Kroy Biermann, longtime Falcon, signs with Buffalo Bills

It’s the end of an era for the Atlanta Falcons, and I don’t mean the impending closure of the Georgia Dome after the 2016 season. I mean the end of Kroy Biermann’s time with the team.

Biermann was one of the most polarizing Falcons in recent memory, which is an odd thing to write about a fifth round pick who was with the team from 2008-2015, put up 23.5 sacks, had a handful of truly memorable plays (including kicking off, weirdly), and drew quite a few starts. Many fans saw Biermann as emblematic of everything that has been wrong with the Falcons over the last decade, in that they started players who were stretched as starters and weren’t elite options. Others saw him as a fifth rounder who far outplayed and outlasted the average fifth rounder. There was probably an element of truth in both.

Now that his career in Atlanta is over (at least for now), I’ve got nothing but good wishes for Biermann as he moves on to Buffalo. He was one of the team’s best sack artists over the last decade, as dispiriting as that statement is, and despite his reality show chops was never anything but a maximum effort player who gave the Falcons the best years of his career. With time, I think we’ll all appreciate him more, even if we’re all very glad to see an era of Vic Beasley, Derrick Shelby, and others at defensive end.

Good luck in Buffalo, Kroy Biermann, and may your red contacts light your way through dark places.