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We’ve now seen several days of training camp practices, and while you don’t want to get overly excited about a handful of scrimmages and workouts, the Falcons look really good. Especially on defense.
In a scrimmage that didn’t tell us much about the state of the depth chart, but did tell us that the Falcons have assembled some Grade A, genuine talent on the defensive side of the ball. There were three interceptions—one was Ricardo Allen picking off Justin Hardy (?), one was Blidi Wreh-Wilson picking Matt Ryan, and the other was Damontae Kazee housing a duck from Garrett Grayson—and only 14 total points scored on the day.
Our man Adnan Ikic, who was there, snapped a couple of photos of a beautiful day at Flowery Branch and said the following, in addition to singling out Julio Jones for praise:
“I can’t overemphasize how good the defense looked in today’s scrimmage.”
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Best of all, the squad facing Matt Ryan actually was the one that managed to allow zero points on the day, which means it wasn’t just a fluke against Kurt Benkert (sorry, Kurt, we love you). Atlanta’s so loaded with talent, especially in the secondary, that they’re probably going to cut some capable players who will be able to latch on elsewhere. It’s a good problem to have, and it’s rare to have that side of the ball looking so sharp this early in the year, especially with expected breakout star Takkarist McKinley sidelined for a few days.
Today’s a break in the action, which means we can pause, take a breath, and get ready for more Falcons excellence in practice. We’re about a week and a half away from the first preseason game, when we get to see that excellence (hopefully) carry over against