skylar Thompson pass and rumbled 29 yards downfield. The sideline erupted. Tears welled in King’s eyes post-game:

“It was something that was a special day… I thought it was something I almost couldn’t shake… it was just being out there.” That flicker of hope, that hard-won return, now faces the cold calculus of an NFL rebuild. Fast forward to 2025 OTAs. Analyst Aaron Freeman’s assessment on the Locked On Falcons podcast lands like a depth-charge:

Big nickel, Bigger implications: Raheem Morris’ scheme leaves little room for Sentiment

“Hopefully Kevin King’s not in the mix because… he’s the only returning guy from last year’s group since Justin Simmons is no longer here.” Freeman unpacks the harsh truth – King’s first-team reps feel less like an endorsement and more like a placeholder situation. “Demarco Hellams is coming off an injury,” Freeman notes, highlighting the temporary vacuum. The conclusion stings: “Hopefully, someone will be coming soon to take Kevin King’s job. Sorry Kevin King, but you know, it is what it is.” This isn’t personal. It’s the ruthless geometry of Raheem Morris’s defensive vision. While rookie QB Michael Penix Jr. – flashing that left-handed magic that conjures memories of his 430-yard, 2-TD CFP Semifinal masterpiece against Texas – commands the offensive future, Morris is fortifying the other side.

His focus? Speed, versatility, and youth. Enter the ‘big nickel’ – Morris’s potential chess move, borrowed from new DC Jeff Ulbrich’s Jets playbook. “‘Big nickel’ is when you use five defensive backs, but instead of the traditional three corners and two safeties, you use three safeties and two corners.”

Suddenly, the safety room isn’t a zero-sum game. Freeman sees opportunity beyond the starting spots: “I think the guys that may not even win the starting safety spot will still have opportunities… just because the Falcons might be using ‘big nickel’.” This scheme’s flexibility is Morris’s blueprint. It prioritizes hybrid defenders – players like rookie Billy Bowman Jr., the Oklahoma dynamo who snagged 11 college INTs (3 for TDs!) and blazed a 4.42-second 40-yard dash.

Bowman isn’t just competing; he’s thriving, already stealing first-team OTA reps and potentially redefining the nickel role. “You could technically argue,” Freeman muses, “if Billy Bowman does win the starting nickel spot… the Falcons are playing ‘big nickel’ because he’s technically considered a safety.”

Why Bowman’s rise spell trouble for Raheem Morris’ King’s comeback?

For King, the 30-year-old veteran whose career earnings are above $30M, this scheme shift is a double-edged sword. His value lies in resilience – surviving two ACL tears, an Achilles rupture, and profound personal loss to claw back onto an NFL roster in 2024, playing just 71 defensive snaps (7%).

His versatility (CB/S/ST) earned him a 2025 return (around $1.34 M deal), but Morris’s actions scream a preference for ceiling over continuity. Bowman represents the future – a bullet train exiting the station. Hellams, the 2023 seventh-rounder, offers younger physicality once healthy. Simmons’ departure wasn’t just a roster hole; it was a symbolic shift away from established, expensive veterans.

Morris, the architect holding two Super Bowl rings (XXXVII as a Bucs QC, LVI as a Rams DC), isn’t sentimental. He’s building a defense to grow with Penix. Every snap Bowman takes, every rep Hellams works toward, underscores King’s precarious perch. The ‘big nickel’ might create more safety roles, but it demands specific traits – explosive closing speed, playmaking instincts – traits naturally dimming for a 30-year-old CB/S hybrid with 207 career tackles and 7 INTs across 6 seasons.

King’s journey – from Oakland kid dreaming under Friday night lights to that tear-soaked Atlanta preseason return – embodies NFL grit. But as Penix unleashes rainbows in practice and Bowman flies around the secondary, the Falcons’ new reality crystallizes.

In the ruthless economy of an NFL roster, loyalty bends to scheme fit and stopwatch times. King’s battle isn’t just for a job; it’s against time itself, in a city betting its future on the arm of a rookie and the legs of the young guns chasing his spot. As Freeman bluntly framed it: “It is what it is.” Sometimes, the hardest tackle is accepting the scoreboard.