Atlanta Falcons Doppelgangers!

Its the offseason… theres lots of speculation about the draft and FA, which is causing some fans to try and rip there hair out. Its a long dragged out process and theres not much to talk about. So I thought id try and see if I could find any doppelgangers from the roster. Only a bit of fun to pass the time, hope you enjoy! The first one we have comes from our very own new HC Dan Quinn and Money Matt Bryant!

The next one is pretty well known, and has been on a few twitter memes in the past. Up next its our old HC Mike Smith and Steve Martin!

Up next is Jack Swagger from WWE and Kroy Biernmann! It be nice if Jack could teach kroy about some actual moves to get past someone!

The next one is Eric Weems and Ice Cube! Dont look identical but you can still pass it off that they look vaguely like each other!

At this point im starting to struggle to find people…. so if they get gradually worse i apologies but its all just a bit of fun! Next up is Matt Ryan and the infamous Ryan Leaf!

At this point im really starting to run out of ideas… and ive got nothing left so I will leave you with a cheap shot. Sam Baker and Mr Bump

Why keeping Armstrong and Cox was vital for the Falcons

Keeping Armstrong was vital for the Falcons this year, not just on the pitch but in the locker room. He is a feisty character and takes a lot of pride in his special teams. As seen on Hard Knocks, he takes no prisoners, its also rumoured that he uses pepper spray as deodorant… he’s that hard. The photo above says it all, he looks like Denzel Washington in Man on Fire. That passion and aggression is then transferred to the players on the pitch, they look proud to play for him. This passion and fire is shown in his statistics as well. Falcons ST only allowed 7.7yards per punt return, 3rd in the NFL. We all know the falcons defence last year was diabolical. But imagine if opposing teams started higher up the pitch due to a poor ST. We’d be up shit creek without a paddle if it wasn’t for armstrong. On kickoff returns the Falcons improved as well. Yes Hester was a massive upgrade at KO return. But it was armstrong who implemented the set up off the return for Hester to get 24 yards average per kick return. Hester said during the Pro Bowl how he was a “players coach” and that hed go to the veterans and ask for their opinion. This a great attitude to have, hes trying to keep this unit close and to play for each other. It was a massive coup keeping Armstrong, and in my opinion i think he will go on to be a HC in the near future.

I believe Cox is a good coach, he just didnt have the right pieces on the DL to use. Which is down to TD not Cox. However, Cox like Armstrong showed a lot of passion on the sideline. Although he got in an alteration with Peters during a game, to me its just passion. Seeing him on Hard Knocks and the way he got Hageman into shape, it showed passion. He wants to do well, but he also wants to see the players get to their best. The falcons need that guy to give the DL a kick up the arse and this year Cox can be that guy. Having worked with Quinn in the past, they can pass knowledge and tricks of the trade onto each other. Everyone saw how much Hagemen improved as the season went on. I honestly believe that was as much down to Cox as it was to Shede.

Quinn’s Press Conference

After watching Quinn’s interview, he has made an extremely good first impression. I know people will say actions speak louder than words. But he sounded assertive, and to the point. In a way I got the impression that it was back to basics for the Falcons. Rather than running multiple schemes he will run a “simple scheme.” This is perfect for the falcons, watching the likes of Peters, Mass and Biermann go into coverage was to much for me. Let the players do what they do best. In essence, you cant teach old dogs new tricks. However, under Quinn, the players will do what they are best at and he will utilise there skill assets to the scheme.

Quinn also announced he would be “heavily involved in the defense.” This is great news. Our D last year had more holes in it than swiss cheese. Hopefully under Quinn’s coaching, we can get to the level where offensives fear us. I dont think there was any time last year where an opponents offense was scared of us. Although he doesn’t know if he will be calling the defensive plays. Im sure it will be like when he was in Seattle with Carroll he will still have a fairly big say in the call, despite him saying he wont.

Although Quinn hasn’t had the time to evaluate the roster yet due to the Super Bowl. He plans to start it tonight. Again showing he wants to do well and start to establish his roster already. He also mentioned how he wants to get to know the group. I don’t know the ins and outs of the dressing room. But towards the end of Smiths time, the D didn’t look a unit, more individuals. Mass wasn’t getting a look in, supposedly because he skipped a physio session to train. Sounds silly, but I want that DBlock mentality back. There seemed a togetherness and that they would play for each other, not as an individual. Its widely documented how close the likes of Roddy Jones Harry are etc. But theres not really that kind of relationship on the D to step up in a game and rally the troops. Hopefully Quinn can bring it together, as there is no I in Team.

“Linebackers/Lineman versatility will be important.” This quote screams Player development. I dont know anything about smith or TD, apart from the fact they couldnt organise a piss up in a pub. But it didnt seem like there was player development. Which could be argued why our previous draft haven’t come into fruition. Quinn used his player development, to help the likes of Micheal Bennett. Fingers crossed Quinn can the same with the likes of Mass and Maponga. Under Smith as DC and Quinns input, i really feel this D is going to come alive.

I also like the way he talked about offensive and the hires he made. As i said in a previous blog, about Shanahan being OC will bring a ZBS to Atlanta. I think this will be perfect as the run game will improve and take the pressure off Matty ice. Now with Bobby Turner coaching and teaching the RBs the ZBS. I honestly believe we are onto a winner here.

From the start of the interview, he had my respect. He was articulate and to the point. He wouldn’t beat around the bush as Smith used to. I also got the impression that, if we played bad he would say it at the press conference. I honestly believe this is the right man to take this roster forward. After months of stress, we can all put our feet up for a bit and relax knowing we have the right man for the job.

How Smith went from Hero to Zero

Mike Smith was the falcons most successful franchise coach ever. He came in at a time when the falcons were in disarray, Vicks actions had been found out and Petrino was a bottle job and jumped off a sinking ship without showing any fight. Then Mike Smith was appointed. He ended up having a 66-41 regular season record. Considering the situation he came in at Smith did an outrageous job. However, as you can tell from the title it wasn’t all fun and games when Smith was HC of the Falcons. There was multiple reasons why Mike Smith was fired, which I will explain throughout this post. The reason was “Toughness.” All through the offseason, Mike Smith preached about getting bigger, stronger and tougher. During Hard Knocks, he tried to emphasise this toughness and lead all the Falcons fans into a sense of false belief. There was also the issue of Mental Toughness. When the falcons needed a big stop on 3rd down the Falcons D didn’t turn up. They let far to many big plays happen. When WAR wasn’t on the field there was no one on the D telling the players to get their heads up and move onto the next play. Once a big play occurred the players heads went down and this resulted in more big plays. Nobody was willing to stand up and say thats my bad and nobody to say its okay move on. There was no mental toughness what so ever. This is highlighted in the woeful performance against the Panthers. Id give examples from that game but its to stressful to even look back on.  The first stage in correcting this toughness in the trenches was FA. On the D line the falcons brought in Tyson Jackson and Paul Soliai. Soliai is a bugger to keep typing so hes going to be called Paul from now on. Paul signed a $33 million contract so the only winner from this wasn’t the falcons but Soliais agent. For the price the Falcons paid he hasn’t done enough for me. I understand he gets double teamed and its a team game. But for his contract id run through brick walls to keep that life of luxury. It doesn’t matter if he’s being doubled teamed he needs to show more desire to wear the jersey. Jackson signed a $25million deal over 5years, like Paul he didnt do enough, theres a saying in the UK, “All fart no shit” but thats what Tyson was. These two didn’t add toughness and this was the beginning of Smiths downfall.  Smith said with the addition of Paul and Tyson, it would open gaps for the LBs to make sacks. But in reality it didn’t. The falcons LBs were poor this year. Keeping 2UDFA in Worrilow and Bartu and drafting rookie LBs didnt work. With spoon out for the season there was a lack of experience and leadership. Worrilow showed glimpses of what he can do. But i dont think Smith Utilised his strengths enough. He didn’t blitz him enough and put him in far to much coverage when that clearly isn’t his strongest attribute. The LB core wasnt deep enough and this is why I blame Smith. Bartu, i think is on the verge of being cut, he had a great rookie season, but has plateaued out. Leaving just Bartu, Worrilow and Prince wasnt enough. Why Smith thought he could run a 3/4 when we only had 3 main LBs is beyond me. Mike Smith was also stubborn and arrogant towards the end of his coaching career as the Falcons HC. He would still try and play the likes of Konz and Toilolo. Konz has been a bust from day one, although he bulked up it doesnt seem like he will ever make it. Yet Smith would still play him at G. Toilolo was the same, he kept dropping key passes. Instead of dropping him and playing more WRs he continued to use him in the passing game. Same with Biermann, although he had the most sacks, Biermann was none existent this year and drove numerous falcon fans to drink. Maponga and Mass never got a look in, instead, Osi who is washed up and Kroy who spends more time putting his lenses in than he does rushing, got the playing time. SJax was the same, Freeman towards the end of the season was showing the potential he has yet still used Sjax as the feature Rb. My final reason on why Smith was fired and the biggest reason for him being fired was his woeful Clock Management. Just typing it has increased my blood pressure. The first incident occurred at Wembley against the Lions. Falcons are 21-0 at half time, the pints are flowing at wembley and this time they are happy pints not drowning sorrow pints. But then it went to 21-19 and the pints are slowly turning to sorrow drinking. Lions had 1 timeout remaining so the Falcons should have taken a knee and leave the Lions with 30secs on the clock. But Mike Smith decided to run the ball and got stopped, then on 3rd down Ryan missed the pass. Bosher punted and the Lions had 1.40 something secs left to go down the field and get a FG and as you know, they did. Blanks face after the game said a thousand words, and so begins the downfall between Blank and Smith. You’d have thought Smith would have learnt from his Clock Management blunder but he didnt. Fast forward to the Browns game. Again similar story to the Lions game. Falcons made an interception. Instead of running the clock out after Quizz caught the ball. Mike Smith called a bloody timeout giving the Browns a free timeout basically. Ryan tried to hit a receiver and missed, Money Matt made the FG and gave the Browns enough time to go the length again. And suddenly Hoyer turned into Brady and went the length and made the FG. This was the final straw for all falcons fans. His time management was awful as well has the play calling. Although he had a great few seasons, he wasn’t the right man to take the franchise forward and Blank acknowledged that.

Wade Harman to be TE coach and TE options

It was announced today that Wade Harman would be the new TE coach with the Atlanta Falcons, Harman spent 15 years as TE coach over in Baltimore with the Ravens. However with the Falcons last year, he was working with Mike Tice with the OL. But now, he’s back to doing what he does best, coaching TEs. Normally a position such as this wouldn’t intrigue me but the Falcons are crying out for a TE. Atlanta has never replaced TonyG. On the current roster there is Levine Toiliolo and Bear Pascoe. If these two TE were based on having the coolest  names then the Falcons would have the best TE core in the NFL. But it isn’t and both don’t come close to being what the Falcons need in a TE. Although, Toilolo had some games where he looked like he could do damage there was far to many dropped passes from him. Then there was Bear…. i saw more of him on hard knocks than I did the entire season… So its glaringly obvious the Falcons need a new TE to replace TonyG.

Julius Thomas is the first name when I think of as a potential TE for the Falcons. It looks like he will hit the FA market, but will want a big contract. He’s 26 and on his day one of the best in the business. However…. he’s never finished a 16 game schedule, and has had injuries in the past two seasons. We all know Blank likes to splash his cash in FA and make a marque signing and this year it maybe JT, however he may opt for a pass rusher but thats for another blog.

Maxx Williams from Minnesota is regarded as the best TE in the 2015 draft. Williams finished the season with 36 catches for over 550 yards. He can line up inside or in the slot, so his versatility is perfect for the Falcons. Many draft analysts have compared him to Jason Witten of the Texans. Having Williams in the Falcons may also mean that the running and passing game can be varied up more. With a new mobile TE more play action passes can be made. In terms of what round he could go in, it could be the 1st to the beginning of the 2nd so the Falcons would be in a good position to get him if they wish. His father also played in the NFL for the Giants so he has pedigree from the NFL which both Pioli and Dimitroff will like.

Clive Walford from Miami saw his draft stock rise with a great performance at the Senior Bowl week. Mayock described him as the “Most explosive TE in the draft”. He also played basketball in high school which is a massive boost to teams. TonyG was known for playing basketball and he said how it made him a better player because of playing it. Walford is a capable blocker as well as a great receiver. The only doubt from him not going in the 1st round of the draft was his injury but now he has shown up at the Senior Bowl those worries are behind scouts. Walford could be a great fit for the Falcons. We need an athletic and physical TE and Walford has it all. Him, White, Jones, Hester and Douglas could be a great receiving core for Matty Ice to aim at.

I personally believe that Julius Thomas would be my preferred TE for the Falcons. Despite his injury record, he has been a round the league and knows how to get it done. The only thing putting me off would be the big pay day he will want. Plus competition from the packers, it maybe hard to land him. However, I think with Harman back to doing what he does best he could develop JT into a playmaker for the falcons. Id like to see a TE taken in the draft to develop but not in the first 2 rounds. Id much prefer us to double dip in pass rushes. But im not Blank so there you go. Id maybe look to someone like O’Leary if he is to drop to the 3rd.

Why Kyle Shanahan will improve the Offense

Kyle Shanahan was recently appointed as OC for the Atlanta Falcons, and I for one am very happy at this appointment. Not just because he has a lot of experience at a young age and adds a new dimension to the run game. But because his name is a lot easier to spell than Koetter. So for the rest of this blog Shanahan is called Shanny. Previously at OC was Koetter, There was multiple reasons why he started to aggrivate me. Firstly, you cant shorten Koetter and when your raging on twitter and want to rant by the time you remember how to spell it theres another play to moan at. Secondly, Screens…. enough said. If i go on anymore about those screens then ill loose the will to live. Enough of that clown, lets get back to Shanny.

Shanny will inherit an elite QB in Matt Ryan, many argue he wasnt and questioned his toughness but some of the hits he took this year and got back up made me proud to have him as my QB. RGIII at Washington was good but far from elite and he’s a much different style of QB. Hoyer isnt a franchise QB and neither was Schaub. Hopefully now Shanny has an elite QB he can work wonders with him. WIth Jones being the focus point of the WR cluster it may mean that Shanny uses White as more of a slot reciever but only time will tell. Hes got a cluster of weapons on offense to work with such as Roddy, Julio, Hester and maybe Douglas. For me Douglas just doesn’t cut the mustard for me. Ideally we draft a WR such as Phillip Dorsett from Miami. By all accounts he could be a great pick up and I read somewhere on twitter that he had an unusually long interview with the Falcons at the Senior Bowl, so there is interest. Saying that It wasn’t really the passing game which need changing, it was the running game. Watching Sjax run the ball was hard work at times. This is where Shanny comes into place.

Shanny runs a ZBS scheme. Now im just a Brit trying to blag that I know about “Football.” So if im wrong on this then dont shoot me down. There is two types to ZBS theres the Inside and Tight End Zone. Secondly, there is Outside and the Wide Zone. But for now ill just talk about the Wide Zone and Outside. Wide Zone is when the OL step laterally, rather than attacking the man downfield. Instead of taking the man, they are allocated a area to block. If im wrong leave a comment im always willing to learn. Outside is the roughly the same. But what ZBS means is that the running back has time to read the game and find the gaps.

This will be perfect for Freeman, he’s a nifty running back with a good eye for a lane so i’m looking forward to see him embrace it. In Washington, Shanny turned Alfred Morris into a quality running back, and i think Snatterbox has the potential to do the same. I also think that Quizz could turn into another asset as well but i think he will be behind Smith and Freeman if we keep Smith.

In terms of how our OL will cope with the change, I believe Atlanta will benefit on it based on the players. Joe Hawley will come back at C, Hawley is extremely agile for a guy of his size and he will be the focal point of the ZBS. Side note, we lost a lot of our aggression and leadership when we lost Hawley so i cant wait to have him back. At Guard I believe Asamoah will also benefit from the scheme. Although another big guy he’s very quick on his feet and much better at blocking on the move. In terms of the other guard in Blalock this is my biggest concern for the line in ZBS. He was perfect in the power line we played but he’s a lump he’s not an athlete and agile enough. So look for the falcons to try and address that in the draft as well. First round pick Matthews had a good first year but defiantly didn’t live up to his hype in my opinion. He got called for a lot of holding calls and got beat a lot. But he’s still young and did show his potential in bursts he just wasn’t consistent. In ZB he will do much better he’s an athlete and i think he will turn into the LT or RT we need. Finally there is the other tackle situation, Holmes isn’t a ZB he’s another lump and his footwork often looked like he was running in water it was that slow. I don’t think Baker will recover from all the injuries he’s been plagued with so that leaves Schraeder. He grew as a player as he built a chemistry with the rest of the line and in my opinion looked the best on the line. But again it could be another area to address in the draft. 

I firmly believe the changes the front office are making are only going to benefit this team! Shanny in my opinion will do extremely well with us but like everything only time will tell. The other thing people need to remember is that Rome wasn’t built in a day. This applies to the Falcons there has been a lot of changes so give it time and the patience will be reward. Im not saying we are going to the SuperBowl just yet but the pieces are defiantly fitting into place to have a good run at it.

Can the Falcons win with Quinn?

Its been widely reported around the league that Quinn will be the HC of the Atlanta Falcons, they just have to play the waiting game until the Superbowl is finished. Unfortunately like others, I was one to jump the gun at Front Office when we started losing candidates such as Ryan and Bowles. However, if the Falcons really wanted either they would have got them. The Bills have no first round pick in the up and coming draft and no franchise QB, moral of this story is money talks for Rex. Bowles was the same, if Atlanta really wanted him then they would not have let the Jets jump the que to secure him as a HC. Again same situation with the QB, Smith and Vick, Vick isn’t getting any younger and is out of contract in March and it doesn’t sound like Smith is going to mature any time soon.

That leaves Quinn. Part of the Seahawks staff with the best D in the league, some are even trying to suggest the best ever. Atlanta desperately needed a defensive minded coach, the pieces are there on the offensive side of the ball. Its far from perfect but a good guard and possibly a new TE and WR we could be very good. However, back to Quinn. The thing that stands out most when reading articles on Quinn is how involved with every player he is, and its not about the player being an all round star. Its about utilising one key special trait and using that to the best of their ability in the scheme. Bennett was quoted as saying “He’s not married to a scheme.” This is exactly what the falcons needed someone with a bit of versatility in their play calling. However, the thing I want Quinn to bring most to Atlanta is the tackling drills based in Rugby. Being from the UK and playing at a high level for a number of years it infuriates me when players cant tackle for the Falcons. Im not sure if it was Carroll or other staff members who decided to initiate teaching rugby tackling into the Seahawks tackling but I hope they bring it to the falcons. Missed tackles last year cost us numerous amount of points because of it. And caused me multiple Mondays were id wake up and question myself if i was an alcoholic due to the Falcons.

Although its yet to be seen how Quinn can play call on offence or how good he is in evaluating potential draft picks.I believe he is the right man for the job. Atlanta desperately needed a change in personal as HC, I for one got tired of Mike Smith not showing enough passion I want someone who players will play for and i think towards the end of the Smith era that wasn’t there. It will also be interesting to see who Quinn brings in as his DC. At the Senior Bowl today it has been rumoured he wants Kirby Smith the former Georgia Bulldog. I honestly don’t know much about him, but I believe who ever Quinn brings in needs the backing of the fans and the players! Only time will tell how good Quinn is but until then if he is the new HC then I think the Falcons could be on for a great year!