Falcons have free agency decisions to make on Poe, Clayborn, Bryant D. Orlando Ledbetter The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 12:37 p.m Sunday, Jan. 14, 2018 Atlanta Falcons Atlanta Falcons head coach Dan Quinn speaks with Atlanta Falcons defensive end Adrian Clayborn The Falcons, after being eliminated from the playoffs, have some important personnel decisions to make before free agency begins in March. The NFL salary cap has been projected to be between $174 million and $178 million, according to NFL Media. The official number will not be known until the start of the new business year in March. Last season’s salary cap was $167 million. The Falcons are in the bottom third of the league and are projected to have $18 million in available salary cap space. The 49ers, Browns, Jets and Colts are projected to have more than $80 million in salary cap space can could drive up the market for players that the Falcons want to retain. The Falcons must decide if they want to re-sign defensive tackle Dontari Poe, defensive end Adrian Clayborn and kicker Matt Bryant. Poe played last season on a incentive-laden contract, which had a base salary of $8 million dollars. He bet on himself and had a solid season. He played 868 defensive snaps, the second highest on the team behind Grady Jarrett’s 870. He also played eight snaps on offense. Poe was the seventh-highest paid defensive tackle in the league. The Dolphins’ Ndamukong Suh is slated to be the highest paid defensive tackle in the league at $16.9 million next season. Clayborn led the team in sacks with 10.5. He played 576 snaps, the third-highest total along the defensive line. He had the 21st highest base salary of defensive ends in the league. Brooks Reed was 17th with a base salary of $4.1 million. Bryant will turn 43 on May 29, but showed no signs of slowing down. He was the Falcons key offensive weapon last season and the reason they reached the playoffs and won a game on the road. He made nine field goals in the two playoff games. Bryant was the 11th-highest paid kicker in the league last season at $1.45 million. The Panthers’ Graham Gano and the Cowboys’ Dan Bailey were the top-paid kickers at $3.2 million last season. In addition to the big three, fullback Derrick Coleman and Ben Garland, who finished the season at the starting left guard, are set to become free agents. Garland’s situation will be tied to the decision on whether to bring back starting left guard Andy Levitre, who’s set to make $7 million in 2018. He suffered a torn tricep and missed three full games and played just five snaps in one game. Other projected unrestricted free agents, include wide receiver Taylor Gabriel, linebacker Kemal Ishmael, returner Andre Roberts, defensive tackle Courtney Upshaw, defensive tackle Ahtyba Rubin, offensive tackle Austin Pasztor, cornerback Blidi Wreh-Wilson, linebacker Sean Weatherspoon, cornerback Leon McFadden, linebacker Jordan Tripp, and wide receiver Nick Williams.
Bow tie Chronicles bitch My opinion: Offense was a dumpster fire under Sarkisian D. Orlando Ledbetter The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 7:39 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 14, 2018 Atlanta Falcons [email protected]/Curtis Compton October 1, 2017 Atlanta: Falcons offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian confers with quarterback Matt Ryan during a time out in the second half against the Bills in a NFL football game on Sunday, October 1, 2017, in Atlanta. Curtis Compton/[email protected] The hiring of Steve Sarkisian had disaster written all over it from the beginning. To replace offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, the Falcons needed someone who could at least keep the attack on the same level. Maybe add some power to the short-yardage package and keep it moving. Sarkisian had not been in the NFL since the 2005 season. He was essentially a college coach given the keys to the kingdom. The Falcons were far from the team offensively that led the NFL last season in several categories. The Falcons’ 15-10 loss to the Eagles in the NFC Divisional playoff game Saturday left more questions on whether the team made the right hire in the key coordinator position. Even players, while being kind to Sarkisian, know the offense under performed this season. “We are way better than we played this year,” Falcons All-Pro wide receiver Julio Jones said. “But that’s just on us. We were just (not) executing, taking advantage of opportunities.” You can’t place the NFL-leading 29 dropped passes on Sarkisian. However, how Sarkisian held Jones to four touchdowns in 18 games is one of the remarkable feats in modern leaguge history. The fourth-and-2 play on the Falcons’ final possession, an incomplete pass to Jones on a roll out, was unimaginative. Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins said they knew the call and jumped routes accordingly. Perhaps the Rooney Rule should be extended to coordinator positions. Sarkisian couldn’t have been the best possible candidate to replace Shanahan. If the Falcons would have done a thorough national search of all viable candidates, it’s unlikely they’d hired Sarkisian, who, like Dan Quinn, comes from the Pete Carroll coaching tree. There had to be a better experienced-scheme fit coordinator available. Now, the Falcons are likely married to Sarkisian. “Like all things, we assess it all the way through,” Quinn said after the loss. “How can we do things better? There are a lot of things that Sark has brought to our team that we really like. In terms of, I can take a long time to go through different spots, so it’s easy to place blame all onto one person.” The only offseason changes in offensive personnel were at right guard and fullback. The Falcons did have more injuries this season as right tackle Ryan Schraeder (concussion), left guard Andy Levitre (torn triceps), running backs Devonta Freeman (concussion; who blew another blitz pickup, too) and Tevin Coleman (concussion) all missed games. Also, it didn’t help that Jones and speed receiver Taylor Gabriel didn’t practice for much of the offseason. Jones missed a lot of days during the season and the timing of the passing game was never sharp. Tight end Austin Hooper was a disappointment after opening with a big game against Chicago. Quinn is standing by Sarkisian. “That’s a shared responsibility when we don’t achieve at the level that we would like to,” Quinn said. “There are a lot of really good things that we’ve done and it was highlighted certainly (against the Eagles) where we didn’t get the job done at the end of the game.” No, you didn’t get it done all game. “Like all parts of the organization, we assess and see how we can do things better, and there’s certain parts offensively that we’ll want to do better,” Quinn said. Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan isn’t getting any younger and the franchise wasted a year of his prime breaking in an offensive coordinator. Ryan turns 33 in May. “The reason I play this game is to win a championship,” Ryan said. “That’s why we put all of the hard work we put in all of the time. When you don’t get that result, it’s difficult.” Ryan plans to use this latest failure to help motivate him over the offseason. Perhaps, he will demand, more play-calling responsibility, but that just isn’t in his nature. “Falling short is sometimes the best motivation to keep pushing forward and trying to really yearn to become a better player, to become a better team,” Ryan said. “I’ve never shied away from that. I always feel like it provides great motivation and there’s a fire inside of me that continues to burn. I’m not going to stop working until we get that done.” Perhaps Sarkisian will make a big leap from year one to year two in running the offense. The Falcons’ offense didn’t immediately flourish under Shanahan before taking off in his second season en route to the Super Bowl. But there is no other conclusion, the Sarkisian hiring was suspect from the beginning. Now, the Falcons are in a position of trying to make it work.
Yeah Shanahan could've stayed one more year and had a way better choice of HC positions after the season.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...ks-entering-afc-nfc-title-games?share=twitter 1. DL MAURICE HURST MICHIGAN 2. TE MIKE GISECKI PENN STATE I
Multiples eagles have said they knew the 4th down play before it was even run. One can assume multiple other teams also knew plays at key points. Forget not getting playmakers the ball, if you’re so predictable that opposing Ds frequently know plays, you suck.
Rolling out a MVP, pocket passing QB, is the dumbest shit I've ever seen. I really cant get over that. You roll out your DT QB that is raw and doesnt go through his progressions to give him the option to run, not Matt Ryan. I mean, I thought the shovel pass to the 3rd string RB was bad enough and then he had to go and top it with the 4th down roll out
To makes things worse they had Derrick Coleman, the fucking fullback, out to the left on that 4th down
Why didn't we run the ball one fucking time with over a minute left and a timeout? Inquiring minds want to know. I'm assuming Quinn is keeping Sark at this point if we haven't heard anything.
Also limits his options where to throw the ball. Instead of having 4 or 5 targets, he realistically had 2. I hate Sark and hope he falls off the wagon this offseason
This team was so miserable to watch this year, if it doesn’t improve quickly, I might not be able to keep watching. It’s way to disappointing to watch the team flounder when 2 years ago with the same personal we were unstoppable on offense
For most teams, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing (if you’re lucky) to have an MVP QB, an all world HOF WR, an All-Pro RB and a second RB that is nearly as good but at different stuff, and an All-Pro center all in their relative prime at the same time. I know that last year isn’t the norm, but to finish 8th in total offense and 15th in scoring with this talent is a damn tragedy.
All of those players are still on the team. Matt had a down year for sure, but we still didn’t utilize our play makers enough, or in the right way. Why was nick Williams even on the field for that ball he dropped against the eagles. It’s sickening to watch. After the patriots game, I said I wasn’t going to watch again until Sark was fired, but I didn’t have the will power. I really don’t know if I can go another full season of that shit
You roll Ryan out to give guys time to get open in the end zone. Even with the NFL having standard route combinations in the red zone/goal line, they shouldn't have been able to see the corrosion and know exactly which ones and what the play was. That was terrible and gave away that teams knew what we would run based off of personnel packages and formations.
All season long we have had personnel/package issues. We have a serious drop in talent on the offensive side of the ball after JJ,Freeman,Coleman, Sanu. Most of the season at least one of these players was hurt thus we really only had 3 people that can do anything on offense in any given game. Sark refuses to play Free/Coleman at the same time so you are left with only two players on offense who can make a play. It sounds crazy to say but we need more on offense. Just looking at the teams left and while player for player I think our top end is better, they each have 1-2 more players that can make plays than we do. MINN for example has diggs,thielen,rudolph,mckinnon,murray. That is better than what we have. We need to add a TE or slot WR that can make tough catches on 3rd down. Shanahan was able to make up for this by utilizing Gabriel's speed and he constantly put everyone in position to make big plays. We had very little big plays this year and thus had a lot of drives stall out bc our lack of talent eventually made a mistake.
We did have a problem with drops, but the only skill player we lost was Aldrick Robinson. I’m not buying this “we need more talent” thing. Julio, sanu, Gabriel, freeman, Coleman is as good as what Minnesota has. Sark just doesn’t know how to use them
Does DQ need a guy like Ernie Adams whose only job is game management, when to go for 2, etc ? Adams does all that for Belichick and they rep all the situations that he comes up woth
Where did I write anything that remotely indicated I am a fan of Sark? We need a TE and a WR are you saying otherwise?
No you are right. I don’t actually know where this conversation is going or how we got here. I feel like we agree with each other but are discussing it like we don’t. I’m going to stop talking now, I think.
I mean don't get me wrong I don't want us drafting WR/TE in the first round but we are going to be in trouble next season if Hooper/Hardy are TE1 and WR3. Also without looking up advanced punting stats I feel like Bosher needs to go but maybe I am wrong in just how bad he was this year.
Who would y'all like in the first round? I've seen the OL from ND, The OT from Oklahoma , Christian Kirk (no thanks)
If we draft Kirk I’ll kill myself. Needs to be best OL or pass rusher available. Idk enough about the safeties in this draft but if one blows up and is there I’d add that in as an option. BudKilmer you talking about Nelson from Notre Dame? Don’t think he’ll be there at 26.
Not in the first. Take an OL or a DB Take Hurst in the second. Go BPA the rest of the way. I cant wait to see the honkey OL we draft from the mountain west in the 5th
Correct. I’m OL, pass rusher, S in the first. TE in 2nd. Draft San Diego St OG taken 3 rounds too high when he would’ve been an undrafted free agent