Mini camp was AWESOME. I went for the afternoon practice and, I must say, Mike Smith is running a tight shift. I thought the practice was very efficient and I liked the intensity (well, as intense as it can get sans pads).

Here are some random observations:

CHAD HALL is a rookie running back who graduated from the Air Force Academy. The Falcons brought him into mini camp as a "tryout player." The dude is small (5'7 179 lbs), but he is FAST. They had him returning punts and honestly, he impressed me more than anybody else. While Chandler "I'm All That And A Bag O' Chips" Williams was busy dropping balls, Hall was straight throwing it down. Don't quote me on this, but I see a contract in his future. Not only that, I think we might have a solution to the punt/kick returner problem.

JUSTIN BLALOCK was lined up at left guard for the afternoon practice. Just thought some of you might want to know that.

RODDY WHITE looked good. Seriously folks, he made some very difficult catches look downright easy. I don't want to jinx him, but if he stays healthy, NFC South def backs might have some sleepless nights. Can you say Pro Bowl?

BEN HARTSOCK can actually catch the ball. I know we got him for his blocking ability, but homie has some hands. I don't see the TE position be too much of a problem, as MARTREZ MILNER had a nice 30 yard catch during the scrimmage as well.

THOMAS BROWN was out there on a mission today. He was making cuts that I can't ever recall him making at Georgia, at least not on a consistent basis. I'd say he has the third RB position on lock down.

DJ SHOCKLEY looked solid today. He participated in all the drills and his velocity apparently hasn't diminished whatsoever. If he can fix his issues with accuracy, I see him having a real good chance to make this team. Believe it or not, he was the most impressive quarterback during the afternoon practice today. That is to say, his passes were more accurate, he had better zip on his balls, and he showed very little hesitation. JOEY HARRINGTON looked like he always does, somewhat average. MATTY RYAN was prob the second most impressive QB during the afternoon practice. It seems like he is grasping the system well already. CHRIS REDMAN (and I know a lot of you will hate to hear this) looked surprisingly mediocre. He was more hesitant that the other three QBs and his passes didn't look especially crisp.

 

 

Being a lifelong fan of the Falcons you would think by now that I would have learned to simply let things go.  Ha, if only that were possible.  I am inherently an angry person, a temperamental bomb without a fuse.  My closest friends tell new people we meet that, "if you can see Jesse, he's angry."  Hell, I can even remember back to when I was ten or eleven in Boy Scouts one of the Scout Masters asked me why I was so angry.  I told him I wasn't angry at anything and why he asked that.  He looked at me and said that I always look pissed off at something.  I found out later on that night that I was indeed angry, but at that moment in time I just didn't know it yet, so I snatched his kid out of a tent, pummeled him a few, and left him tied to a flag pole in nothing but his whitie tighties.  I guess my body language was simply projecting my future mental state.  But I digress...

My anger comes on quick and when sports become involved it happens in a much higher frequency.  So, with that being said, I am sure one could imagine my utter disdain with the Falcons recent foray into the drafting world.  It is of my humble opinion that management, particularly GM Comrade and President McGay, are bumbling idiots who wouldn't know talent if it was bouncing up and down in front of them in a G-string.  Is that a grossly over-exaggerated statement?  Yes, but it is one that accurately displays my lack of confidence in their decision making abilities.  Let me to expand on why I think this.

Anyone who has been reading this lovely blog/fansite of Dave's this off-season will have by now read at least one of my posts with my thoughts on the many off-season moves made by the Comrade.  Letting go of the biggest names on team without getting or even attempting to get any value in return was one of the dumbest things he could have done to start his career in the ATL.  You do not release a top five TE unless he goes to federal prison.  The release of Crumpler wasn't the first that stoked the fire within me, but it was definitely the largest of them all.  I will admit that my anger of the Coleman release was slightly premature because they did resign him for less money and to me, that makes perfect business sense and therefore is totally justified.  However, the release of Crumpler was not that smart as they had to have known beforehand that there would be no way to resign him for less.

The Hall trade was the second major showing of a total lack of knowledge in how to put together a competitive and profitable franchise.  All we got was a second rounder for this year and what, a fifth next year.  That's completely undervaluing Hall and his talented skill set.  Was he mouthy? Yes, but there isn't a single one of us who could argue with his sentiments in regards to Coach Flash Gordon, otherwise known as Pet Rhino.  And let's please not talk ourselves into believing that he was a locker room divider.  That mentality is ignorant at best and borderline insane at worst.  We are talking about grown men here; this isn't high school anymore and just because that is the only level of competitive sports you have ever been a part of doesn't mean that it is like that in the pros.  Hall did not rally a group of men and begin a mutiny in the locker room.  All of that aside though, the point of my argument is that the value returned was weak as hell compared to what he brought on the field every Sunday.  Plus I am about to get into the subsequent trade of that second round pick soon, which only adds fuel to my fire.

So, as you might be able to tell by now, I had little faith in our current management going into this year’s draft.  The Falcons definitive needs were on both lines followed shortly by the QB position and then the secondary; or so one would think.  We are of course the Falcons and we will forever be linked to one Mr. Vick and his decision to fund and participate in illegal dog fighting and the subsequent killing of beaten dogs.  Instead of this years draft being about a new beginning and improving the product that is to be put on display every Sunday this fall, our draft became one of constant reminders of the loss of Vick and how we "need a face for the franchise;" whatever the hell that is supposed to mean.  Personally, I think we already have a face for the franchise, the falcon.  A beautiful creature, so elegant in design, yet can be one cruel mother when stalking and attacking her prey from above.  That's my idea of the face of our franchise and I want our team to emulate that every damn game.

Every talking head out there had us absolutely having to take a QB with our number three pick in the first round, regardless of who was available, and the one we should take was always the same, Matt Ryan.  Ryan, who by all means is a good college QB, to me, is a one year wonder.  No one in the college world was talking about him until his senior year and only then because he was the only QB in the ACC worth a damn.  He is slow and he throws picks like Dante Culpepper.  And let's be honest here, did anyone examine the line he played behind?  Every last one of those guys were 6'-4" and 300+lbs, all upper classmen who had played together for at least three years.  A monkey with an acute obsession with humping the football could sit behind that line and make throws all day.  Hell, a freaking dead seal could sit in that pocket for hours before having to make a decision.

All that aside, the biggest reason to not draft Ryan with the third pick overall is not what almost every fan thinks is a complete overrated skill set, but it is more because there was absolutely no need to draft him that high as this years draft was stocked to the teeth with QB's, all capable of handling a pro offense.  We didn't need to take a QB that high and pay more money than if we drafted a lineman, defensive or offensive, depending on who was there.  We could have easily done one of two things, A) traded down and then picked a QB for less money or B) waited until the second round to pick a QB.  Instead, McGay, Blank, and the Comrade went with the bumbling PR move and drafted Ryan even though one Mr. Dorsey was there for the picking, just because they bought into the BS about having to get a face for the franchise.  Now we are going to have to pay Ryan 50+ million and wait three years before he is even any good, and that's assuming that we get some line help and a receiving corps that can actually catch a ball.  Dorsey on the other hand would have been able to start immediately and vastly improve our defensive front and cost less.  Good job us.

This is the point where I turned that damn TV off just to keep from breaking it.  I told my friends that if we drafted Ryan over Dorsey, given that he was still there, that it would completely screw up what I thought was an obvious draft strategy.  To clarify, my thoughts on that were as such; take Dorsey at three, take a QB (Flacco/Brohm) with out first pick in the second round, an o-lineman (Baker would have been there) with the third, and a DT (Red Bryant) with our last in the second, from there on fill our needs in the secondary and grab another o-lineman if a decent one is available.  A very simple plan that would have ensured this years draft to be a success.  Sure, things could obviously change as our picks drew near, but the plan wouldn't change much, they would just have to adapt and possibly draft someone earlier than they originally thought, and that is the same with every team.  My belief was that if Ryan went first, the rest of our picks would be completely off-base and we would lose our focus and direction.  Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened.

We took Matt Ryan with the third overall pick.  You know what, fine, I'll deal with it and let the guy at least have a chance to prove me wrong.  That's all I can hope for anyways.  But what about the rest of our draft?  Well, we then proceeded to trade away both of our early second round picks, one from the Schaub deal and the other from the stupid Hall deal, to move back into the first round to draft a recently injured Sam Baker.  Baker started for three straight years at USC which should speak volumes about his talent as we all know that USC recruits the best of the best every single year and no ones job is ever safe with that kind of competition.  I am also not so worried about his recent injury, but I mention it because everyone else was and he more than likely would have fallen to the early second round where we could have gotten him.  This worst part of this move was what we gave up for the pick to get him in basically what amounts to Schaub/Hall for the rookie Baker.  That is a gross oversight by our current management squad no matter which way you try to spin it.

From this point on, every pick outside of the Lofton pick was a complete waste.  We didn't draft a DT and we ended up with a bunch of hard working individuals who will more than likely never see the field outside of special teams.  They don't call it special for nothing you know.  We seemingly lost all direction and focus and in my opinion it really looked like we were flailing about just grasping at false hopes and wishes.  Even the Lofton pick was questionable because we had no reason to be drafting LB's, although with the recent news of Boley, maybe it wasn't so bad after all.

So, I guess my point is that I'm completely disappointed with the decisions being made by the front office.  It boggles my mind sometimes how stupid people can be when it comes to business.  And as a fan, it makes it even worse because regardless of the mistakes made, I will still be watching come Sunday screaming at the TV for Ryan to get rid of the ball, for Baker to freaking pancake someone, for Turner and Norwood to run faster, for someone to please dear god hold on to the ball when it hits you in your hands, or just use your hands instead of your damned chest your freaking morons!!!!!  Yes, come Sunday I will be spewing forth all kinds of love/hate remarks and regardless of the outcome this year, I will still be that same fiery angry fan because I want to see them succeed.  Come Sunday, I'll still love my Falcons.  Come Sunday, will you?

 

So he may not have been the sexiest pick, but he looks damn scary here. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovNOAtJEeu

Oh, and as an added bonus, here's a clip of our boy Ryan taking a viscous hit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1DzNzE0MFM

 Who cares if our offensive line is craptastic? Matty Ice can take a hit y'all!

One more clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIF5Eqdw3dE

I know that one is old. But, you gots to love it.

 

ENOUGH!

The lamenting about the Falcons taking Ryan at three has got to stop.

Sure, Dorsey is quick and he has a great first step, but there are some serious questions about his long-term durability. Some will balk and point to the fact that he played injured throughout his entire senior campaign. I understand that most of the players in the NFL play through some sort of nagging injury week in and week out. But, what if the leg is an issue? I am just saying, IT COULD BE AN ISSUE. He chose not to go pro after his junior year because he felt that teams were looking at him as a liability, someone they weren't sure could stay healthy. Yeah he played injured all last year, but he was trying to prove something. Similarly, Ryan COULD be the next 1st round QB bust. Or, he COULD be the next Carson Palmer, but better.

Bottom line: We don't know how well these guys are going to do. We can guess that Dorsey will kick some serious butt. But what if he doesn't? What if his hammy and shin injuries are still affecting him? What if he is double teamed all year (something he struggles with) and he works out about as well as J-Mal Anderson. Or, what if he can't vary his repertoire? I mean, the dude is known for having one move. How long is it going to take NFL lineman to figure him out. I see him as a Warren Sapp at best, but I see Ryan as someone who could be very good in this league as well.

Maybe Dorsey will be a hall of famer. But MAYBE, just maybe, he won't. Maybe he'll have a few brilliant moments in between several weeks on IR. Then, MAYBE we'll all be able to get over the Ryan pick.

What a great pick. I see a guy who will be considered one of the best in the league within the next 3 years. He's got the total package...and his arm isn't as weak as some people seem to think! With a better O-line, 2 tight-end set, and GREAT running game...how could he not succeed. We need to start Redman for the first few weeks and let Ryan into the games that Atlanta has a pretty good lead in the 4th quarter (if that happens next season) and let him get his feet wet. He'll be the starter after the bye week. Come on ya'll.....get on the Matty Ice Bandwagon!!!!! I LOVE THE FALCONS!!!!

Has anyone noticed that the Hawks are standing on the verge of pulling off one of the greatest upsets in sports history?

Honestly I hadn't even thought about the Hawks in at least a few years and when I happened to catch game 2 while channel surfing I noticed that they had even changed uni's since I last thought of them (when did that happen?).

I forgot which article it was. but the reporter mentioned that Phillip's Arena the past couple games have been the loudest crowds he had heard while covering the NBA.  Pretty exciting stuff, I think I am actually looking forward to watching game 7.

So I guess my point is that if the #8 seeded Hawks, who went 37-45 can give the number 1 seeded Celtics (66-16) a run for their money, then why can't the Falcons make an improbable run of some sort?  Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but this Hawks run is pretty neat.

A question I keeping asking my water cooler football buds is:

Should Matt Ryan begin the season as the starter?

or

Should the Falcons try to go with Redman and see if he plays the same as he did at the end of last season?

I say why not find out now if he is another Marino or Manning...or worse Carr or Leaf!!  I know, I know.  Everyone says throwing a quarterback into the fire to early is detrimental to their careers, but the good thing about Atlanta is none of us are expecting to be near the playoffs next year.  The fan base already knows that this year is a wash. 

If this is a year of growing and developing, then why not grow and develop your franchise quarterback now?

Your thoughts?

I really like (but don't love) our first 3 picks. I'm content with our next 3 picks. But I'm downright cross-eyed over our final four picks. I understand that beyond the 3rd round teams are generally drafting for either future "projects" or special teams. Apparently in our case Dimitroff & Smith decided we need a lot of special team players. I mean for the love of all things holy we could have taken at least one project. We could have had big-ole Frank Okam(DT), DeMario Pressley(DT), Roy Schuening(OG), Carl Nicks(OT) or Kellen Davis(TE) in the 5th rd!!! I understand some of these players may have had character issues, but so what...they are 5TH ROUNDERS!!!

Hundreds of parking tickets. Hamburger meat. Weight belts. A "Red Dawn" shout out. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you our new left tackle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgefGxYwMSI&feature=related

I may have to go buy his jersey on the basis of this video alone. This is just awe inspiring. Much thanks to EDSBS for linking to this beauty. At the very least, the team seems to have landed a good guy with Baker.

Hey The Falcoholic,

Today is the big day. We've switched your community over to the new SB Nation sports blog platform. My name is Trei, and I'm here to help you get adjusted to the new home we've built for you. If you have questions or trouble with the new system, post a comment in this thread and myself or one of the team (lovitt, sixfoot6 or odacrem) will try to point you in the right direction.

Before we begin, I want to let you know we still consider this a beta platform, so don't be surprised if you find a few bugs or if everything isn't exactly right yet. We hope you'll take the time to report any problems you encounter at bugreport@sbnation.com. We'll be continuing to make changes and improving things.

Please take a few minutes to read about what's new below. But if you just can't wait to jump in, here are some quick things to check out:

1. Sign up for your SB Nation network account and claim your old blog accounts
2. Once you're logged in, press your  Z  key in any thread with new comments
3. Explore your dashboard and setup your profile
4. Read the guide to the new FanPost editor
5. Install the FanShot bookmarklet and post videos to The Falcoholic from YouTube or images from Flickr
6. Click the "Rec" button on posts and comments to help other people find the good stuff.
7. Customize display options on your Edit Settings page

What Has Changed

SB Nation Network Accounts - the Big Change

Readers across all of our blogs told us they wanted one account to use on every SB Nation blog. To make this work, we're requiring that everyone create a new SB Nation network account. In most cases you should be able to keep your old username, but a few of you may have to choose something new, since every other community in SB Nation will be going through this same transition. We tried to be as fair as possible in deciding who gets to keep which name, using a formula that takes into account length of membership and frequency of activity.

We want to make it as easy as possible for you to participate on all of our blogs, but we don't want to encourage everyone to start visiting rival team blogs and initiating flame wars. To maintain friendly communities we ask that you explicitly join each blog in order to participate. It's a two-click process, but it does means accepting each blog's community guidelines. Just as you join each blog individually, you can be banned on each blog individually.

You can claim old accounts from multiple SB Nation blogs, and your new username will be retroactively attached to all your old comments and diaries. So now you'll be able to access all your writings from your single profile page... like magic.

To get started, click here to claim your old blog accounts and create a new SB Nation network account.

FanPosts (the Section Formerly Known as Diaries)

We changed their name. Why? Because we took this major upgrade as an opportunity to leave behind some vocabulary that never made much sense for a sports blog. SB Nation is the network of, by and for fans, and these are the blog posts we make. So we call them FanPosts. When you're at a bar telling someone to check out your online sports opinions, you don't have to suggest they read your diary.

FanPosts are displayed differently on the homepage - we include your avatar to give more credit for the time you spend writing great posts. The new post editor has a WYSIWYG view that provides easy formatting. It also auto-saves drafts so you don't have to worry about losing your work when you compose a post within the web browser. And you can now associate teams, players and games with your posts: these tools promote your FanPosts on our new team, player and game pages - across the entire network.

The new system does not work like the old diary editor. For example, in HTML mode the new editor doesn't auto-create a new paragraph from two line breaks. But it does offer a whole array of new features. Look for the blinking help button on the right side of the FanPost editor for quick tips, and take a look at our full guide to writing FanPosts on the new platform.

IMPORTANT - if you write your posts in Microsoft Word or some other off-line editor, you will get the most reliable behavior if you cut & paste your post into the HTML view of the FanPost editor. And if you do that, remember to wrap <p></p> tags around each paragraph so your text doesn't run together.

Visual Redesign

This one is probably the most obvious change of all. Like other major websites working to improve readability for their audience, we've adopted a fixed-width layout optimized for the 1024 x 768 resolution used by the majority of The Falcoholic and SB Nation network users. Use the switcher below the user menu if you prefer the wider layout designed for 1280 monitors. We've introduced a top navigation bar with quick links into old and new sections of the site. We also polished a few edges, made some things larger, others smaller and moved a few boxes here and there. More changes and adjustments to come.

Search

We've completely replaced the old search engine with a new one. We're excited to make it easier to find old posts and comments, but we've only taken our first pass on the tools we're offering. We're focused on making search even better than what you had before, so please know that we're aware search is missing key features and we're working on it.

What's New

Schedule, Scores, Stats and Roster

The Falcoholic now has all the basic information about the Atlanta Falcons and hundreds of other teams. During games you'll see a regularly updated line score, and as the season progresses we'll track team stat totals and leaders. This is just our first step, so look for us to publish more detailed and archival stats in the future. The best part about all this sports data is that we've integrated it directly into the blog so. We now have special pages that aggregate all blog posts written about games, players and teams.

Recommending FanPosts

Some writing deserves more attention and more conversation. If you want to bump a FanPost up to the top and keep it there for awhile, just click the 'Rec' link under the body of the post. When a FanPost receives enough recommendations it will make the recommended list.

Auto-refreshing Comments

You no longer need to refresh the page to see new comments. If you're logged in, new comments will automatically appear on the page every few seconds. When you post a comment, the page will not refresh either. If you want to quickly cycle through all the new comments, you can press the C key on your keyboard. Unmark a new comment after you've read it with the X key. And use the Z key if you want to umark comments as you're cycling through them.

As you use these shortcuts to cycle through comments, press the R key to reply to the current comment. All these helpful keyboard shortcuts are listed at the top of each comments section for reference.

Recommending Comments

Now you can reward those folks who take the time to look up stats and make smart arguments in the comments. Next to each comment there is an 'actions' link that you can click to find the recommend and flag options.

Flagging Comments

To help the moderators on a site, we've built-in tools that let you flag comments that are spam, trolling or just plain inappropriate. Only moderators can see those flags.

FanShots

Many members of the community just want to post that one link, video, photo or quote, but don't need a full FanPost. We've got you covered: FanShots let you share YouTube videos, Flickr or PhotoBucket photos, quotes from articles, portions of chat transcripts, top 5 lists and simple links. If it's a video or image we'll put a thumbnail on the homepage when you post it.

For those of you who are experienced internet hunter-gatherers of Atlanta Falcons material, install the bookmarklet onto the links bar of your browser and share FanShots with the community from wherever on the web you find that killer quote or photo.

Archives

It's much easier to find that post about a certain deadline trade or prospect retro feature. You can browse by year and month.

Avatars

Upload an image so folks can see your custom avatar on your profile, your FanPosts, and all your comments.

Network Profiles

Now that we have unified SB Nation network accounts, your profile will be your central hub for all of your activity on any blogs where you are a member.

Network bar

The top bar stays with you on all SB Nation blogs. It's a quick way to login and logout. When you're logged in, you'll see your avatar and screen name which links to your profile. The icon to the right leads to your Dashboard area where you can edit your settings, profile, account details and any FanPosts or FanShots you've published. As we add more blogs to the new SB Nation network, the My Blogs menu will be a handy way to navigate between the blogs you've joined.

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There are plenty more small changes and additions we've made, so please take a careful look around and explore this new system. We appreciate your patience and hope you'll help us improve the new platform for this and all the other SB Nation blogs.

And in case you missed it, you'll want to start by claiming your old blog accounts and creating a new SB Nation network account.