Dwight Freeney turns 37 on Feb. 19. Two weeks before his birthday, he hopes to be celebrating a Falcons victory over the Patriots in Super Bowl LI in Houston.
Yes, Freeney — the former pass-rush demon for the Colts, now in his 15th NFL season — is back in another Super Bowl.
“You get older and you realize these moments don’t come often,’’ Freeney said following the Falcons’ resounding 44-21 victory over the Packers in the NFC Championship. “You kind of take a second and take it all in. I don’t know when it’s gonna happen again, if it’s ever gonna happen again. When we were on a roll in Indianapolis I felt I was gonna go back every single year. And it didn’t happen. I missed this moment, so to be able to be back in this moment, it’s priceless. It’s the reason why I’ve come back.’’
Freeney is back in the big game for the third time. He made it after the 2006 season with the Colts, beating the Bears, and went again with the Colts after the 2009 season, losing to the Saints. He came oh-so-close last year with the Cardinals, who lost in the NFC title game to the Panthers. Freeney led the Cardinals in 2015 with eight sacks but was not asked back and signed a one-year, $1 million deal with the Falcons.
In 15 games, Freeney accumulated just three sacks, getting all three in back-to-back-to-back games early in the season. He has gone 12 games without a sack. Freeney was on the field for 37 of the 68 defensive snaps against the Packers, did not get very close to Aaron Rodgers and finished with no sacks, no pressures and one assisted tackle. He did have two quarterback hits the previous game on Russell Wilson of the Seahawks.
It is a steep comedown from Freeney’s quarterback harassing days. He has 122.5 career sacks (18th on the all-time list), he is a seven-time Pro Bowler, was named to the All-Decade team of the 2000s and was the AFC Defensive Player of the Year in 2005. His past production will put him in the Hall of Fame discussion when he finally calls it quits. He was the third-fastest player to ever get 40 sacks, using a cat-quick spin move to inject himself into the pocket.
Freeney also brings a different temperament to a Falcons defense not exactly brimming with proven players with winning track records. Case in point: The Falcons pitched a first-half shutout of the Packers, cooling off the hottest player in the NFL in Rodgers. For Freeney, this was expected.
“You have to sit there and think, ‘That’s what we’re gonna do.’ You have to have that mentality,” Freeney said. “If you don’t have that mentality you’re in the wrong business. You want to go out there thinking, ‘Let’s shut these guys out.’ Now, obviously great team, things are gonna happen, but you have to have that mentality.’’
Nowadays, Freeney is strictly a situational pass-rusher. Figure there will be plenty of situations in Super Bowl LI for the Falcons to try to turn Freeney loose on Tom Brady.
Freeney has been credited for helping in the development of Vic Beasley, who went from four sacks as a rookie to a league-leading 15.5 this season. The Falcons are the highest-scoring team in the NFL, and offense is what carried them to the Super Bowl. Their defense, though, has improved.
“I told the guys there’s nothing we can do in these moments but get better,” Freeney said. “It’s about being hot at the right time. All the stuff that happens in the regular season is to try to get ready to get in this position. Anything can happen in the playoffs.”