Atlanta Falcons Ink C Jeremy Newberry

by Dave Choate on Jun 15, 2009 6:21 PM EDT

There has been speculation for months now that the Falcons might sign Jeremy Newberry as insurance at center, and today they made that dream a reality.

Twelve seasons into his career, the reliable center is not the same player he once was, primarily due to knee injuries that have left him less mobile than before. Still, he played in all sixteen games for the San Diego Chargers last season and is still a terrific backup to have around. That's especially true if the team managed to sign him for cheap, which I suspect is the case.

Of course, there's a slight chance that Newberry will be competing to start if McClure has any problems this season, which is a little bit more frightening. If that happened, it would leave whoever's left out of Alex Stepanovich, Brett Romberg, Ben Wilkerson and Newberry to duke it out for a starting job. My hunch is that given the injury concerns with the position, the Falcons will keep Romberg and Newberry behind McClure.

Basically, it's at worst a nice depth move for the Falcons, who need all the help they can get along the offensive line. I'm on board with it. How about you?

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Good to have backups with starting experience.

Sounds like we’ve got at least 2 interior linemen in camp behind the starters who’ve started games in the NFL. I know Newberry and Stepanovich have both started – not sure if there are others. Good thing to have with Weiner gone.

by NeedATicketToTheGame on Jun 15, 2009 10:22 PM EDT reply actions

Nothing wrong with Vets in the depth chart.

And with the room we have, even after the $7 mill hit taken from the Vick release, we could stand to shore up other positions as well.

You have opinions. Share them.

by Adam Schultz on Jun 15, 2009 11:26 PM EDT reply actions

I've said it before

But I’ll say it again – I am more worried about Offensive Tackle depth… I was pretty happy with who we had for the interior line (maybe TD & staff disagreed).

by orang3b on Jun 16, 2009 9:01 AM EDT reply actions

By the way

We (well, I) have the same problem evaluating Newberry that we did with Sam Baker. He only started 3 games last year. I can tell you that SD was #17 in Sack Rate (the RG and RT gave up most of the sacks) and #22 in Adjusted Line Yards overall, but #11 when broken down to just runs up the middle (Mid/Guard). They were also #2 in Power Success (3rd & 2 or less) and #2 in Stuffed % (runs for zero or negative gain). So he may have been good last year, especially as a run blocker… or most of that coud’ve been LG Kris Dielman, who didn’t give up a sack and went to the Pro Bowl. Long way of saying I’m not sure what we can expect from him…

by orang3b on Jun 16, 2009 9:15 AM EDT up reply actions