A 5-step program to ensure a better Falcons future
Step 1: Relax. This season was almost a worst-case scenario — defensive overhaul, tougher schedule, injuries by the boatload — and it wound up 9-7. This tells us the Falcons have the right kind of men in administrative places, and it also tells us the core of the team is talented enough to withstand a series of reversals.
Step 2: Get edgy. The Falcons ranked 28th in a 32-team league in pass defense, and I know what you’re going to say — because of the cornerbacks. And I won’t pretend that Brent Grimes and Chris Houston were the second coming of Lester Hayes and Michael Haynes, but even that Hall of Fame pairing would have struggled behind a pass rush that generated only 28 sacks. (Tied for 26th in the NFL.) Look for the Falcons to draft an edge player — a defensive end or an outside linebacker — in Round 1. Look for Lawrence Sidbury to contend for a starting position. Look for a wholesale commitment to rushing the passer.
Step 3: Give the secondary a second chance. Thomas Dimitroff made his reputation as a scout, and he’s known in the industry as a keen analyst of defensive backs. He believesHouston and Grimes and Christopher Owens can be solid NFL performers. And let’s not forget safety William Moore, who missed 14 games due to injury but for whom Dimitroff’s hopes remain massive. These are all young guys. Give them the benefit of a pass rush and see how they fare.
Step 4: Trust Matt Ryan. The Falcons had 39 completions of 20-plus yards (tied for 21st in the league) and five of 40-plus (tied for 25th). In 2008 they had 45 and nine, respectively. For reasons unclear, they stopped throwing long. And it isn’t, as some continue to insist, that Ryan can’t deliver the deep ball. He can and has. The Falcons just stopped stretching defenses. They need to start again.
Step 5: Open the screen door. I’ve heard your pleas, and I’ve come to agree: Mike Mularkey needs to mix in the occasional screen pass. (He seems to favor reverses, which seldom work.) It’s believed the Falcons don’t like the screen because they feel duty-bound to keep a back in to pass-protect, but this goes back to Step 4. Ryan is no longer a rookie, and even when he was he didn’t act like one. He can handle a blitz. And I’m thinking Michael Turner would like the chance to get the ball in the open field. I’m thinking he’d like it a lot.
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222 comments Add your comment
Bobo
January 9th, 2010
6:41 am
I like and respect your comments Mr Bradley.However, I do have a problem with #2 & #3. In my humble opinion these DBs are not quick enough to keep up with the majority of the receivers in the NFL especially the elite receiver core of the league. How many times this year did our defense stop them on first and second down only to give up the big play on third down…and who did they target most of the time…the DBs…and why…because they knew they could bet them downfield.
GPMAN
January 9th, 2010
8:10 am
The lack of pass rush can be attributed to one thing. Our new regime dumped Grady and our pass rush dissapeared! All of a sudden the d-backs can’t cover.
John
January 9th, 2010
9:38 am
The Falcons need to focus on the Defensive line. A new pass rushing end and a run gap controlling tackle that can pass rush. I too was down on the young corners but I would like to see what could happen with a front seven that could rush the passer. I also give Grimes and Houston a break because I finally started seeing them use technique when pass defending and that was not always the case. I wouls not have a problem with a linebacker like Rolando Mcclain if he decides to come out. When Jerry and Williams get back to health and are ready to play with Moore the defense should be better.
yeah okay rob
January 9th, 2010
9:41 am
Mark, what are you doing writing for newspapers? You should be coaching an NFL team! Or maybe a GM of one? Has any of the owners called you recently? I bet not!
Thats Ok, you can keep your day job doing something you know about……..criticizing professionals and telling professionals what you think they should do ….in newspapers.
Blogger looks even dumber for criticizing the writer. And the cycle continues, perpetuated by an idiot as usual.
John
January 9th, 2010
9:46 am
Offensively the Falcons need to go deep more often as Mark said but if you look they did and the problem came up when they would go deep to a guy that could get deep but couldn’t catch a cold if he was butt naked in a Siberian winter. Micheal Jenkins are your ears ringing? I have onmly seen small inceases in development with Jenkins. He has been in the league long enough to turn potential in to production. Trade Jenkins, Cut or let Finneran retire, cut or trade Weems. Then work with Ryan on read progression and not focus so much of Gonzo.
John
January 9th, 2010
9:55 am
The offensive line is good enough. They just need to stay healthy and get some depth. Defensive line is the 1 priority. A Pass Rushing Defensive End Derrick Morgan or the Hughes kid from TT…. 2 would be great so that both could be tutored by Abe. A Roadblock of a tackle with pass ruch skills. Terrance Cody would look nice in a Falcons uniform. A All-around linebacker with good size, speed, instincts and technique with excellent pass rushing skills would be nice…. Rolando MCclain comes to mind. This would be a nice beginning to our draft
JD
January 9th, 2010
10:53 am
It all starts with our offensive and defensive lines. Games are won in the trenches. A good Dline is going to put pressure on the QB wich will in turn help our DBs greatly. I believe our secondary is very young and improved as the year went on. These guys will mature. Grimes, Owens, Decoud, and Moore are young and fast. All they need is a good pass rushing line in front of them and time to gel as a unit. On the other side of the coin we need a good Oline as well. If we would give Ryan a little time in the pocket then maybe he could stretch the field some. When the pocket folds in just a few seconds you only have time to hit your tight end on the short route while trying to just move the chains. Every year I look at the teams deep in the playoffs, they all have monsters on the line. We can be serious next year with a few good moves involving our lines. Dimitroff is very well capable of making it happen too. Go Falcons!!!
The Sham
January 9th, 2010
11:02 am
Mark Bradley: I’ll have to show you some love on this write. I tend to critique you guys when find something out of whack but I couldn’t agree more about steps 1, 2, 4. However I might accuse you of stealing my thoughts… How’d you do that? But I digress, steps 3 and 5 weren’t even on my radar but I again can’t agree with you more (I hate reverses in the NFL as well, except when they work). Great analysis even for a closet Techie
gwtvol85
January 9th, 2010
11:44 am
One reason for #4, Mark, is that Mularkey and Ryan fell in love to the extreme with Tony Gonzalez (see last game’s two INTs just for the sake of trying to get Gonzalez his 1000th catch). That, coupled with that Michael Jenkins should be relegated down the depth chart and replaced with someone who can actually get separation, stretch the field, AND hold on to the ball.
Gerald Middlebrooks
January 9th, 2010
12:23 pm
I agree with some of the things you have said Mark, except Mike Mularkey needs to go! His offensive strategy is obselete and need refurbishing in the area of play selections as it relates to passing on first and second downs. On fourth down and less than a yard and sometimes inches, with the capable personnel the Falcons have, kicking is not always the best option. If this change is not made, I grant you the same scenario will again repeat itself…
Gerald Middlebrooks
January 9th, 2010
12:29 pm
Short and sweet – Mike Mularkey needs to GO!!
Hugo
January 9th, 2010
12:36 pm
If they dont put Norwood in space, screens or delays, he is not much help. A couple of more draft picks, especially a shut down corner, and wee are there.Harry can be a sleeper for our offense.
Falcon in Ohio
January 9th, 2010
4:03 pm
Mark, do you think Matt stopped going long because Tony Gonzalez is open on shorter, safer routes?
Not a Falcon fan
January 9th, 2010
9:39 pm
Falcon fans when will you learn. All this big hype will go down the drain at the end of next season. Having back to back winning seasons DOESN’T make you the Super Bowl champs the next year. It will NEVER happen !!!!!!!!!!
Falcon in Ohio
January 9th, 2010
10:17 pm
If you’re not a Falcon fan, why are you on this blog?
Rolltide23
January 9th, 2010
11:06 pm
The Falcons need Mt.Cody and McClain from Alabama. How about the entire Bama defense to the Falcons. Javier Arenas is definitley better that Weems as a punt returner.
AlternateReality
January 10th, 2010
12:06 am
Good article.
My take on the Gonzales contradiction… it seemed to me that Ryan would run through his reads quickly on most plays, give up on the first one or two receivers, and then throw to Gonzales. Early in the season, TG was getting a lot of catches and Ryan was getting rid of the ball without getting sacked, but later on TG started drawing better coverage and the sacks started coming. In the end, though, when he had time, Ryan continued to throw to TG even when he was double-covered, leading to some INTs but also to some pretty nice catches in traffic.
Question – why did Ryan ignore the WRs? It’s not like they were never open. It seemed like he would give up on them if they weren’t wide open from the snap, but when you watched some of the replays it looks like they may have been open if he had waited for the pattern to develop.
My thought is that he doesn’t have any confidence that Roddy and Jenkins will win a battle for the ball when they are covered. But with TG, Ryan could force the ball into coverage, and Gonzales is so good that hc can make the play most of the time.
So maybe having such a dependable third option isn’t a good thing? In other words, it lets you fall into a comfort zone instead of attackig the defense. Hmmm…
dawgsfan45
January 10th, 2010
2:53 am
Mark, what are the odds of us signing Osi Umenyiora? He wants out of New York and he’s a GREAT pass rusher. I’d much rather fill the pass rushing void via free agency rather than the draft. I’m thinking a line of Osi-Jerry-Babs-Kroy with Abraham as a situational pass rusher would be pretty sick. We’d also have Anderson to rotate in at LE for short yardage situations.
The cornerback situation: I think Chris Owens is going to be a very solid LCB for years to come. He showed steady improvement from game to game and he shut down TO. I’d definitely feel comfortable having him cover team’s number 1 WR’s.
And to the guy that says we should draft Taylor Mays: HELL NO! DeCoud and Coleman are both very good safeties and work well together. We just drafted Moore last year. It wouldn’t make much sense to draft Mays this year.
WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE!!!
January 10th, 2010
8:53 am
the ice melted this year under pressure!!!
Rick
January 10th, 2010
10:07 am
The reverse…….. PLEASE tear this page out of the playbook Mularkey……it worked what….once out of 30 wasted downs over the course of the year.
Jason Elam lost about three games by himself.
Rick
January 10th, 2010
10:08 am
The ice melted? We’re still slicker than a greased otter here.
Popeye
January 10th, 2010
10:33 am
Mark Bradley, I agree with most of your post but I have to call you on a couple of points. I believe the Falcon’s stopped throwing the deep ball because that is the No2 weakness of Matty “Ice” game (No1 being lack of speed). I have watched every pro game Matt has played, I also watch several other teams play while watching the Falcons on Sunday’s and when I switch to other games it is immediately noticeable the ball Matt throws doesn’t have the same velocity as say Mcnabb, Romo, Palmer, Rivers or even Sanchez. But the biggest evidence of all is the receiver has to wait for the ball on nearly every deep route. I can’t believe someone like you have never noticed or commented on this fact.
Obviously someone on the Falcons coaching staff agrees with me and they are calling the offense to his strengths rather than his weakness.
Mark why would anyone want to relive the experiment we had with our secondary? I know our pass rush was terrible this season and it didn’t help the secondary at all but “Come-on Man” Brent Grimes and Chris Houston (LMAO) has earned the title as the worst pairing of corners in the history of NFL football. Credit Brent Grimes for showing up the last two games, but we will never make the play-offs if these two guys continue to get the playing time they did this season. Christopher Owens has game, keep him and cut the others. Any film existing on our corners has to be labeled a Horror movie!!!! Please Mark just tell it like it is, maybe then we can get better.