The next team up on our Gridiron Blitz is the Atlanta Falcons
Music to listen to: Blood and Thunder by Mastodon
I had a lot of choices and really wanted to go with Outkast but I chose that group for my preview of Georgia Tech and I’m all about spreading the music knowledge. The hip-hop and R&B scene for Atlanta is covered extensively but what about some love for the rock music from the city as well. I present to you Mastodon.
Current State: The Falcons had a positive achievement for the first time in its franchise history that was met with disappointment.
Atlanta finished last season with a winning record of 9-7, the first time that the team has had two consecutive winning seasons. However, after going 11-5 in 2008 before bowing out to the eventual NFC champions Arizona Cardinals in the playoffs of that year, the 2009 campaign was looked at as a disappointment.
The landscape of the franchise has changed in the past twelve months. The fact that there is disappointment in a nine-win season shows the expectations for all involved have increased for a Falcons organization that has had a history of losing.
Furthermore, the New Orleans Saints, who used to share in overall futility as a franchise with the Falcons, hence building a natural rivalry that dates back to the 1970‘s, have now won a Super Bowl, putting more pressure on Atlanta.
Will the 2009 season be looked as a stumbling block for an improving franchise or will making the playoffs and eventually losing competing against a competitive NFC crop of teams be the maximum the team can reach?
Biggest Offseason Change: The Falcons are banking on two things happening which aren’t necessarily changes. The first thing is that its best players such as quarterback Matt Ryan and running back Michael Turner can stay healthy, which didn’t happen last year. The second thing is that young players such as defensive tackle Peria Jerry and linebacker Sean Weatherspoon can improve the overall defense of the team which was the big struggle last year.
Uniform Grade: Red and black are colors that usually work well and the Falcons uniforms aren’t an exception. I like the emphasis of red that the franchise decided to make a few years ago. I haven’t liked the trend of teams going to the black jerseys unless its in your official colors. However, the Falcons were looking too dark in my opinion so the red jerseys are a nice option. Grade: B+
Best Player: The verdict of Matt Ryan has been inconclusive. In his rookie season in 2008, he and the rest of his offensive players stayed healthy and had an efficient running game that allowed him to not take too many chances, hence protecting him and eventually making a playoff appearance. However in 2009, Ryan and the offense suffered injuries, especially Turner and struggled to get nine wins. You can look at his second-year as an example of overcoming adversity or his peak.
I look at it as a quarterback who is entering his third season, the year when most of the elite signal callers make their biggest transition in the positive direction, and has had two winning seasons and one playoff appearances.
When you look at the landscape of quarterbacks, you have four tiers of them to place in outside of Brett Farve because he can fit in two or three himself. The first one is the Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees group. They are veterans, reliable, won championships, the cream of the NFL for quarterbacks. The second one is the Carson Palmer, Tony Romo, Aaron Rodgers, Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco, Donovan McNabb, Eli Manning group. They have been to the playoffs, maybe won a game or two but haven’t reached the top group left. The third group are guys like Mark Sanchez, Vince Young, Jay Cutler types who you don’t know what to expect. They can implode, be a Pro Bowler or lead their team to a playoff win, we don’t know. The four tier is the rest of the NFL quarterbacks.
When you look at it that way, the Falcons have a tier two quarterback who is only going to get better and has played only two seasons. Plus, he has help from a Pro Bowl running back, maybe the top tight end ever in Tony Gonzalez, a top-ten wide receiver in Roddy White and a good offensive line.
Ryan is the best player on the team, but not the most important…
Most Important Player: The Falcons ranked 28th in the NFL in pass defense and that was the main reason that the team missed the playoffs.
The two most important players on the team are defensive end John Abraham and newly acquired cornerback Dunta Robinson.
Abraham saw a significant drop-off in production in 2009 when he had only 5.5 sacks in comparison to his 16.5 in 2008. He’s an older player with a history of injuries so there is major concern that he will regress even more. The Falcons are hoping that this isn’t the case because there aren’t other players on the defense, especially on the line that can get pressure on the opposing quarterback consistently.
Robinson comes to the Falcons from the Houston Texans where he had only seven interceptions in five years but that those numbers shouldn’t deter observers from having optimism for his contributions to Atlanta. He has excellent speed and is one of the best cover men in the NFL.
The combination of Abraham and Robinson is essential for Atlanta’s passing defense to improve.
Best Case: The offense stays productive, the defense shows improvement and the Falcons finish second in the NFC South and make the playoffs.
Worst Case: The offense is solid but the running game loses production, putting more pressure on Ryan which he can’t handle. The defense is still weak against the pass. Eight wins and missing the playoffs are the best Atlanta can achieve.
Coaching: When you mention anything related to the coaching staff or front office of the Falcons, owner Arthur Blank must be mentioned.
When Blank first purchased the Falcons, he had the makings of meddling with the organization in a meticulous way such as fellow owners Mike Brown in Cincinnati, Dan Snyder in Washington or Jerry Jones in Dallas. The prime example of this was the Michael Vick-era in Atlanta before the dog fighting incident.
Since Vick has departed Atlanta, Blank has resembled another owner, Robert Kraft in New England. Kraft has a strong interest in the team and when you spend that much money to own a franchise, you should take interest, but stays out of the way of the front office and lets it perform on its own. The Patriots have obviously had major success the past ten year and Blank hopes the same can happen for the Falcons.
The first move was hiring former Patriots executive Thomas Dimitroff as his general manager. The Falcons have made an effort to build its team through the draft, which will bring them some growing pains like you saw in 2009 but will bring better stability overall to the franchise.
The hiring of Mike Smith as head coach was another excellent move. He’s a fair coach that has the command of his locker room and more importantly runs a ship that Blank doesn’t have to meddle in as much in comparison to his former coaches Jim Mora and Bobby Petrino.
First memory of team: I used to visit Atlanta in the summers of my youth in the early 1990’s and I liked Deion Sanders like everyone else. Here are some of his Falcons highlights.
Schedule: The Falcons will have to deal with New Orleans, Carolina and Tampa in the division.
The home games are against Arizona, San Francisco, Cincinnati, Baltimore and Green Bay The away games are at Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Seattle.
City Nicknames: The Dirty South is bad, ATL doesn’t work and only tourists go with Hotlanta. I don’t like any of the city nicknames.
Fantasy Focus: I think Michael Turner bounces back for a solid year and Roddy White continues to grow as a receiver. I would be weary of Ryan.
Overall Outlook: I like the overall outlook for the Falcons. The problem is that New Orleans is better and will win the division. There are only two wildcard playoff spots and either Green Bay or Minnesota will get those. That leaves one spot for the Falcons and someone probably from the NFC East. The odds aren’t in favor of them but Atlanta is built to be a competitive team for years to come.
Final Record: 9-7
Gridiron Blitz 2010 Season Previews:
AFC East:
AFC North:
AFC South:
AFC West
NFC East
NFC North
The Sports Inquirer 
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