Is Takk McKinley primed for a breakout year? Yes, says one NFL writer

Takkarist McKinley showed Falcons fans that he had special talent in his rookie season, as he managed some great games and dominant stretches despite some pretty limited playing time. Those flashes of potential have a lot of us dreaming big for 2018, and Pete Prisco at CBS Sports is apparently no exception.

In a recent article, Prisco named Takk as one of his 10 choices for breakout players. That would have been sufficient for us to write about, frankly—it’s deep in the offseason, and we’re eagerly looking for signs that this defense is going to be even better than we anticipate—but he did not go light on the praise for McKinley.

I mean, look at this:

Vic Beasley led the NFL in sacks in 2016, but McKinley will be the Falcons’ best pass rusher in 2018 – and one of the best in the league.

That is a legitimately bold prediction, given that there are a lot of great pass rushers working in the NFL today, and given that Takk only had six sacks in his rookie season. But the blend of speed and power is there, and Takk’s going to be playing on a defense that features plenty of players offenses have to account for, including Beasley, Grady Jarrett, and Deion Jones. He really doesn’t need to do much more than refine his moves and build on his first season to become a dangerous threat, as our own Allen Strk wrote earlier in the week.

In summary, Pete Prisco thinks Takk’s primed to break out and become one of the league’s better defensive ends. Honestly, so do we.