One Falcon makes the Pro Football Focus first quarter All-Pro Team

We’re four games through the season, which means it’s time for the quarter season awards to start rolling in. Yes, this is a thing NFL media does. Yes, we participate.

The good news is that Pro Football Focus has correctly identified at least one Falcon who belongs on their list of All-Pro players through the first four weeks, which is always nice. In addition to putting Julio Jones and Devonta Freeman as honorable mentions on the team, they chose Alex Mack as their selection at center.

These are all logical enough choices, but Mack deserves special attention. It’s hard to remember this now, but his signing was a little controversial when it happened because of the expense and Mack’s age, with many of us figuring the Falcons would probably only get three or so good-to-great years out of him before the wheels started coming off. We’re only partway through his second season in Atlanta, but Mack has looked like the NFL’s best center more or less that entire time, and he has been a tremendous boon for this offense. He was a no-brainer choice for this list, but it’s still nice to see him get the recognition.

Julio’s only played 3.5 quarters and has yet to truly dominate a game in terrifying Julio fashion, so an honorable mention makes sense. Devonta Freeman has been truly stellar once again and would deserve this award outright if Kareem Hunt didn’t exist, and with the way Steve Sarkisian has been leaning on him, you can expect him to enjoy one of his best seasons ever.

So no quibbles here. Let’s hope by the half season, we see more Falcons on the list.