Peter Konz "Living In The Weight Room," Per Vaughn McClure

If I never hear the name Joe Flacco again, I'll live happily.

Now that we've gotten that excitement out of the way, it's time to return to real Falcons news, and we've got an update on everyone's favorite well-known center, Peter Konz. Earlier this offseason, it was reported that Konz was basically planning to camp out in the weight room in hopes of increasing his functional strength and coming into 2014 ready to win the center job. Now we're starting to see the fruits of that labor, per Vaughn McClure.

Apparently, Konz has put on about five pounds of muscle and it looking like he's in better shape, something that comes from four days a week in the weight room. Konz credited Tony Gonzalez's farewell for the extra motivation he needed:

"Hearing his speech at the end of the season, it really impacted me,'' Konz said. "He said, `Being a professional doesn't just mean doing the things you've always done. It means going the extra mile.' And I owe the team that. And that's what I'm doing.''

The obvious, snarky thing to say is "why wasn't he motivated before?" I don't really believe it was a matter of lacking motivation before, but clearly Konz was not good enough in 2013, and realizing there was an avenue forward that might fix that is powerful motivation in and of itself. I truly hope that Konz can become the quality starting center we all hoped he was when he was drafted in the second round.

The open question is whether Konz's effort will be enough to get him the starting job. Joe Hawley likely enters camp as the favorite, so Konz will need to be more than just bigger and stronger than he was a year ago. He'll also need to be better, and that's something we have a right to be skeptical of until we see it.

Your thoughts?