Vic Beasley, Takkarist McKinley will indeed start at defensive end

Sometimes it’s nice just to have the team confirm something you’ve discussed and even assumed all along, and the Falcons were kind enough to do just that yesterday with their defensive end rotation.

Dan Quinn made it clear that the Falcons anticipate using Vic Beasley as their starting left defensive end and Takkarist McKinley as their starting right defensive end, with Brooks Reed and Derrick Shelby backing them up. The team will almost certainly add one more defensive end to the rotation, but chances are that player will be picking up scrap snaps from those four, regardless of whether it’s a veteran or a rookie.

This is good news in many ways. Takk was too good to receive limited snaps in 2017, but there were a lot of mouths to feed, and as a result Beasley spent a little time away from the ball at linebacker, as well. Now the Falcons appear committed to having their two most talented defensive ends drawing the lion’s share of snaps, which should only mean good things for this defense in 2018. So long as these guys stay healthy, they have a very strong rotation on paper.

Anyways, that’s our good news for early this morning. You may get your coffee now.