FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — The Atlanta Falcons had been away from the facility for seven full days when they returned to the team meeting room Wednesday morning.

They had spent five days in Madrid preparing to face the Bengals, followed by two days off to recuperate from the trip. But with the NFL trade deadline falling Tuesday, the team that returned looked different from the one that left for Spain a week earlier.

Every unit had been affected by departures. Safety Jessie Bates III was traded. So was center Ryan Neuzil. And it wasn't just trades that changed the roster. Injuries played a role, too. Running back Brian Robinson Jr. was placed on injured reserve over the weekend after experiencing a setback during practice last week with the hamstring injury that had sidelined him for the previous few weeks.

Not even special teams was spared. The Falcons moved on from kicker Nick Folk and signed Jake Moody off the Baltimore Ravens' practice squad to take over kicking duties in Atlanta.

"With any decision you make, you talk about it a lot," head coach Kevin Stefanski said. "Matt (Ryan), Ian (Cunningham) and myself have talked a lot about different decisions. Nick Folk is an outstanding human being — the best. I have enjoyed being around him. I have enjoyed picking his brain on football, but just felt like this was the best thing for our football team in this moment."

Folk joined the Falcons at the start of the new league year in March. After several seasons of inconsistent results in the kicking game and multiple kickers taking the field as Atlanta searched for stability, Folk appeared to be the answer.

Entering the 2026 season, Folk ranked 16th in NFL history in career points. He spent the 2025 season with the New York Jets, converting 96.6% of his field goal attempts, the best mark in the NFL.

He had led the league in field goal percentage in each of the previous three seasons, converting at least 95% of his attempts during that span. He also made 18 field goals from 50 yards or longer over those three seasons, the most in any three-year stretch of his career.

Folk also entered the season ranked 10th on the NFL's all-time field goals made list with 444, the most among active players.

The problem was that this version of Folk wasn't the one the Falcons got.

Through nine games in Atlanta, Folk converted just 72.2% of his field goal attempts, making 13 of 18. He missed two field goals in the season opener and a 53-yarder in Week 2. Over the past three weeks, he also missed an extra point against the 49ers, another 53-yard field goal in Tampa Bay and, most recently, a 38-yarder in Madrid against the Bengals.

That final miss snapped a significant streak for Folk. He had made 107 consecutive field goal attempts from 0 to 39 yards, the longest such streak in the past 40 years.

Folk had recorded a field goal percentage of 75% or lower only twice in his 18-season career. Since returning to action in 2019 after sitting out the 2018 season, he hadn't finished a season below 82.4%.

"I expect Nick to make his kicks," Stefanski said after the Falcons' loss to the Bengals. "Nick expects to make his kicks."

But Folk didn't deliver, and despite Stefanski's high regard for him as a person, the missed kicks ultimately outweighed that relationship.

So Atlanta turned to another option: Moody.

The San Francisco 49ers originally selected Moody in the third round of the 2023 NFL Draft, making him just the second kicker selected in the top 100 picks over the previous 15 drafts.

Moody converted 21 of 25 field goal attempts and 60 of 61 extra points during his rookie season, earning a spot on the PFWA All-Rookie Team. He struggled in his second season, however, converting 24 of 34 field goal attempts.

To open the 2025 season, Moody made just one of three field goal attempts in the 49ers' season opener. San Francisco waived him a couple of days later.

Since then, Moody has spent time with the Bears, Commanders and Ravens.

One of the most notable moments during those stops came in October 2025, when Moody was elevated ahead of the Bears' Week 6 matchup against the Commanders. He made four of five field goal attempts, with his lone miss coming on a blocked kick. His performance set a Bears franchise record for the most successful field goals by a kicker in his debut.

At the time, Cunningham was Chicago's assistant general manager. Moody apparently made a lasting impression.

"You do all of the film study, and you go back to when you were studying him coming out," Stefanski said of ultimately landing on Moody. "(Special teams) coach (Craig) Auk(erman), and Ian and everybody put our heads together and looked at him."

The Falcons liked what they saw enough to bring Moody to Atlanta and move forward with him as their kicker for the time being.

And after several days of significant roster turnover, the challenge now falls to the players and coaches to fill the gaps left behind.

"The truth is that in football you lose guys to injury, you can lose them to a trade and due to guys getting cut. That's just the reality of football," Stefanski said. "It's our job — coaches and players — to step up."