Orlovsky's tweet also helps explain the passing game in general in Arthur Smith's offense... the big body skill players and the use of play action open up those seams. The quarterback's responsibility is to know ahead of time (based on the defensive formation) where those seams are likely to be. His first job will be to decide at the line whether the play is a good fit or whether he should audible to something else (eg an inside or outside run). That's not rocket science. In Mike Smith's first season as head coach, he had Mike Mularkey as offensive coordinator helping the rookie quarterback Matt Ryan. A bread-and-butter staple of that initial attack was a combination of a handoff to Michael Turner along with a rollout pass. At the line, his first job was to count... if there were seven defenders in the box, he'd go with the run play, and he would continue to roll out (faking the pass) after handing the ball off to Turner. Eight (or more) in the box? Rollout pass, starting with a fake handoff to Turner. With the way Ridder has reportedly learned the elements of the offense, I suspect it will be a lot more complex for this team. Arthur Smith calls it "positionless" football, with the idea being that most of the skill players can flex between completely different roles and positions with a simple audible. In that sense, the first reads won't be seven or eight in the box. It will be the OC communicating over the headset what the defensive personnel package is. Are they in base 4-3 or 3-4, with only two corners and two safeties? Fantastic... Kyle Pitts splits out wide as a receiver, joining Drake London and Mack Hollins. Jonnu Smith stays in the traditional TE role. Pitts will have a mismatch if Ridder wants to attack a seam, and Robinson on a wheel route might be the #1 target by design rather than an outlet. It will still be up to Ridder to read the defense at the line to see if he wants to attack with London or Hollins (are their defenders isolated or will a safety or linebacker be close enough to help given the called pass route?), attack a seam with Pitts, or go with Robinson on the high probability short outlet / wheel route. Same personnel for Atlanta, but the OC tells Ridder that the defense is bringing in a nickel or dime package... Kyle Pitts lines up in-line at TE, Jonnu Smith drops back to an H-back role, and the defense is short a linebacker for a run play. Bijan Robinson (or Tyler Allgeier or Caleb Huntley when he returns) will be salivating at that.
One media outlet is claiming that the Falcons have offered the 49ers a conditional second round pick for Trey Lance. I'm not sure I buy this, but it's always possible.
One media outlet is claiming that the Falcons have offered the 49ers a conditional second round pick for Trey Lance. I'm not sure I buy this, but it's always possible. Torgo I was hoping the Titans were going to go after Lance.......BUT they traded up for Levi in the Draft. Falcons travel to Nashville Oct 29th Good Luck and Go Titans Go
Good stuff. Im still thinking the Falcons offense is going to be at least the most dynamic in the NFL and a top 10 point producer. Too many weapons and a possible top-notch air attack to go along with a stout run game. Opposing teams Defensive nightmare written all over it.
The Falcons placed running back Caleb Huntley on the active/physically unable to perform list Thursday, the team announced. The move was expected given Huntley tore his Achilles’ tendon in a Week 15 loss to the Saints last season. He will not start training camp with his teammates next week as he continues to work his way back. During the offseason program, Falcons coach Arthur Smith wouldn’t put a timetable on Huntley’s return but said Huntley was “trending in a positive direction.” The Falcons can activate Huntley at any time. He will miss at least the first four games if the team places him on reserve/PUP before the start of the regular season. Huntley had 76 carries for 336 yards and a touchdown last season. NBC
The Falcons have agreed to terms with free agent defensive tackle Justin Ellis, Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports. Ellis worked out for the Falcons on Friday. The Raiders made Ellis a fourth-round pick in 2014, and he has played nine seasons for the Raiders, (2014-18), Ravens (2019-21) and Giants (2022). He played all 17 games for the Giants last season, making four starts. Ellis totaled 22 tackles, one sack and one quarterback hit in 362 defensive snaps and 44 on special teams. Ellis has not played more than 50 percent of the defensive snaps in any season since his rookie season when he played 56 percent, but he has been a solid run stopper as a rotational player. He has appeared in 117 games with 54 starts in his career, recording 182 tackles, 1.5 sacks and five quarterback hits.
The update is bad news. He failed his physical and has been waived. End of the line? I hope not. But for now he's no longer on the roster at all.
The story behind this is that Eddie Goldman is reportedly dealing with some kind of off-field personal issues and might be about to retire - again. Shocker... So Justin Ellis gets an audition to become the team's big run stuffer for this year. This might also turn out to be Timmy Horne's opportunity to crack the roster rather than the practice squad. Or DC Ryan Nielsen might go for more versatile linemen across the board and forego having a Jabba The Nose Tackle on the regular roster. That would leave room for one more "regular" defensive lineman or hybrid DE/LB that might be on the bubble. Anyway, I questioned before whether Goldman would stick it out through camp and actually play. Now I'm 90% sure he won't be with the team.
I'll say I'm still hoping it's here. In the meantime, I'm also going to hope the Falcons will bring in Elijah Holyfield for a workout. He'd be a REALLY good fit for Atlanta's offense, and he's a local product. Would be great to have him return home to continue his NFL career.
There’s a new running back in Falcons camp. The team announced the signing of Godwin Igwebuike on Monday morning. Kicker Matthew Trickett was cut to make room for Igwebuike on the 90-man roster. Igwebuike entered the league as an undrafted free agent with the Buccaneers in 2018. He was also a defensive back at that point and remained one through stints with the 49ers, Eagles, and Jets before switching positions with the Lions in 2021. He ran 18 times for 118 yards in 17 games with Detroit and had three carries for four yards in five games with the Seahawks last season. Bijan Robinson, Tyler Allgeier, and Cordarrelle Patterson head up the running back depth chart in Atlanta. NBC
"This is the third year of a three-year plan, and I think what I see and what I like a lot is coach (Arthur) Smith and (general manager) Terry Fontenot laid out a very careful, thoughtful, kind of methodical plan of what they were going to do," Blank said Tuesday. "I think we're moving in the right direction. This year I expect our team to be even more competitive, if you will, with the emphasis on the defensive side of the ball during free agency. ... I think we have as many offensive tools as probably most if any team in the NFL today. We've got a lot of talent. Obviously, (an) experienced offensive line that performed at a high level last year. ... I like where we are." "I like our young quarterback," Blank said of Ridder. "People look at just the last four games last year and they say, well, based on those four games, but he really progressed from the time he came on campus here after he was drafted, had a good camp, and he's been a strong leader since he's shown up here. Continued to develop. Worked well with (Marcus) Mariota last year, learned a lot from Marcus. He's a learner, and he's got a lot of humility. "As the year progressed, he had an opportunity to play, and I think he played at a very competitive level. Those last four games each game seemed to be a little bit better. So, we feel pretty strongly that he's going to be our quarterback of the future. We've got to play games and we've got to see, but we feel good about him." "I think they got us in a position now where our team is gonna be more competitive than it's been the last couple years. I think they'd be disappointed if that wasn't the case, I'd be disappointed, our fans would be disappointed," Blank said. "So I feel good about the direction of where we are. You have to play, you've got to avoid injuries and all that kind of stuff. But we're in a division that is going to be competitive. Everybody says, well it's one of the weakest divisions. But 22 years owning a team in the NFL, you realize that divisions that start out apparently not so strong end up, by the end of the year, being very strong. There's gonna be a lot of competition, but I feel good about where we are. "I expect us to certainly win more games than we've won the last couple years, and where that puts us and what number that'll be, I'm not sure." ~ ARTHUR BLANK
On Wednesday, Ridder told reporters that he appreciated Blank’s support. “That’s comforting for me obviously knowing that Mr. Blank and everyone in the organization believes in me and my skill set,” Ridder said, via Michael Rothstein of ESPN. “At the end of the day, for myself, it’s about putting a higher expectation than even what they have for myself and going out and trying to exceed that and be better.”
The amusing media item of the week is that SI reported that Cordarrelle Patterson is likely to line up at WR some this year. Really? Did the guys at SI figure that out all by themselves? Amazing research there. Next they'll be telling us that Kyle Pitts will split out a lot rather than playing in-line at TE or that Bijan Robinson will catch some passes.
The Athletic repeated their annual thing where they group the QBs into tiers, based on votes from personnel guys and/or coaches around the league. Desmond Ridder landed in Tier 4 and only got better votes than Gardner Minshew. But... I don't mind at all. Their definition of Tier 4 includes players who do not have enough information for the voters to classify them. With only four games played, Ridder fits that category perfectly. Brock Purdy, Kenny Pickett, Jordan Love and Sam Howell are also in that bucket. So are Minshew and, oddly enough, Baker Mayfield. The Tier 4 category is also for veterans who ideally would not start all 17 games, so I take that as a bit of a slam against Mayfield and possibly Minshew. But for Ridder, Love etc - it's a no-brainer to say there's not enough info on them yet to compare them to guys like Daniel Jones or Jimmy Garoppolo or Geno Smith.
I agree with this, especially the Minshew part ( kinda is a slam), but ive never been sold on Mayfield and I really think the Buccos are in deep stuff.
Some notes from the joint practices with the Dolphins: for the most part things went well for both teams. Having the chance to go up against real competition is helpful, especially since the CBA (starting with the 2011 CBA) has cut back the number of padded sessions and the ability to have full scrimmages. Last year many teams ran into issues with fights or players being jerks. Fortunately there were no major issues in these two practice sessions, though two of the Dolphins defenders bordered on dirty play in the one-on-one sessions, tackling would-be receivers well before the ball arrived (and drawing flags from the refs who were there for the sessions). Rookie corner Clark Phillips III got banged up and was carted off. Bearing in mind that Jeff Okudah is also out, the team is potentially down two cornerbacks for Friday's game, both of whom figure to be important parts of the secondary for the regular season. Naturally both teams will tout their successes from the two practice sessions. Kinda hard to say who truly got the best of it. The only clear "winners" were the Falcons in the second string special teams units and the Dolphins third string defense vs Atlanta third string offense - none of which matters at all for the regular season, though it might have an impact for Friday's opening exhibition game. Two fun highlights for the Falcons came out of the daily Bijan Robinson vs Troy Andersen camp battles, as they faced Miami opponents rather than each other. Robinson put the same kinds of moves on Dolphins defenders and took in at least one big play from Desmond Ridder, while Troy Andersen intercepted Tua Tagovaiola.
Ive always been leery of 'joint practices' <--- waiting for Gids reply... Im not a fan of them, just too much chicanery goes on and there must be a higher risk of injury (just guessing) than if they were going up against team mates. Im ok with waiting for a preseason game. Just my opinion and on the other hand, if they all went as smoothly as the Birds and Fish, then i suppose it was very productive and beneficial, but no fights may have been just a good luck run.
