Falcoholic mailbag: Answering your Falcons offseason questions

It’s been a weird week in sports to say the least. As the dust settles, we’re here to answer your Falcons questions in this week’s mailbag.

There weren’t a ton of questions this week, likely due to the never-ending onslaught of news this week. The United States is in the middle of battling COVID-19, a global pandemic. The NBA and NHL have suspended their seasons. The NCAA canceled the men’s and women’s tournaments. Other major sporting events, Broadway shows, and concerts have been canceled in an effort to slow down the rate at which the disease is spreading and prevent overloading our nation’s healthcare system.

Meanwhile, in the NFL, teams have pulled scouts and coaches off the road. The NFL banned all visits with draft prospects, either traveling to visit players or hosting players at team facilities, for the time being out of an abundance of caution. Many teams have closed their facilities for deep cleaning and are having staff work from home.

Unsurprisingly, our first question today is about this crisis and how teams are handling it.

I honestly don’t know. An essential employee, in this case, should be one whose physical presence is necessary to protect the health and well being of others, but with team facilities closed entirely, I don’t think anyone but cleaning crews are essential. All of the team press releases I saw regarding facility closures specifically mentioned that as a priority to ensure the safety of employees when they return.

Unfortunately, it does not seem that we can.

The Falcons don’t have a ton of money to work with, unfortunately. Replacing Austin Hooper is going to be a priority, and the Titans did waive Delanie Walker on Friday. He certainly hasn’t been as productive as Hooper recently, but he can catch and his price point shouldn’t be terribly high after just 215 yards and two touchdowns over seven games for Tennessee last year.

There have been very strong mixed feelings from players about the new CBA. The proposed agreement is one that will benefit players at the lower end of the contract scale significantly, but it’s not so friendly for top tier players and it does gut disability benefits for former players in addition to adding an extra game to the regular season schedule and changing the playoff format. I’m leaning toward it not passing, but it really could go either way.

Arthur Blank’s net worth is currently $5.3 billion. His pockets aren’t keeping the team from winning a Super Bowl.

Well, friend, that’s what we’re here for.