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?