Kendal Daniels says the first thing he did when he got home from the hospital was look at the replay. A week earlier the Atlanta Falcons rookie linebacker had been strapped to a stretcher in the middle of the field at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. What he saw, he told his teammates after Sunday’s 29-20 win over the San Francisco 49ers, was why he came back so fast.
“When I went down last week it was scary, and you know, when I got home I immediately looked and I saw that all y’all was standing around me, man,” Daniels said in the locker room, in a short film the Falcons released on Tuesday. “And then I knew I had to play for y’all, because y’all really care for me, man, and that ain’t everywhere. I knew I had to come out and play, man. So appreciate y’all for trusting me.”
From a stretcher to a full practice in three days
Daniels was hurt midway through the third quarter of Atlanta’s 31-23 loss to the Chicago Bears on October 18. With 8:48 left in the quarter, he cut through two blockers on a screen to tight end Colston Loveland and made a diving tackle after a 5-yard gain. He stayed down, the whole Falcons sideline walked out to gather around him, and he was carted off with his head and neck in a brace and taken to Grady Memorial Hospital.
He returned to the stadium after the game and walked through the locker room on his own. The next day head coach Kevin Stefanski called it “all positive news,” and on Wednesday Daniels was a full participant in practice with what the team listed as a neck injury. Stefanski said he was not in the concussion protocol. Daniels was listed as questionable for the 49ers and was active on Sunday.
In the film, Daniels is asked about the hit while he is still recovering. “Yeah, it was a scary play. I’m blessed to come out how I did,” he says. “But I’m happy I’m here.” One teammate describes the moment on the field as “a scary moment, not just for our team, but for the other team too,” and says all anyone could do was “rely on your faith.”
The green dot, a first interception and the last fumble
With linebacker Divine Deablo out with a forearm injury, Daniels wore the green-dot helmet that carries the defensive calls from the sideline. “Mentally I had to prepare different, you know, Divine being out,” he said in a postgame interview with the team. “So just had to take the extra steps, study a little bit more.” He said his teammates helped him: “They trusted me with the green dot, so I’m just thankful.”
He led Atlanta with 11 tackles, nine of them solo, along with a tackle for loss and a pass defensed. The 49ers had pulled within 26-20 when Kyle Juszczyk caught a 1-yard touchdown with 5:05 left, but Eddy Piñeiro missed the extra point. On third-and-9 from the San Francisco 48 with 2:42 to go, Brock Purdy threw short over the middle for receiver Jordan Watkins, and Daniels stepped in front of it for the first interception of his career. He returned it 29 yards to the 19, and Nick Folk’s 31-yard field goal made it 29-20.
San Francisco had one more chance. With 57 seconds left, George Kittle caught a pass over the middle and was stripped by Jessie Bates III at the Atlanta 20, and Daniels fell on the ball to end the game.
“All the plays I made today was him”
Daniels, a fourth-round pick from Oklahoma who played safety in college, gave the credit away. “Blessed to be able to come back a week after a scary fall. It’s all thanks and glory to God, and you know, he put me back out here,” he said. “So you know, all the plays I made today was him.” On the turnovers he said: “We just had a great look all week. We worked our butts off, and you know, we just always said somebody got to beat him, and it was just us this week.”
He also said the defense still has work to do. “We still have a lot of stuff to get better at,” Daniels said. “I might have made the pick, but the offense went out there and scored so many points, and special teams got them pinned down there. So I’m just thankful that I got drafted to this team.”
Teammates in the film said the play was no accident. One said Daniels would not have been in that position without the trust he had built with coaches and players through “how he prepped for the games and how he come into the building,” and that “there’s no shocker that he made a play today that impacted the game.” Another called what Daniels showed “our identity … resiliency to its fullest.”
The win snapped a two-game losing streak and moved Atlanta to 3-4, while the 49ers fell to 6-1. The Falcons visit the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, November 1, at 1:00 p.m. ET, which is 8:00 p.m. in Cairo.
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