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We made it. My goodness, we made it.
Training camp isn’t regular season football, and we still have to endure a slate of increasingly tedious preseason games before things really get going, but it’s football approximate and carries a long list of intriguing subplots and story lines. It’s so good to think that we’ll soon be getting updates on our favorite players again.
Ahead of the official start of festivities a little later today, I figured I’d share all the key information you need to properly enjoy training camp. Give it a read and wait for the good stuff to come rolling in.
Schedule
If you’re thinking of heading over to camp at any point, it will have to be one of the days training camp is actually open to the public. The link above will give you more context, but here are the dates:
Falcons Public Training Camp Dates
| Date | Start Time | Open to Public? |
|---|---|---|
| Date | Start Time | Open to Public? |
| Monday, 7/22 | 9:35 a.m. | Yes, 8:30 a.m. |
| Tuesday, 7/23 | 9:35 a.m. | Yes, 8:30 a.m. |
| Wednesday, 7/24 | 9:35 a.m. | Yes, 8:30 a.m. |
| Thursday, 7/25 | 9:35 a.m. | Yes, 8:30 a.m. |
| Friday, 7/26 | No Practice | Closed |
| Saturday, 7/27 | 9:35 a.m. | Yes, 8:30 a.m. |
| Sunday, 7/28 | 9:35 a.m. | Yes, 8:30 a.m. |
| Monday, 7/29 | 9:35 a.m. | Yes, 8:30 a.m. |
| Sunday, 8/4 | 12:30 p.m. | Yes, 10 a.m. |
Key story lines
- Is everyone healthy? We’ve gotten early rave reviews for Devonta Freeman, but now we’ll be seeing how Keanu Neal and Ricardo Allen look nearly a year removed from their major injuries. If that duo is ready to go, this defense will be a lot more dangerous than it looks on paper.
- How will the offensive line shake out? The Falcons added four starting-caliber players to their offensive line and several reserves besides, making it easily the area of greatest investment this offseason. Will rookie first rounders Chris Lindstrom and Kaleb McGary win out, or will Jamon Brown, Ty Sambrailo and/or James Carpenter prove too be savvy veterans who can’t be unseated? I’d be strongly on the rookies, which would leave one job open for either Brown or Carpenter.
- What will this offense look like under Dirk Koetter? We saw Koetter run the Falcons offense from 2012-2014 and the Bucs offense from 2015-2017, so it’s not like he’s an unknown quantity. But we’ve never seen him with this much talent in the same place at the same time before, and how he manages that will go a long way toward determining just how elite the Falcons offense is in 2019.
- As we mentioned yesterday in our training camp battle rundowns and roundup, there are a ton of good ones to monitor this July and August, even if few of them are for starting jobs. Be sure to brush up!