Early Indications

[ChessPlayer1]

In 2008, the early indications in preseason were that the Falcons would have a potent running game.

Micheal Turner ripped off some long runs in a couple of preseason games and the Falcons did in-fact have a potent running game.

Last years preseason indication was one; injuries(HD hurt early) and two our secondary was weak. I can remember Phillip Rivers tourching us on a few third and longs.And we all know about the injuries.

And true-to-form the Falcons had injury problems and secondary was toasted all last year.

This years indication seems to be that players will get into trouble. I look for Babs to be suspended and some other minor issues. But how will the Falcons play? Our preseason seems to fortell our regular season. I sure hope we have a great preseason.

[kibitzer]

This years indication seems to be that players will get into trouble. I look for Babs to be suspended and some other minor issues. But how will the Falcons play? Our preseason seems to fortell our regular season. I sure hope we have a great preseason.

Maybe the last couple yrs, it has. But it hasn't always been that way, IMO. Our bench depth used to be seriously shallow. The new regime has been addressing that hard and heavy lately. We do well in the preseason now, it makes me worry less about injuries during the regular season. Not to say that didn't cost us some games last year. But it's good to see that there is not as drastic a difference between our starters and our benchwarmers as there used to be.

[DirtybirdUK23]

I think the the 08 and 09 parallels drawn correlate well because they are indicators on performance, It was clear when we saw Turner run that we had a running game, I didn't expect him to be as independently dominant as he was but I was happy in the fact that we had ground support for Matt. And I know that very early in training camp we had people already voicing concerns over the weakness of our Pass Defense and that continued into preseason and translated into the regular season.

But to be honest the suggestion that we'll have a trouble riddled team because we've had a few players get into trouble for some minor/ debatable offenses is in my opinion preposterous.

Our FO over the last 3 years have reintroduced the regimen of direction and focus. Football for our players is a full time occupation for them now not just something they do in between hitting the clubs. Agreeably Babs and Ojin have gotten themselves into some mess but I don't think we're gonna emerge as a team infested with trouble makers bearing in mind that a lot of the bad attitudes were purged at the start of the Smith/TD era. The atmosphere of the team and the organisation is different with more high character players in the Locker Room than we have had in over a decade.

The most trouble I see coming at us this season is us getting flagged for "unnecessary roughness" and a few fines for the beat downs some of our players are gonna be dishing out this year.

Hold to your hope for a good season bro, the days of getting stung by events like the Vick Saga are behind this Franchise

[kibitzer]

True UK23. Last thing I'd want to see happen here is for my birds to become Bengals South. Sometimes, it MIGHT be worth taking a risk on a player w/that kind of history, but I think it's really not in the Falcons' game plan to build like that.

[DirtybirdUK23]

I agree with you there kibitzer. That is why I am trying to do my due diligence on this years draft class. Recent years I've only scouted the players play but not their behaviour, their academics, and their FBI/ compatibility with the systems we run.