Falcons Move Joe Hawley to Center, Peter Konz to Right Guard

The Falcons rolled into Sunday's game with one of the worst lines in football. They took a hard look at it, saw that Lamar Holmes, Justin Blalock and Jeremy Trueblood were okay and decided to make a change where it counted: At center and right guard.

The early results have been mixed. Inserting Joe Hawley at center led to a couple of nice runs early, but Peter Konz was beaten twice in a row by Gerald McCoy for a pair of sacks that killed the Falcons' opening drive. Hopefully Konz improves rapidly, or he's not going to be starting anywhere on this line soon.

For Hawley, this is a real shot at redemption. He's been riding the pine all year despite plenty of fans calling for him to start--if you're on Twitter, you've probably seen this--and while it's just one drive he's off to a fast start.

The Falcons need to evaluate this line and figure out which pieces are worth keeping. I'm glad they're shuffling things at last, and hopefully it leads to improved play over the long haul. For Konz, though, this is shaping up to be a last shot.