FanPost

Grantland Pumps Up the Falcons

From over a year ago, and still no sideline catch compares.

So it looks like we're finally winding down from scraping and sniffing for any shred of news regarding the Atlanta Falcons during these dark post-draft pre-camp days.

Now we can let the training camp sun shine in feeding into our irrational but steadying optimism. So expect stories packed with less hard evidence than the Wells Report to confirm our skyscraper expectations, willfully ignoring the really hard questions more than the "Free Tom Brady" crowd.

Still, I thought I might as well share one last non-training camp related segment.

The Grantland NFL Podcast - 7/23/15

The boys down at Grantland, the charismatic Robert Mays and the esteemed Bill Barnwell, get back to talking actual football discussing, at first, the Dez Bryant and Demaryius Thomas contracts, then naturally making a segueway to Julio Jones.

They do some great hemming and hawing about wide receiver talent and value over the next five years and what we should expect Julio's contract to be (Barnwell predicts $70,100,000, if only to beat out Dez for bragging rights). But in a fun twist for Falcons fans, they get off track from the Julio Jones contract impact (starting at 5:42) and dive straight into the team's offensive prospects around the 7:52 mark.

The two seem to be high on the team's offense discussing the potential of Julio Jones putting up a Calvin-esque season with Matt Ryan being the type of consistently strong (or "actually competent" as Barnwell quips) quarterback that Shanny has never had the chance to scheme and plot with.

That said, they seem to be less excited about the offensive line's prospects citing the lack of a true upgrade and the team's optimistic hopes that Kyle Shanahan's blocking scheme will be enough of a retool for the big boys up front. They do however acknowledge that our run game and offensive line really can't get much worse than last year and that, simply by virtue of health and not relying on Sam Baker or S-Jax, we're likely in better shape.

Ultimately, Mays concludes that he sees a top 7-8 offense while Barnwell seems to be gun-shy after his lengthy article last year outlining why the Falcons were going to bounce back in a big way last year.

Figuring Out the Falcons - Bill Barnwell 7/30/14

So, as much as I'd like to draw on their expert opinion to keep doubling down on my Super Bowl bets, we know the game is played on the field and not over the radio waves. That said, there's no reason to not be excited while our roster is at full-strength and, as are most teams free of the injury bug at this time of year, looking championship-caliber.

<em>This FanPost was written by one of The Falcoholic's talented readers. It does not necessarily reflect the views of The Falcoholic.</em>