JD dirtybird21

The nice thing is, the Falcons don't NEED him that badly. He's more of a bonus right now

Had no idea the odds were different at various casinos. Not a clue. I'm for sure a rookie. And I'm ok with that. Don't have any interest in being a "professional" gambler

No, you've gotta be in Vegas. If you have friend out here before the season, have them place a bet for you

Any casino in Las Vegas has a sports betting area. You can place your bet and hold onto to your ticket. If you win, send your ticket in the mail, and they mail you back a check

You definitely fit the criteria of the 2nd definition more than 1st. Easily

Panthers have the most proven defense with the smartest players. I think the division will come down to quarterback play. If Cam is fully healthy, gets his confidence back, and develops further, the Panthers are very scary. If Ryan continues his dominance of last year, the Falcons are even better than last year due the their defense very likely being better. The Bucs have a talented roster. Winston needs to play like a top 10 QB. If he does, that's a 12 win team.

I agree. I think the Falcons are going to blow this league up. So excited

Yea 3.5 on the Cowboys is SO low but Cowboys fans are probably so pumped about them that they'll place bets like crazy. They are not the 2nd best team in the NFL

I'm in Las Vegas right now staying at Treasure Island. I hit up the sports bookies and they gave me a list of the current Super Bowl odds. The Falcons are currently 7.5-1 which doesn't seem like a bad number. However, I was shocked to see that Vegas thinks there are 4 other NFC teams with better odds. Those are: New York Giants: 6.5-1 Seattle: 6.5-1 Green Bay: 4.5-1 and the one that shocks me the most, Dallas: 3.5-1 I'm going to place a 50 dollar bet on the Falcons to win the Super Bowl. I was in Vegas 2 years ago around this same time, and I placed a bet on none other than, the Denver Broncos....I choose who I feel good about. And this year, I feel GREAT about our team. Rise up!

@SkerFalcon8710 Spreads or confidence points?

Ok, the Baker trade wasn't THAT bad. Baker was a good 1st round rookie and he showed signs of being a good player in 2010 and 2012. Injuries ruined his career. I'll give you the contract extension was dumb. But the trade made sense the potential was there

I mean...he's a good fit for either of those shlt franchises

I think there's more to it though. Scheme is pretty key. Shanahan (both Mike and Kyle) are notorious for creating successful running games. Several running backs have had success in their schemes. Mike Anderson, Olandis Gary, Clinton Portis, Alfred Morris, Dominick Davis, Steve Slaton. All schemes have a strength and a weakness. Koetter's vertical offense focused on pass protection. Turner losing some juice definitely played a part. But I don't think the running game is instantly good in 2015 just because of the O-line. It was the change to Freeman and mostly scheme

What you described in the first 2 paragraphs is correct. But Smitty's philosophy didn't work either. The team was conservative and they lost games against aggressive teams. That philosophy wasn't going to win a super bowl. What TD and Blank should have done was fired Smitty after the 2011 season honestly. If they believed it was time to change direction of the team, then they should have found the right coach who ran that type of style. And sure, in hindsight, 56-22 looks good on paper. But, I would challenge you to look at the results during those years of "critical" games. The Falcons were still 1-4 in the playoffs. The Falcons were 5-9 against the Saints during Smith's tenure as coach. That's terrible. Smitty definitely has some leadership and he definitely has some skills on building a culture. But I think he's just as responsible for the downfall as TD.

Well sure, that's what we SAW. My point is with the right play calling and design, they could have made it work. Like I said, it SHOULD have been easy. The execution was terrible.