Atlanta Falcons

Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports There’s been lots of stadium talk around the NFL in the last year. Starting with the Minnesota Vikings, and now with teams like the San Francisco 49ers and Atlanta Falcons. San Francisco has locked up its bid for Super Bowl L, thanks to the construction of their new stadium, which will be ready next season. It won’t be long before Minnesota gets another Super Bowl, and again, it will be all because of their new home. This will no doubt be another benefit for the Falcons, once all is said and done. NFL owners recently approved a $200 million loan for the Falcons’ new stadium, a step in the process that owner Arthur Blank calls an, “important milestone in moving the new stadium project forward.” Blank is indeed correct in acknowledging that this is just a step towards a new home. The Vikings’ new stadium deal showed us that sometimes it takes high-level officials getting involved, before a final deal can be reached. Cities and states don’t just pony up money for billion-dollar stadiums, there are a lot of details to iron out. The Falcons’ situation seems completely different from the Vikings, but still, there’s a long way to go in the planning. The Georgia Dome will end up getting demolished after 24 years of existence, which seems like kind of a short life. But the reality is that it’s now outdated by new stadium standards. Atlanta fans should be excited by the news of this loan approval, but they should also be prepared for minor setbacks along the way. Follow Andrew Fisher on Twitter

The Falcons have hit one theme constantly this off-season, amid the draft talk and exciting new additions of veterans like Steven Jackson. That theme has been a new contract for Matt Ryan, and they're still beating that drum. Arthur Blank became the latest to weigh in on Ryan's contract situation, saying he expects a deal to be done soon and really would like it to be. Asked Blank if he'd like to get something done with Ryan before camp, he said he'd like it as soon as possible. — Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) May 21, 2013 The Falcons have a little time to get this done, obviously. For cap purposes, it would be nice if it was done shortly before or after the June 1 date for them to clear Tyson Clabo's sizeable hit. The urgency here comes from the importance of getting Ryan locked up to a new long-term deal, since he's the face of the franchise and one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL. Ensuring a long future with the Falcons is more or less common sense. The strong desire to get this done from the team's side tells me we're getting closer. If the increasing mentions of the Ryan contract are any indication, we should see something in the next month or so. Thoughts on Ryan's contract?

im going to all of the divisional blogs and asking the same question who do you guys think will win the NFC South? please refrain from as much homerism as possible pick the team you truly believe will win the division. feel free to leave your comments and opinions below ill be sure to reply to anyone and everyone. try to give a good reason why such as scheme or players. thanks guys have a nice day im going to all of the divisional blogs and asking the same question who do you guys think will win the NFC South? please refrain from as much homerism as possible pick the team you truly believe will win the division. feel free to leave your comments and opinions below ill be sure to reply to anyone and everyone. try to give a good reason why such as scheme or players. thanks guys have a nice day Poll Who will win the NFC South? Atlanta Falcons Tampa Bay Buccaneers Carolina Panther New Orleans Saints 4 votes | Results

During the week leading up to the NFC and AFC Championship Games, Adam Schein, a radio host, a columnist for NFL.com, and a card-carrying Falcons hater for some reason, posted an article on NFL.com ranking the four coaches who had led their teams to their respective conference championship games. He ranked Mike Smith last among the four remaining coaches. In early April, Schein donned his coach-ranking hat again to come up with his version of the top nine head coaches in the NFL. Mike Smith was listed as one of the toughest omissions from the list. Yes, last year's AOL Sporting News Coach of the Year, the third time Smith has received that honor in his brief five-year career, was not on Schein's list at all. Schein's ranking system places a significant priority on overall career performance, including Super Bowl wins. For example, Mike Shanahan (.450 win percentage over his past five seasons) and Andy Reid (4-12 last year, and subsequently fired by the Philadelphia Eagles) were both listed in Schein's top nine. When establishing power rankings for teams, should one consider the Super Bowls the Cowboys won in the 1970s and 1990s as a factor in ranking their team's ability to compete in the league today? Of course not. With that in mind, let's rank the top five NFL head coaches heading into the 2013 season. First of all, we're going to only look at coaches with two or more years of experience. Sorry, Chuck Pagano, you had an exceptional season in Indianapolis, and we all respect the way you fought through adversity, personally, as you fought cancer, and professionally, as you turned around a struggling franchise with a rookie quarterback, but you're out of the running. Although I don't believe it paints an accurate picture of their current relevance to this list, I do think a lifetime winning percentage should at least factor into this discussion. The top five in that category among active NFL head coaches are Jim Harbaugh (.774), Mike Smith (.700), John Harbaugh (.675), Mike McCarthy (.661) and Mike Tomlin (.656). Winning in the regular season is great, but Falcons fans understand, maybe better than anyone else, that playoff wins matter more. The top six (because of ties) active NFL coaches for playoff win percentage are John Harbaugh and Bill Belichick (both .692), Rex Ryan (.667), Tom Coughlin (.632) and Mike Tomlin and Sean Payton are tied for fifth (both .625). Of those coaches, all but Rex Ryan have won Super Bowls, and all but Bill Belichick have won a Super Bowl in the last five years. But, you can't win in the playoffs if you can't get to the playoffs. The active NFL coaches with the most playoff appearances in the last five years are John Harbaugh (5), Bill Belichick, Mike Smith, Mike McCarthy (all with 4), and Mike Tomlin, Sean Payton and Andy Reid (all with 3). Because recent history is more relevant than total history when projecting a coach's ability to win in the coming season, let's look at the active NFL coaches with the best winning percentages over the past five seasons. Jim Harbaugh is first (.774), Bill Belichick is second (.750), Mike Smith is third (.700), John Harbaugh is fourth (.692) and Mike McCarthy is fifth (.662). Based on that data, my power rankings for the top five active NFL coaches are as follows. Bill Belichick. His career win percentage is skewed by a few abysmal years in Cleveland, but his last five seasons have been stellar, with a .750 win percentage and four trips to the playoffs, as well as an AFC Championship and a Super Bowl appearance in 2011. John Harbaugh. His career win percentage is lower than his brother Jim’s, and Mike Smith’s, but he has been exceptional in the postseason. He also just won a Super Bowl. The Ravens have made some weird offseason decisions, so who knows what next season holds for them, but John Harbaugh is an excellent coach. Mike McCarthy. He’s top five in career win percentage, as well as his win percentage over the past five ye

We keep our series rolling, and we're now done with offensive skill position players. Time to move on to the line. The Falcons are missing Tyson Clabo and watched Todd McClure retire, so this is a thinner line on paper. Fortunately, it's a line with a lot of young, promising players who might be able to step up. Might. At tackle, the Falcons are not extremely deep, but they have decent starting options. Let's move right into the roster breakdown at the moment. On The Roster Sam Baker, StarterLamar Holmes, StarterMike JohnsonTerren Jones (R)Alec Savoie (R)Ryan Schraeder (R) I'm projecting Savoie to tackle, even though he's not listed strictly as one. As you can see, there's some UDFA talent here that might make a difference. Project away!

I'm getting a little sick of the Justin Blalock bashers. The criticism is just unwarranted. Blalock is an incredibly durable, solid player that helps anchor our offensive front. He's started 94 games since we drafted him. In fact, he missed two games in 2008, then hasn't missed a game since. Admittedly his rookie and sophomore campaigns were lackluster. But his 2010 was good enough to earn him a six year, thirty-eight million dollar contract. If you're keeping track, that's the fourth-best contract on the team. Since that contract was inked, Blalock has posted some fairly good numbers. He's surrendered just three sacks, while false starting once and being flagged for holding twice. Mind you, those are the only three penalties he's incurred during that time frame. Three penalties in two years. Fairly impressive, if you ask me Blalock is often criticized for his run blocking, or lack thereof. Let's set aside the fact that Dave's blind and deaf grandmother knows the Falcons aren't a run-first team anymore. Blalock isn't a premier run blocker by any stretch of the imagination, but he makes up for it with above-average pass blocking. Matt Ryan has taken 1,829 pass snaps since 2010. In those three years, Blalock gave up only five sacks. Sure, he tends to give up pressures in bunches, but lucky for us, Matt Ryan has a second-to-none knack for handling pressure. The run blocking issues are at least partially attributable to his size, which limits his mobility. Even so, his size is what makes him a good pass blocker, and I think that's a tradeoff worth stomaching. Notice that you don't hear much about Blalock. That means something - it means he's a high character, low-profile, low-maintenance player who does his job for the most part. And that's problematic why? Every offensive line position besides left guard has been in flux during the current regime. If anything, his contract could use some tweaking. But it's not so cumbersome to necessitate an outright axing, especially when we can't sort out the left guard situation to save our figurative lives. Look, you can disagree with me all you want. Disagree until the cows come home. Cite your first hand observations until the cows come home. Blalock isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Deal with it. End of rant.

Oct 16, 2011; Green Bay, WI, USA; St. Louis running back Steven Jackson (39) attempts to evade Green Bay Packers linebacker Desmond Bishop (55) after Jackson caught a pass from Rams quarterback Sam Bradford during the second half of the game at Lambeau Field. The Packers defeated the Rams 24-3. Mandatory Credit: Mary Langenfeld-USA TODAY Sports Yesterday, we looked at how Steven Jackson may perform in the 2013 season, but we only looked at his rushing ability.  As we all know, Steven Jackson is a very versatile back.  Not only is he fast, he’s powerful.  Not only can he run, he can catch with some of the best hands a back in the NFL has.  Today, we’ll look at receiving.  Let’s see what he did with the Rams last year: 38 Receptions with 321 yards at 8.4 yards per catch.  That’s exceptional for a running back.  Something interesting to keep in mind is Jacquizz Rodgers had 53 receptions for 402 yards.  Both Rodgers and Jackson are also great at picking up the blitz in pass blocking.  In all reality, when looking at the intangibles, the Quizz is just a short SJAX. Atlanta loves to throw to their running back if he can catch it.  Jacquizz sometimes seemed more like a slot receiver than a running back.  Jackson can supply that versatility alongside Rodgers and I’m willing to bet we see a lot more passing to Jackson than he has ever had, maybe even more than his 2006 season where he had 90 passes and 806 yards.  Defenses won’t know what to expect when Jackson is on the field.  He could block, he could go catch a pass, he could run it up the middle, and he could run it outside.  If given the right opportunity, Jackson could be outstanding for the Falcons this coming year, especially in the passing department. With a better quarterback, Jackson will be able to catch more passes.  With a pass happy team, he’ll be able to really show his awesome catching ability.  Jackson will absolutely and unequivocally thrive in this offense.  He seems like the most complete answer Atlanta could have picked up this off-season.  I’m predicting a ground-breaking season like this: 80 catches, 750 yards at 9.4 yards per catch.  I believe that Steven Jackson will have the kind of season that makes fans love him as much as they love Tony Gonzalez.  In two years, when his contract is up, fans will be begging him to come back for a few more seasons.  It may sound like I’m being optimistic, and I may be, but I believe that Steven Jackson’s skill sets are a perfect match for Atlanta.  He’ll be able to do things here that he may not be able to do on other teams.  I’m very excited to see him play in the red and black. What do you think Steven Jackson will do for the Passing game?  Am I right, or just hopeful?

ESPN isn't always my favorite site in the world. Their analysis tends to be, to put it mildly, poor. They can still produce some mighty compelling content, though. That's the case today, where ESPN produces a list of each team's suspensions for PED from 2010-2013. The relatively small number of suspensions either speaks to the lack of a PED problem in the NFL or a pretty lax culture around them, and I'd have to guess the latter. Regardless, it's an illuminating look at which teams and players have been hit The Atlanta Falcons cash in somewhere in the middle of the pack for PED suspensions. Their two suspensions came from Robert James and Joe Hawley. Some teams have received no suspensions over those years, and a handful have only received one. The leader? The Seattle Seahawks, who have five suspensions in the last four years. They're followed by the Denver Broncos and New York Giants with four each. Your reaction to this interesting little article?

6 NFL Drafts in the Books 2008: Likely Never Topped (AJC) As the Falcons and Football “dead zone” rolls on, thought it would be a good idea to take a look at all of Thomas Dimitroff’s NFL Draft classes and see which ones were the best and which ones weren’t as good. Every franchise say they want to “build through the draft,” but Dimitroff and the Falcons actually put their money where their mouth is concerning drafting and keeping their own. In fact, they are only second to the Green Bay Packers in the NFL of drafting and keeping their own players. Not only is the drafting part impressive, but what sets the Falcons GM and overall organization a part from the rest is the fact that they keep the players they want. It’s hard to think of any player they haven’t held onto if they’ve really wanted to keep them. Obviously, some have been a little better than others and some of the more recent ones have yet to be rendered a final verdict. But before we take a look at …

The off-season program begins in earnest with organized team activities, and we're rapidly approaching the start of those for the Atlanta Falcons. This is wonderful news. OTAs officially kick off after Memorial Day, starting Tuesday, May 28th. They will last three days, and give us real fodder for what lies ahead in position battle and tweets from Roddy White. It's an exciting time all the way around, and the most interesting thing we've had since the draft ended. Sorry, rookie minicamp. Here's what I'll have my eyes on early: How Lamar Holmes looks Whether PK Manley is actually 370 pounds, which he's not How the rookies and UDFAs perform in these limited practices Whether Mike Smith will wear his classic safari hat, and maybe complement it with a machete, which would be both frightening and motivating What do you expect from OTA?