The craziest thing about the Falcons so far this season is that their division record is 3-0, while they are 0-6 against the rest of the NFL. Should the Falcons and Saints finish the season with identical records, the first two tiebreakers are head to head results and then divisional records. Since the Falcons are a game behind New Orleans in the standings, the remaining three divisional games have huge postseason implications. A win this Sunday would put Atlanta ahead of Carolina in the standings and guarantee the team will finish with a winning divisional record. A loss would mean that the Saints could all but knock the Falcons out of it when the two teams play in the Superdome - if the Falcons haven't already been eliminated. Harry Douglas is still dealing with an injured foot. He missed practice again today, as did Devin Hester, who is battling an ankle injury. Hester is expected back on a limited basis tomorrow. The ongoing nagging injuries shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. Douglas is 30. Hester is 32. If the Falcons resign him, Weems will be 30 next season. Roddy White will be 34. Drew Davis returned to practice last week. The Falcons have a three week roster exemption to have him practice and try to get up to speed before they have to make a roster move. The most likely outcome would be to drop Freddie Martino from the roster (probably resigning him to the practice squad) to make room for Davis. The team still has two weeks remaining in the five week window to get Zeke Motta back to practice or to put him on IR. It's going to be IR. ESPN's Vaughn McClure reported today that injured Falcons linebacker prospect Marquis Spruill is working out, bulking up, and is now up to 241 pounds. The team listed him at 224 earlier this year. Defensive coordinator Mike Nolan had commented during OTAs that Spruill needed to put on 15 pounds. He's there. Offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter has had tremendous praise for the efforts of undrafted rookie center James Stone, who will make his third start this weekend against the Panthers. Stone isn't just learning the physical aspects of the game at the NFL level. He's also taking on learning the protection scheme and calling the assignments to his linemates. Particularly noteworthy: injured Falcons centers Peter Konz and Joe Hawley each have only one year remaining on their contracts. Both are expendable if Stone continues to develop and takes over the starting role. Likewise, keep an eye on Ryan Schraeder's play at the RT spot for the remainder of the season. Sam Baker's contract is so expensive that the team really should keep him at least through 2015, but it's possible that the team might consider releasing him as a post-June 1 move. That would push the bulk of the cap hit out to 2016 - and even create a small cap savings for 2015. Personally, I'd hope to avoid that kind of dead-money time bomb, so I'd keep him for one more year. But we did that same type of cap hijinks with Tyson Clabo, so it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility. Schraeder's play the rest of the way this year may be a deciding factor. The team would have Matthews, Schraeder, and Holmes lined up for the three active OT spots, and resigning one of Carimi, Bradfield, or Mike Johnson for additional depth would be dirt cheap.
The falcons division, is by far, the worst in the nfl. I was thinking the other day, how in the world did we lose to the Vikings and bears. I can't fathom that. I don't ever remember the division being so week, from top to bottom.
wrong division I remember that decade when the 49ers were always 12-4, and the other four teams were always 4-12. The top was much higher (obviously), but those '90 NFC West teams were otherwise bad.
