Nick Hartman's Atlanta Falcons fan blog

     I'm making a list.  The list contains the name of all the sixth round rookie quarterbacks who could have played at Colt Brennan's level from the Sunday night Hall of Fame game in their NFL debut.  It's not long.  Tom Brady comes to mind....after that, I don't know.  It's not just that Brennan threw two touchdowns and completed all of his passes.  It's that he did it in style.

     Nearly every one of Brennan's completions relied, first, on an adept read of the defense, and second, on his incredible touch.  I don't know how many times I saw one of Brennan's throws sail perfectly just over the linebacker to drop over the shoulder of the receiver.  Or hit the receiver in a tiny available space in traffic that he could have thrown a completion.  Or--god help me--even creating on a broken play by scrambling out of the pocket to find a passing lane to throw his second touchdown.  All of these moves required deep understanding of the placing of the defense, receivers, and even blocking lanes.  He made plays that I think other rookies in the NFL will struggle to live up to throughout preseason--even if they

Continue reading "Colt Brennan: Possibly not just a product of the spread offense?"

     Friday Night Lights has come and gone, but the picture at quarterback has only gotten murkier.  Every quarterback made his mark--be it positively or negatively.  In his two series with the first team, Chris Redman, who is commonly projected to start the season at the top of the depth chart threw exactly one completion--to linebacker Michael Boley.  Matt Ryan's first series went three-and-out and included an unspectacular intentional grounding penalty when Boley (again) came through the line and applied pressure.  Ryan rebounded in the first series of the second half, finding Roddy White for a 60-yard TD pass.

     While this last play gave fans some hope for the future, Ryan did not demonstrate clearly the kind of consistency in decision-making that one looks for in a franchise-caliber, or even a starting-caliber quarterback.  The best thing one can say about him is that he's learning.  meanwhile, Joey Harrington had the strongest game of them all, going 5 of 8.  But while Harrington showed consistency at the scrimmage, we've all seen what happens when he gets on the field on Sunday.  In other words, the Falcons quarterback situation--even with quarterback of the future, Matt Ryan--is sketchy at best going into the regular season.  I'm not saying that no one will distinguish himself during preseason, but having a bona fide team leader in training camp is important in developing a quarterback.  Whoever takes the field against Detroit in week one will not have had a full camp to work with his receivers.  While there is hope for the future, this season has a lot of questions on offense.

Continue reading "Training Camp Checkup: A team with two starting quarterbacks is a team with no starting quarterbacks"

     At the beginning of the free agency period, the Falcons signed DTs Tim Anderson and Kindral Moorehead.  I have to admit, I thought Moorehead would make the bigger impact in the rotation, but if the first couple of days of camp are any indication, that is far from the case.  In interviews after each of the first two days of training camp, head Coach Mike Smith forgot about Kindral Moorehead.  In the first interview, Moorehead's name was omitted entirely from the list of interior defensive line personnel, and after day two, the list went on "Justin Babineaux, Montavius Stanley, Tim Anderson and...(long pause for thought) Moorehead."  It's true that there is a lot of training camp left for things to shake out, but if the coach isn't even noticing the guy enough to remember his name, that's not a good sign for Moorehead's playing time in 2008.

Continue reading "Training camp Checkup: Kindral who?"

The signing of Robert James does a lot to help the linebacking corps.  Yes, everybody wants James to produce this year.  I do, too.  But James's contributions to the LBs this year will be as a situational player.  However, there his college career provides encouraging insight.  James didn't crack the starting lineup at Arizona State until his senior year.  However, in that year, he was all-PAC10 and he was named the Sun Devil's most valuable player.  This gives me hope for the guy moving into the future.  Clearly, he may (probably will) take some time to develop, but his history indicates that his potential for development is there, and further, that when he hits the field, he makes the most of any tutelage he's received.  I think he also plays

Continue reading "Signing James Just Makes the Strong Stronger"

     According to Kevin Burnett's blog, a lot of the Cowboys blitz packages are easy to read because they disguise what's going on in coverage.  If that's true (which would explain a lot), then cornerback is an important position for the Cowboys in a way that it is not for teams like the Giants and Eagles, who rely on diverse and disguised pressure packages to create problems for an offense.  Lucky for Jerry Jones and Wade Phillips, the Cowboys are stacked at the position.  Not only do the 'Boys have Terrence Newman, Anthony Henry and Adam "the-artist-formerly-known-as-Pacman" Jones, they also have a slew of young talent, both from draft picks and practice squad players.

Assuming Jones is reinstated, most people expect him to start, but I see him as the number three cornerback, at least until the midway point.  But the fact remains that a loaded roster of cornerbacks will be competing for what amounts to two spots on the roster (unless the cowboys do something crazy like carrying six CBs).  The talent level at the competition for those spots is high.

Continue reading "Cowboys' Cornerback Depth Makes for Interesting Camp Battles"

     John Clayton's July 9th blog ( http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?name=clayton_john) about the state of pre-camp signings portends more possible trouble for the Falcons organization leading into training camp on July 25.  Clayton explains that agents trying to get pre-camp signings for first and second round draft picks have encountered what the military calls a snafu.  Without getting too down and dirty, the sticking point in contract talks regards a rule that regulates increases in rookie salaries to 25 per cent, annually.  Agents have made a practice exploiting a loophole in this rule that allows bonus money to be guaranteed for the final year of a contract in a lump sum.  This protects players who bust out of the NFL before their contract expires and helps players who outperform the built-in strictures of their contracts.  However, with the CBA ending in 2011, first and second round picks--who typically sign contracts of four, five, or six years--can't be guaranteed any money because there is no framework in place to do so.  The bottom line: we're at an impasse.    

Continue reading "Unsigned Picks in Unsettling Circumstances"

Going into training camp, there are always a lot of question marks for a team in a rebuilding phase.  The 2008 Atlanta Falcons are no exception.  Will Matt Ryan start week 1?  Is Sam Baker an elite (or even starting) left tackle at the NFL level?  Looking beyond these common questions, however, lies another set of questions, the resolution to which will go as far as any other in determining the Falcons success in 2008 and beyond.  These questions revolve around the guys you haven’t heard much about.  That you haven’t heard about them is the scary part.

The June 11th cut of Jimmy Williams should have been alarming news to Falcons fans.  While Williams was not a playmaker—or even a starter—his removal from the roster highlights an increasing trend toward the marginalization of what has turned out to be a disastrous 2006 draft class.  The Falcons had five picks in 2006, who should be coming into their own over the next two years, entering their third and fourth years in the league.  Instead, a team that is already in heavy-duty rebuilding mode owing to the loss of key high-profile veterans in the offseason finds itself lacking in a young core, as well.  Absent prominent contribution from the class of 2006, the Falcons rebuilding efforts look more insurmountable than ever.

Continue reading "Paying the Piper: Ghosts of the 2006 Draft Hurt the Falcons Rebuilding Efforts"