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On Saturday Atlanta Falcons safety Keanu Neal signed a one-year, $5 million contract with the Dallas Cowboys. But he may not be the only Falcons safety who moves on to Dallas.
According to a report by Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News, Damontae Kazee is scheduled to visit the Cowboys during this coming week.
Much like was the case with Neal, part of the attraction to Kazee may be familiarity. Former Falcons head coach Dan Quinn is the defensive coordinator for the Cowboys and his staff includes secondary coach/defensive pass game coordinator Joe Whitt Jr., who held the same title in Atlanta.
That may give Kazee a leg up over another safety that the Cowboys have scheduled for a visit, namely free safety Malik Hooker, who played out his rookie contract with the Indianapolis Colts.
Interestingly, both Kazee and Hooker suffered season-ending Achilles injuries early last season. But Hooker—a former first-round pick selected No. 15 overall out of Ohio State—has a more extensive history of serious injuries, as he also missed more than half of his rookie season in 2017 with a torn ACL and MCL.
The Falcons will go against Keanu Neal (and perhaps Kazee) later this year, as Atlanta is scheduled to play at Dallas this season.
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Damontae Kazee’s Four-Year Falcons Career
Kazee joined the Falcons in 2017 as a fifth-round pick out of San Diego State.
Over the course of 52 games, he made 34 starts and contributed 199 tackles (137 solo), with 10 interceptions, 13 passes defensed and five forced fumbles. He had arguably his best season in 2018, when he recorded 82 tackles and had seven interceptions plus 10 passes defensed.
Kazee earned $2.133 million with the Falcons in 2020 and incurred a salary cap charge of $2,205,233. Earlier this month, the Falcons indicated that they would not attempt to re-sign him to a new contract.
Atlanta Has Signed Safety Erik Harris
Meanwhile, the Falcons still have a lot of work to do in terms of replacing Neal, Kazee and veteran safety Ricardo Allen, the latter of whom was released by the Falcons in February.
But on Friday the Falcons took a first step in that direction by signing former Las Vegas Raiders safety Erik Harris, who previously played for the New Orleans Saints. For Harris it was an unusually long and winding road to the NFL, as he went undrafted in 2012 after playing his college football at Division II California University of Pennsylvania. In April 2013 Harris signed with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League and spent three years in the CFL before he finally got a look-see from the Saints.
According to AtlantaFalcons.com, Harris has signed a one-year contract, as has outside linebacker Brandon Copeland, who signed with the Falcons after visiting Atlanta late last week.
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