Sounds like the flight we had last year. We arrived 10 minutes early, carry-on only, were the first off the plane, literally ran through the airport using the train to the next gate, we missed the connection. There were about 20 of us at the gate trying to get onto the plane, but the boarding gates were already closed and Delta would not open them for us. Like previous posters said the Atlanta airport is huge, so depending on your arrival gate and your departure gate, that may be a risk. I would go down the nite b/4.