Atlanta Falcons Just Quietly Gained The Upper Hand

Atlanta Falcons Just Quietly Gained The Upper Hand

All right, couple things on the Falcons and one thing that I know you’re going to yell at me for and it’s okay. You can yell at me for it because I still believe that he’s going to be great and you can’t convince me otherwise and after this year you might be able to, but I think PennX is going to unlock him. So anyways, we’re going to we’re going to talk about all that. We got a lot to look at. The the Falcons have had a couple practices now. There’s a a couple of things that we’re talking about with some rookies and this is just a team that quite frankly looks to be a a lot more full and a lot more ready to go as far as a roster goes. The construction of the roster, it seems to be a deeper roster. There’s a good blend of youth with a veteran presence. I’m really excited to see what this team is going to do, but honestly, there’s more youth. I’m excited about that. And one of the things that all of this goes on and one of the best news that I’m hearing already is that the offensive line is already looking like they’re starting to gel and that they’re starting to do well. And it all starts with Chris Lindstöm. We know that. All right. And he brought two things to training training camp. He brought his pillow and his Xbox. And that’s all that matters because that is what they’re doing. It looks like the offensive line is hanging out playing video games. Um and uh but they purposely didn’t bring college football 26 because they knew that their new center Ryan Nel would absolutely destroy them at it. And uh I just think that’s really really funny. So Lindstöm is rooming with Ryan Nel, left guard Matthew Berseron, and right tackle Caleb McGary. They’re all getting there. So that is one of the best things that you can do is all room together. It’s absolutely going to help you. But here’s the thing that I think is is interesting. Matthews, you know what he’s going to do on the left side. He’s a good left tackle. I am very interested to see what we are going to be able to get out of Ryan Newsel. Look, he’s a guy that was drafted out of Appalachian State. Actually, he wasn’t drafted, right? And he is going to continue to grow and in skill. And I have my own thoughts on who he’s replacing in Dolman because let’s just say this, there’s run blocking and there’s pass blocking. He did one of them really well and one of them he didn’t. And I’m interested to see because center is an important position on the offensive line. I understand that. But the tackles and the guards on this team are fantastic. I would put those four guys when you’re looking at right left tackle, right left guard. I would put the talent of those four up against the talent of any of the other offensive lines in the NFL. The one position of question is center. And so with a guy like Lindstöm and Berseron around him, they might be able to hide him a little bit, but also he might be able to thrive in between them. That’s I think that’s the way I’m going to say it is I think he might be able to thrive in between them and I think they need this offense of line to be elite for multiple reasons and here’s what they are. Number one, you have a young quarterback behind uh behind the offensive line. So, he needs to be able to have time to be able to make good decisions and uh to be able to see the passing lanes clearly. Number two, it will help make Bejan even more elite if they can do this. Number three, Mooney just got hurt. Darnell Mooney got hurt. They’re hoping he’s back for the beginning of the regular season. They’re saying three, four weeks, at least that’s early on. He hurt his shoulder while laying out for a pass. So, they are going to be doing a lot of reliance on Ray Ray Mloud, Drake London, and the guy that I said you’re all going to make fun of me for, Kyle Pittz. I still think Kyle Pittz, if given the opportunity, can unlock some serious magic at the tight end position. I really do. And with Darnell Mooney going down, I think this now opens the floodgates. I truly think that this could open the floodgates to allow um Kyle Pittz to be that second threat. I really do. Mooney was fantastic last year. I thought he played really, really well on PFF. He got a 36th uh he was 36th graded uh wide receiver out of 133. That is a absolute starting caliber wide receiver. Basically saying he’s one of the best number two wide receivers in the game, right? Drake London was number seven based on PFF and nobody else was close. All right, nobody else was close. And when you look at the other people that are on this team, right, you have Cadrell Hajj, right? They just brought in DJ Ch. And I do want to talk about DJ Ch for a second. Um I want I want everybody to see this. Uh, and this is what’s called RA, relative athletic score. Just remember DJ Chart coming out of college uh, seven years ago, drafted out of LSU, was one of the single most athletic wide receivers ever to be drafted. One of the single most athletic wide receivers ever to be drafted. The best score if you were the most athletic wide receiver is 810. He got a 9.94. So, we need to talk about that. We need to consider that. He has had a lot of ankle injuries. He has not been able to finish a season. He just hasn’t. But if you need him to come in and do some things early in the year, he might be able to do that for you while while Mooney’s getting healthy. He might be able to do that. He’s a guy who can stretch the field. Um he’s not like the greatest route runner, but he’s extremely fast, and I still think he has some of that speed. This is a guy who played for the Detroit Lions, who I’m a fan of, and he was just out there to prove he still had it. And yes, he could get a little bit of separation. It’s not remarkable, but it’s not bad either. So, the offensive line is going to have to play well because I have said this over and over and over again, a great offensive line makes the entire offense so much better. I truly believe it is so much easier to have if you have a phenomenal offensive line for them to make the wide receivers, the running backs, the quarterback, and the tight ends look better than if you have great wide receivers, a great quarterback, and a great running back. Like it’s still hard with the offensive line, right? Like I mean, let’s let’s look over to Cincinnati, right? Makeshift offensive line. Joe Burrow, because he’s Joe Burrow, is fighting for his life, doing good things with it. But it’s like it’s painful to watch almost. It’s almost painful to watch. Same uh in Miami. How’s that offensive doing without a great offensive line? So that’s kind of that’s kind of what I’m looking at for that. Um and then uh the the only other couple things that I wanted to talk about just as far as as takeaways are concerned. Um unfortunately Troy Anderson has been placed on the pup list. This is a guy who just can’t catch a break injury-wise. The good news, Brilan Trice is back after missing his entire rookie year due to a knee injury. And uh Raheem Morris said, “I was so fired up about Brilan last year. I am again this year.” It’s exciting for him to get back in the mix. Um I’m excited to see what he can do and then All right, I’m going to show it to you. This is an article. I’m going to show it to you. All right, guess who’s looking good early? Kyle Pittz. I know, I know, I know. as I get it. I get it. You’re frustrated. But here’s the thing. We can’t say he is and never was. We can’t yet say he’s a complete bust because he had a great season. All right. It says after missing the team’s previous offseason activities due to a foot injury, Pit was Pitts was back at it Thursday morning. A former top five pick blah blah blah blah blah. While fans are hesitant to get excited about Pitts due to his lack of production in 2024, the fifth year tight end is proving to me proving to be, I think is what that’s supposed to say, a matchup problem at camp. Yet again, Penn made it clear Pitts will be a big part of the offense. Said, “See, we got Kyle Pittz the ball today. Going to be a lot of that.” PennX told reporters after practice, “I’m telling you, with the combination of Mooney getting banged up, new quarterback in, it’s going to give an opportunity for Kyle Pittz to show the wide receiver ability that he has. Big slot coming at you. You can line him up inside, you can line him up outside, you can line him up on the line. You can do it all. Get this dude in your fantasy football drafts. Why not? He’s going to be available late and he’s going to look good. hopefully have an early draft so you can do it before he looks good in the preseason if they even play him. People forget how important how important it is to have a full training camp and if you miss the entire training camp, you get eased in slow in the season. So by the time Mooney might be eased back in in week four or five, Pitts hopefully will already have, you know, cemented his spot. All right, thanks for watching. See you on the next one.

Atlanta Falcons Just Quietly Gained The Upper Hand

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