Falcon Report

After Struggling with Bears, Darnell Mooney Silencing Doubters with Falcons

Darnell Mooney’s wild night against Buccaneers proves he's Atlanta Falcons best offseason addition not named Kirk Cousins.

CJ Errickson

Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Darnell Mooney had a big night against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Darnell Mooney had a big night against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. / Dale Zanine-Imagn Images
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Like quarterback Kirk Cousins, wide receiver Darnell Mooney is also a newcomer to the Atlanta Falcons organization in 2024. Both had wildly productive evenings in the Thursday night win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. 

Five minutes into the second quarter of the night’s contest, Mooney had the best game and maybe the play of his career. 

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Atlanta’s offense needed a conversion on third and fourteen from Tampa Bay’s 24-yard line. Instead of settling for three points, Cousins fired a frozen rope into triple coverage. Mooney leaped up, boxed out his defenders, and made a basketball-like rebound catch for the touchdown.


While he has had higher yardage games in his career, he has never amassed a multi-touchdown performance, and against the Buccaneers, he achieved that with another score in the fourth quarter.

On a gutsy fourth and four play call in the red zone down seven points, the fifth-year receiver ran a precise corner route to the first down marker and then made two defenders miss tackles as he accelerated with authority into the endzone.

On the evening, he accounted for nine receptions on 16 targets for 105 yards receiving and two touchdowns. However, there was a moment when he and many Falcon fans thought he might be the culprit for why the team lost the game with a dropped pass later in the fourth quarter.

Fortunately, that was not the case, as Atlanta went on to win in overtime.

For the former Tulane Green Wave standout, many are taking notice of how much of an asset he has been to the organization in his short tenure with the team. Albert Breer, senior NFL Reporter of Sports Illustrated’s The Monday Morning Quarterback, may have said it best:

“Darnell Mooney's been such a good signing for Atlanta. Kirk Cousins prefers throwing to receivers who get separation, and Mooney's one of those—really good job by the team of fitting a WR signing to the QB.” Breer said.

Mooney got off to a fast start his first-two years with the Chicago Bears. A fifth-round pick in 2020, Mooney came out of the gate with 631 yards as a rookie and followed that up with 1,055 yards his second season. However, that number was cut in half in 2022, and by 2023 he had just 31 catches for 414 yards and a solitary touchdown.

It raised some eyebrows when the Falcons signed a 400-yard receiver to a $13-million-per-year deal. Mooney has proven to be a bargain thus far. After five games, he's on pace for 1,122 yards and 10 touchdowns.

The Falcons haven't had a player have 10 or more touchdowns since Calvin Ridley in 2018 (10). They haven't had more than five touchdown receptions from a player since Ridley in 2020 (9). Bijan Robinson led the team with four last year. Drake London had four as a rookie, and Cordarrelle Patterson's five paced the Falcons in 2021.

Without a shadow of a doubt, Mooney has been a considerable factor in the team’s success so far this season – and there will be plenty more opportunities to come. 

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CJ Errickson
CJ ERRICKSON