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Falcons News Roundup: Of Playoffs, Michael Turner and Rich McKay

There's so much going on right now that I can scarcely keep up with all of it. In lieu of several in-depth posts which would take so long to write that I'd get fired from my job and miss New Year's entirely, let's try the quick hit news roundup. Consider this a catch-all thread for any news that pops up during the afternoon hours today, as well.

Here we go:

  • Our first item was ably handled by runningback in a FanPost, but I thought I'd touch on it. Police were called to the home of one Michael "The Burner" Turner due to a domestic disturbance. Whether or not you subscribe to the belief that Turner did something wrong, you have to admit that this is not the kind of thing the Falcons need right about now. Turner is the star of the show out there, and any off-field distractions (particularly ones like this) that slow him on the field are big trouble.
  • Congratulations to Matt Ryan, who was voted the Rookie of the Year for the NFL by The Associated Press. There were a lot of excellent candidates this year, but Ryan blew them away from the first play of his career. The fact that he has so much room to grow should scare the living daylights out of every other team in the league, quite frankly. Three cheers for Ryan!
  • Rich McKay has been given permission to interview with the Browns, and good for him. I don't share the same overpowering hatred of McKay that some of you have, but he's pretty much just a high-up aide to Comrade Dimitroff at this point and should be pursuing other avenues. The Browns might want to keep him from signing any free agents, though, as he was spectacularly bad at that during his stint with the Falcons.
  • The Falcons are going to need a true team effort to beat the Cardinals, according to the AJC. I'm inclined to agree with that, because a weak offensive effort will doom us just as surely as our secondary and pass rush going all weaksauce on us. About the only thing the Falcons don't have to worry about is the Cards' rushing attack, and I even hesitate a little before that. I hope we see some of the good ol' fashioned aggression that Coach Tophat has become known for.
  • I have to give enormous props to some of our team record holders. Roddy White has quite simply cemented his place in Falcons history by running together a pair of transcendant seasons, capping it off by setting the single-season receiving yards record. John Abraham was a vicious, heart-devouring reaver of all things quarterback, easily setting the team's single-season sack record. And big kudos to Michael Koenen, who I maligned much of the year, for putting it together in the latter half of the season and improbably helping to get the Falcons the NFL record for fewest punt return yards. It's been quite a season.
  • Last but not least, please be sure to visit Revenge of the Birds, our fine-feathered Cardinals blog, for all things Arizona. I'll be putting together a scouting report for his site, and he's graciously done the same for me, so we'll be running that here at The Falcoholic on Friday.

Thoughts?

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It's (apparently) like 1980 all over again!

Though that dream season occurred before I was born, from what I’ve been reading, this season is eerily similar to that one.

So many marks being reached. You just can’t help but feel the momentum we’re compiling going into the 2009 season. I know I’m a bit starry eyed but I’ve never felt this confident about the next season before (yes, even in 98).

As for McKay, honestly? Good riddance. These Falcons don’t need any holdover to tell the truth. We’re new look. Time for the old hats to be thrown away.

"The nice thing about supporting a bedraggled-cum-decent team? Watching all those analysts eat their words."

by tlozwarlock on Dec 31, 2008 9:55 AM EST reply actions   0 recs

Agreed

Lots of reasons for confidence going forward. Time for McKay to get a fresh start elsewhere though, for his sake and ours. He drafted some good players, but his contract and hiring decisions decimated the team last year.

Speaking of reasons for confidence, don’t we get a salary cap boost next year due to the Vick situation? I seem to remember that we took a huge one-time cap hit last year as a result of that mess.

by tom slick on Dec 31, 2008 12:36 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

"Our cap shalt be roomy."

—Dimitroff 12:31

"The nice thing about supporting a bedraggled-cum-decent team? Watching all those analysts eat their words."

by tlozwarlock on Dec 31, 2008 1:01 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

In actual reply, here's the numbers from NFL.com
So in 2008, the Falcons would have to absorb the $14,682,000 charge for all the bonus money paid to Vick that was being spread out over the length of the contract. At the same time, the salary cap [in 2009 will probably] go up by $5 million to the $115 million range, give or take a few million.

— from this article.

So we’re getting 5 or so million back into the cap range, giving us 110 to 120 million budget wise. 5 million is a new player. We’ll probably have about 6 million or so to sign draftees plus 5 extra million to sweeten the deal to some of our key players looking for new contracts.

"The nice thing about supporting a bedraggled-cum-decent team? Watching all those analysts eat their words."

by tlozwarlock on Dec 31, 2008 1:05 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Well done, old bean!

Thanks for verifying my sanity. Nice to know that I didn’t hallucinate that little memory. Another Festivus MIRACLE!

by tom slick on Dec 31, 2008 1:54 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Speaking of throwing old hats away...


Can I pleeease keep this one?
Happy New Year, everyone!

by tom slick on Dec 31, 2008 10:59 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

I actually think McKay is a good GM.....

………..that was until I started looking things up for this post. He really was a bad GM for Atlanta. You can’t gauge his value with contracts, but almost everything else he did was a mess up. He has been let off the hook for the Abraham trade with him playing so well this year. Other than that, his signings have been horrendous. I think he is helping Dimitroff with contracts, but we can replace that expertise. I hope he gets a shot with Cleveland because he deserves another shot at GM, but I’m glad it’s him getting permission for job interviews not Mularky.

by BabyGoatEater on Dec 31, 2008 5:27 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

I have no idea where to list this info...and what is a URL

I am computer stupid so if this is wrong to place this info here then please to inform me where and also what is a url?
Injury Report from yahoo sports http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=nflinjury&prov=st&type=lgns

by Funballad on Jan 1, 2009 10:44 AM EST reply actions   0 recs

URL = Universal Resource Link aka "link to a website"

and the proper place for this would be a Link FanShot post.

"The nice thing about supporting a bedraggled-cum-decent team? Watching all those analysts eat their words."

by tlozwarlock on Jan 2, 2009 3:17 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Hey man

If you ever have questions about how the website works, just send me an e-mail on davethefalconer@yahoo.com.

by Dave the Falconer on Jan 3, 2009 3:46 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

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