FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — The Atlanta Falcons will be without starting inside linebacker Divine Deablo for some time as he recovers from a fracture in his forearm sustained during last Sunday's loss against the San Francisco 49ers. It's a major blow to an Atlanta defense that had come to rely on Deablo's playmaking ability, length and speed.

Defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich has spoken about Deablo frequently, saying he has some special traits as a former college safety turned pro linebacker. Head coach Raheem Morris called him an avatar because of his wingspan. Replacing a player as versatile as Deablo will not be an easily accomplished feat.

In fact, no single player will be asked to do so. According to Ulbrich, the Falcons will rely on a by-committee approach.

"As we all know, he's very unique in the fact that he is — from an athletic profile standpoint — very DB-ish," Ulbrich said. "From a size standpoint, he's very linebacker. So, we're going to replace him with some DBs at times and we'll replace him with some linebackers at times."

The team primarily utilized JD Bertrand at linebacker against the 49ers after Deablo's injury. And while Ulbrich praised Bertrand's readiness and mind, saying he is "insanely intelligent, understands our scheme at the highest level," he didn't close the door on the possibility of looking at others to fill the Deablo-sized hole in the defense.

"He's going to get a great opportunity to play some more," Ulbrich said of Bertrand. "There's some other guys, too, that are going to step in and do some of what Divine does."

That could include players like Josh Woods, DeMarcco Hellams and even Jordan Fuller, who recently returned to practice from injured reserve. DeAngelo Malone was also mentioned in this week's mailbag as a potential candidate because of his unique combination of traits.

Woods played well in the preseason. He isn't as fast or as long as Deablo, but he's a thumper and plays hard. Jeff Ulbrich said really good things about Woods when we sat down with him for the Heart, Mind, Fist feature last month. Ulbrich said Woods is all heart. So, it wouldn't surprise me if the Falcons give him a nod. Then, there's Malone, who's been cross training at both inside and outside linebacker this season. We actually saw Malone in at the end of the Bills game, nothing an interception that put the game on ice. Depending on how reliable they feel Malone is as a true inside linebacker, he's an option that matches Deablo's length. You just would lose some cover ability if I had to guess.

Then, there's Hellams, who could even drop down closer to the line of scrimmage if necessary, particularly if you need more help covering a tight end over the middle. The Falcons could easily put together a three-safety set that has Hellams mimicking what Deablo could do in coverage.

And though he missed last Sunday's game and has been working through a groin injury the last couple of weeks, don't overlook Jalon Walker in this committee approach either. He has ample experience at middle linebacker and lined up in a traditional inside linebacker role frequently for Kirby Smart at the University of Georgia. This should absolutely be an option for Atlanta once Walker is healthy, too.

Still, it's going to take a collection of players to recreate in aggregate what Deablo does for the Falcons' defense until he returns.

"Combination of all those guys, absolutely," Ulbrich said. "We're going to give everybody a little bit of Divine's role. There is a competitive element this week to see who does the best and deserves the opportunity."