Damontae Kazee

Damontae Tyron Kazee (born June 5, 1993) is an American football safety for the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL). He graduated from Cajon High School in San Bernardino, California in 2012. He played college football at San Diego State.

Professional career
On November 14, 2016, it was announced that Kazee accepted his invitation to appear in the 2017 Senior Bowl. On January 28, 2017, Kazee appeared in the Senior Bowl and helped Cleveland Browns' head coach Hue Jackson's South team defeat the North 16–15. His overall performance impressed scouts and raised his draft stock. He was one of 35 collegiate cornerbacks to receive an invitation to the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, Indiana. He performed the majority of combine drills, but opted to skip the short shuttle and three-cone drill. On March 23, 2017, Kazee attended San Diego State's Pro Day, but opted to stand on his combine numbers and performed positional drills, the short shuttle, and three-cone drills for scouts and team representatives from 29 NFL teams that attended, including Los Angeles Chargers' defensive coordinator Gus Bradley. At the conclusion of the pre-draft process, Kazee was projected to be a fourth or fifth round pick by the majority of NFL draft experts and scouts. He was ranked as the 22nd best cornerback prospect in the draft by NFLDraftScout.com.

2017
The Atlanta Falcons selected Kazee in the fifth round (149th overall) of the 2017 NFL Draft.

On May 9, 2017, the Atlanta Falcons signed Kazee to a four-year, $2.68 million contract with a signing bonus of $288,922.

Kazee entered training camp competing against Brian Poole for the starting nickel back role. Head coach Dan Quinn opted to transition him to free safety in July and Kazee showed promise throughout training camp in his new role. He was named the backup free safety to Ricardo Allen to start the  season.

He made his professional regular season debut in the Atlanta Falcons' season-opener at the Chicago Bears and made two solo tackles and forced a fumble in their 23–17 victory. On October 1, 2017, Kazee earned his first career start after Ricardo Allen was unable to play after suffering a concussion the previous week. He finished the Falcons' 23–17 loss to the Buffalo Bills with a season-high nine combined tackles and a forced fumble. He finished the season with 23 combined tackles (14 solo) and two forced fumbles in one start and 16 games.

2018
Kazee entered the 2018 season as the backup strong safety to Keanu Neal. He was named the starter following a season-ending injury to Neal in Week 1. During Week 2 against the Carolina Panthers, Kazee was ejected for making a helmet-to-helmet hit on Cam Newton. The Falcons won 31-24. In Week 3, he recorded a season-high 10 combined tackles and an interception. Kazee ended the 2018 season third on the team with 82 combined tackles, and tied for the league lead with seven interceptions with Kyle Fuller and Xavien Howard.

2019
In Week 11 against the Carolina Panthers, Kazee recorded his first interception of the season off a pass thrown by Kyle Allen in the 29–3 win. In Week 14 against the Panthers, Kazee forced a fumble on wide receiver Greg Dortch during a kickoff return which was recovered by kicker Younghoe Koo and recorded 2 more interceptions off passes thrown by Kyle Allen during the 40–20 win. Kazee finished the 2019 season with 74 combined tackles, three interceptions, and one forced fumble.

References

External links
Atlanta Falcons bio
San Diego Aztecs bio

Category:1993 births
Category:Living people
Category:American football cornerbacks
Category:American football safeties
Category:Atlanta Falcons players
Category:Players of American football from California
Category:San Diego State Aztecs football players
Category:Sportspeople from San Bernardino, California