Before suffering a season-ending torn MCL in 2022, Atlanta Falcons defensive tackle Ta’Quon Graham was in the midst of a breakout second campaign.

Graham, a fifth-round pick out of Texas in 2021, had become a consistent pressure player on Atlanta’s defensive line, and his steady growth allowed minds to ponder the heights of his ceiling.

Across 11 games and nine starts, Graham had eight quarterback hits to his name. His one tackle for loss and no sacks did little to represent the problems he’d caused for opposing offensive lines.

Graham’s step forward in 2022 created optimism for 2023 — but the Killeen, Texas, native was hindered by the injury that cost him the final six games of the year prior. It took until the midpoint of last season for Graham to feel back up to strength.

As such, the 25-year-old Graham trudged through a difficult campaign. He saw action in 15 games and made a pair of starts but registered only one sack — the first of his career — and one tackle for loss with just two quarterback hits. He was a healthy scratch twice due to inadequate practice habits, Falcons assistant head coach/defense Jerry Gray alluded to last October.

Now, Graham is at a crossroads. He’s entering the final year of his rookie contract and playing under new head coach Raheem Morris, defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake and defensive line coach Jay Rodgers.

Uncertain exists — but Graham knows this: He felt great physically during training camp and will enter the season fully confident in his 6-foot-4, 307-pound frame holding strong.

“Camp is the roughest part on our bodies and I think I’ve been handling it pretty well in how I feel and how I attack every day,” Graham said. “So, I think I’m in a pretty good spot personally with my health.”

With the fitness box checked, Graham is working toward proving he’s still the same disruptive piece he was becoming two years ago. This summer, Graham has played extensively with the first-team defense, serving as one of many rotational pieces on a deep defensive line.

Given a chance to prove himself with the starters, Graham feels he performed at a level much closer to the standard he once set.

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“I think I’ve been having a pretty good training camp,” Graham said. “There’s always room for improvement, always things I want to fix. Hindsight can be 20/20 at times, and I’m just working on improving, but I feel like I’ve been having a solid camp.”

Graham said he hasn’t focused much on the order of the rotations; there have been lots of different groups, so he has little idea where, exactly, he stands inside the room. He added he likely won’t know until this week’s practices in the lead-up to Sunday’s season opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Falcons’ defensive line is led by Grady Jarrett and David Onyemata. Graham appears likely to factor into the next group, which includes Eddie Goldman, Kentavius Street, Zach Harrison and rookies Ruke Orhorhoro and Brandon Dorlus.

Even with heightened competition, Graham said he thinks it’s a positive the Falcons expensed a second-round pick on Orhorhoro and fourth-round choice on Dorlus.

“The more depth in the room, the better,” Graham said. “Personally for me, I’m just focused on myself and how I can contribute to the team and how I can improve my performance.”

Lake, similarly, likes the defensive line room being crowded. He also likes the way Graham has produced from the Falcons’ interior this summer.

“He’s one of those big bodies up front,” Lake said. “He’s tough, he’s physical. He’s also made his share of plays in practice. He knows the defense. Still room for improvement leverage-wise, some pass rush, but he’s right where he needs to be and just continuing to improve.

“I feel like TQ is just gaining confidence by the day.”

Graham emphasized strength and conditioning this summer and feels he made progress in both. On the field, he’s trying to first stop the run before converting his attack into a pass-rushing rep when needed.

The former University of Texas standout said he’s enjoyed learning from Rodgers this summer and believes the decade-long NFL defensive line coach has been a “pretty solid addition” to the room.

Relationships and cohesiveness have been established. According to Morris, so has Graham’s return to form.

“I’ve seen a violent, big human that’s absolutely learning how to practice versus his teammates,” Morris said. “And some of the stuff you like, some of the stuff you got to say, ‘whoa’, but he is strong. He’s got great length. He’s throwing his hands. He’s being physical. He’s doing things the right way.

“I’ve really been impressed.”

Now, Graham gets another chance to turn promise into production — with his first opportunity coming against the Steelers at 1 p.m. Sunday inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

If you watched the entirety of the Braves’ 3-2, walkoff loss to the Phillies on Sunday night, I’m sorry. If you didn’t, but you did watch their 5-4 loss to open this series back on Thursday, well, you didn’t miss much. At this point, the Braves are making the same mistake over and over, and their injury-riddled roster isn’t able to overcome it. So it goes, except where it’s going is a pretty lame place.

To recap: on Thursday, the Braves let Charlie Morton persist far too long despite not pitching particularly well, leading to a big blow. Then, Grant Holmes doubled up on fastballs to Nick Castellanos, and paid the price, as a two-run homer turned a one-run lead into a one-run deficit that become a one-run loss.

So, on Sunday, the Braves let Spencer Schwellenbach persist far too long despite not pitching particularly well, leading to a big blow that, in Schwellenbach’s defense, was not really his fault, just poor fortune to have two softly-hit bloops find paydirt, followed by an okay hit ball that split the defense instead of going towards an outfielder. Then, after the Atlanta bullpen shone as brightly as they have all season, forcing a tie game all the way into the 11th, the Braves botched a double play chance, and asked Holmes to face Castellanos with two outs and the winning run on third. In a 1-2 count, Holmes threw a fastball down the middle, and Castellanos hit it back up the box to end the game.

It feels weird to lose the first and last game of the series in this very specific way, but mostly everything about this season has been the bad kind of weird. I’m not really even sure it’s worth recapping the game in full, because fundamentally, blah.

The Braves got on the board first, thanks to a two-out solo homer by Michael Harris II off Aaron Nola in the third. A walk, a single, and Whit Merrifield beating out a double play ball scored a second run in the fourth.

Spencer Schwellenbach didn’t pitch particularly well, which is more or less where the trouble began. He had an 0/1 K/BB ratio through two innings, and his only two strikeouts of the game came within a span of three batters in one of his two perfect frames. He had a fairly low pitch count, which is something akin to the kiss of death for a Braves starter once the middle innings roll around, and in this case, said kiss was sloppy and gross as well as being toxic. Basically, Trea Turner hit a soft bloop to right, and then Bryce Harper hit the uber-bloop at around 65 mph down the left field line, putting the tying run on second. Schwellenbach got ahead of Castellanos 0-2, despite hanging a slider on the second pitch, and then hung another slider, which was hit into left-center to tie the game.

Again, there’s no knock on Schwellenbach here in particular — you live by the BABIP, you die by the BABIP. The only real issue was, again, the lack of urgency. Schwellenbach wasn’t pitching that well, relying on balls finding gloves, pretty much all game. Castellanos came up with the leverage index above 3.00, i.e., more than triple the importance of the average situation. The Braves are hanging on to a playoff spot by a thread, every other relevant team in the Wild Card race had already won, and, oh, again — they got burned by the exact same lack of urgency earlier in this series. But, you know, once more into the breach.

Much of the rest of the game, until Holmes was asked to face Castellanos again, was basically what happens when neither the Island of Misfit Toys nor the few legitimate bats in the lineup can do anything.

The Braves got a leadoff walk in the seventh, but it was erased on a double play. There was a leadoff single in the eighth, but Jeff Hoffman blew Jorge Soler away with an elevated fastball, which apparently caused Marcell Ozuna to sit on the fastball for four straight pitches, of which only one was a fastball (and it was too high and inside to offer at), and on which Ozuna struck out in pretty pathetic fashion. Matt Strahm suffered some serious issues in the ninth… or maybe he was just keenly aware that walking the bases loaded to face Orlando Arcia and Luke Williams (who pinch-ran to enter the game, to no avail, in the eighth) is apparently a legitimate strategy.

The Braves didn’t score in extras, either, though there was a bunch of weird stuff there, including pinch-hitting Adam Duvall, who hadn’t had a PA in over a week, to face a righty, to replace Eli White, who himself came in as a defensive replacement. In the 11th, both Travis d’Arnaud and Merrifield failed to score Ozuna from third with one out, just like Arcia and Williams a few innings earlier.

While all of this was playing out, the bullpen was oh so good. This bullpen, especially when the dregs aren’t asked to get outs, and a modicum of handedness is paid attention to, is straight nails. The team doesn’t seem to care, though, but again, so it goes. A combination of Dylan Lee, Pierce Johnson, Joe Jimenez, Raisel Iglesias (for two innings), and Aaron Bummer combined to post a 7/2 K/BB ratio in five innings, and one of those walks was a really bizarre sequence where Bummer, after retiring Kyle Schwarber, was not asked to intentionally walk Turner despite Turner’s run being completely irrelevant — he walked him anyway, but what a completely useless gamble the Braves took there.

Anyway, that brought the game to the sequence where Bryce Harper faced Bummer and hit what should’ve been a double play ball right at Williams. The problem was that Williams threw to Merrifield, who wasn’t at the second base bag yet, and Merrifield had to awkwardly run to the base and throw across his body, which let Harper reach safely. A few pitches later, Holmes made the same mistake he made on Thursday, and here we are.

The Braves will now return home to face the Rockies, but at this point, especially at this point, it’s clear that it’s no longer about whom they face. It’s more just — will this be a game where the deliberate decision to let your starter go a third time through blows up in their face? If no, then they’ll win. If yes, well, you hope at least some of the bats will come through, or else it’ll be another game like this one.

The Braves have 25 games to run out the clock on the final playoff spot, or I guess make a run and take one of the higher ones, though that seems unlikely at the moment. They could make things easier for themselves, but let’s be real: if they didn’t do it in this series, or in this game, after they already lost a game in this series to the exact same stuff — when are they going to?

If you’re heading to Atlanta for a staycation or weekend away, finding the right place to stay can be overwhelming. The options are seemingly limitless and, whether you’re heading to the city for a football game, a trip to the aquarium, or to try the tasty restaurants, you’ll want to find the best spot to rest your head.

Bellyard, a boutique hotel in West Midtown, offers the perfect spot for comfortable accommodations, delicious food, and fun nightlife. The hotel is located in the Interlock, a buzzy new area on Atlanta’s west side close to the Georgia Tech campus and Atlantic Station (home to Ikea).

The up-and-coming area was once home to stockyard and rail lines, and the 161-room property pays tribute to that history with its industrial decor complete with iron sculptures, leather, and cowhide accents.

The bright and colorful courtyard makes a great place to work, savor a pastry from the onsite Saint Germain French Bakery, or (as we saw during our visit) take wedding photos.

You don’t need to leave the hotel for delicious food and cocktails, thanks to Drawbar. The restaurant serves a contemporary Southern menu with fried catfish, decadent chicken and waffles, and hot shrimp (save room for the peach hand pie). Drawbar cooks up equally delicious menus for breakfast and lunch, but you’ll want to visit in the evening for an inventive cocktail on the terrace, which offers casual seating and an impressive view of the Atlanta skyline.

Don’t check out before sitting down for brunch, where you’ll find smoked tomato shrimp and cheese grits, peanut butter and jelly french toast, and a chubby grilled cheese, along with more traditional options.

Bellyard has a new Peach Retreat package, giving a nod to its home in the Peach State. The farm-to-city experience gives guests a taste of delicious fruit from Lane Southern Orchards with a peach salad, peach cocktails, and Peach Hand Pie turndown service.

If you’re traveling with your pup, the Bellyard has you covered with a Very Important Pet package, complete with a photo package, dog beer, and a welcome kit.

We found Bellyard to be the perfect spot to get away for a weekend in Atlanta.

Katie Bowlby is Digital Director at Country Living, where she covers gift guides, product reviews, crafts, and TV shows like Yellowstone. She’s currently stitching up a cross-stitch pattern for the magazine’s next issue