Falcoholinks: All the Falcons news you need for Friday, Jan. 29

We’ve got some more new hires and updates from the Senior Bowl in Friday’s edition of Falcoholinks.

New hires

The new members of the Falcons family continue to arrive, as a flurry of hires were made this week to fill out Atlanta’s coaching staff. The Falcons are reportedly bringing South Carolina running backs coach Des Kitchings aboard in the same role for the Falcons, and earlier in the week they hired Maryland DC Jon Hoke and Bears linebackers coach Ted Monachino to defensive roles.

The new regime has taken shape, but it’s worth reminding that with new staff often comes with expected growing pains. But along with the expectation that there will be some fits and starts with the new staff, they all bring three commonalities: familiarity, experience, and promise.

Notes from the Senior Bowl

Intrepid Falcoholic reporter Eric Robinson was in attendance for the first two days of practice at the 2021 Senior Bowl, and he made some intriguing observations on some NFL prospects.

You can catch his Day 1 notes here, and read on his observations from Day 2 right here.

An extension for Ridley?

In his third year in the NFL, Calvin Ridley established himself as one of the best young wide receivers in the game. Ridley’s rookie contract expires after the 2021 season, but the Falcons have the ability to exercise his fifth-year option, of course.

With Calvin Ridley’s established productivity at the NFL level, would the Falcons elect to eschew the option and instead lock him in to a long-term deal?

Podcasts

Get caught up on all the content we rolled out this week and tune in to a couple of the latest podcast episodes!

On The Falcoholic Podcast, David Walker discussed Julio Jones’ future in Atlanta, and in our Dimitroff Years series, the crew took a look at 2017 — the year the Falcons drafted Takkarist McKinley.

Roster reviews

Our roster review rolls along, and this week we took a close look at the defensive tackles on the team, as well as the linebackers group.