Sam Baker Finally Playing Like A 1St Rounder

[THE ICEMAN]

Sam Baker's only given up 3 1/2 sacks on the Season and had no holding calls against him.

To give you a example of how much he's improved

he started and played in all 16 games in 2010 when we went 13-3. He gave up 11 1/2 sacks that year and we didn't throw it as much either. And 5 sacks last year in very limited playing time.

Can't believe it but Baker probably been our best OLmen this season.

Clabo given up 4 1/2 sacks Teams have actually been moving there best Rusher to face Clabo like Carolina actually moves Charles Johnson to the Right side to match up with Clabo every time they play us. But clabo has been solid.

Konz has given up 4 1/2 sacks

Mclure has given up 4 sacks

Blalock has given up 1 1/2 sacks

Joe Hawley has given up 1 sack in 3 games

Garret Reynolds has given up a Quarter of a sack in 6 games Buts on IR

Got stats from Profootballweekly

Anybody got a link to the website thats keeps track of Pressures and Hurries given up? I'd be interested to see how many hurries Baker's given up seeing how Ryan doesn't take a ton of sacks.

[falken]

Sam has turned it around for sure. I'm not sure if it's Pat Hill or if he's finally healthy that has made the big difference. Maybe a combination of both.

Nothing like showing up in your contract year. His play warrants a decent payday. Congrats Sam!

He's shutup a lot of board members this year. Me included. Solid play and a complete 180.

He/we should be proud.

[FalconsIn2012]

Sam has turned it around for sure. I'm not sure if it's Pat Hill or if he's finally healthy that has made the big difference. Maybe a combination of both.

Nothing like showing up in your contract year. His play warrants a decent payday. Congrats Sam!

He's shutup a lot of board members this year. Me included. Solid play and a complete 180.

He/we should be proud.

Sam has most definitely improved which is a massive relief. One less position to concern ourselves with in the off-season so long as he is not stupid and demand premier left tackle compensation. That being said, Hill along with Baker both deserve their just recognition for the turnaround, bur equally deserving is Dirk Koetter whose implementation of a genius screen game has alleviated much of the stress on our average offensive line. We have the best screen game in the business and Mularkey, with identical personnel, said we don't have the players to implement an efficient screen game. Sometimes MM truly was a stubborn, hard-headed ****. He did a great job with Ryan early in his career though...

[THE ICEMAN]

Sam has turned it around for sure. I'm not sure if it's Pat Hill or if he's finally healthy that has made the big difference. Maybe a combination of both.

Nothing like showing up in your contract year. His play warrants a decent payday. Congrats Sam!

He's shutup a lot of board members this year. Me included. Solid play and a complete 180.

He/we should be proud.

I was ready to write him off and cut him. But really put all of the past seasons a side and he's played at a probowl level will he make it most likely not but if he produces another season like this next year (3.5 sacks or less) he'll get that nod to go to probowl no dout

[Guest Negatorris]

Baker has definitely served me a feast of crow this season. I thought Mike Smith and TD were crazy for keeping him around, and I feared for Matt Ryan once Svitek was put on IR. Baker has finally earned his keep, now I want him to play like this for the rest of his career with the Falcons and stay healthy.

[Kayoh]

You guys are joking, right?

Baker has given up 6 sacks, 7 hits and 30 hurries. Clabo has given up 5, 6 and 20. Take away the one game against Carolina and Clabo has given up 2, 2 and 16. Take away Baker's worst game and he's still given up 5, 7 and 26.

Charles Johnson is Carolina's left DE. He plays there every game, not just against us. Greg Hardy is their RDE.

Baker has improved from last season, but he's still not that great. He's slightly above average, and if this is his ceiling, he needs to be replaced at LT where you need a guy who gives up next to nothing.

Ryan Clady and Branden Albert both have contracts coming up...they're elite. Sam Baker is above average at best. I'd personally like to see what Baker can do if he'd move inside to guard, but you never know what the front office is thinking.

[PapaJoe]

Geez. really.

Baker AND Clabo have had GOOD years. If I knew they would have seasons like this one for the next 3 seasons, I'd be satisfied and then some.

Baker has earned a good new contract; resign him. Let's just hope and pray that Baker and Clabo remain healthy and playing at a high level for years to come.

IF Lamar Holmes is coming along well then he becomes our primary swing OT and we should be good to go with Johnson being around healthy again.

IF Holmes has improved greatly on his run blocking, then perhaps he could play RT with Clabo at RG, but I highly doubt that Smitty/Hill/Dimitroff has designs on that strategy.

If PKManley is really promising then awesome... get him in there and get Konz to C.

If not, we MUST MUST MUST MUST get a quality G to plug in this Draft!!!

McClure has got to either retire (win a Super Bowl and ride into the sunset) or NOT resigned. We MUST get Konz to C for next season if we want our OL issues fixed. It all starts right there.

Blalock's play is bi-polar-esque... I hated the big contract he got. Probably the worst move I think TD has made actually, but our other options at the time were not great for team. Blalock simply needs to get right, play better.

[THE ICEMAN]

You guys are joking, right?

Baker has given up 6 sacks, 7 hits and 30 hurries. Clabo has given up 5, 6 and 20. Take away the one game against Carolina and Clabo has given up 2, 2 and 16. Take away Baker's worst game and he's still given up 5, 7 and 26.

Charles Johnson is Carolina's left DE. He plays there every game, not just against us. Greg Hardy is their RDE.

Baker has improved from last season, but he's still not that great. He's slightly above average, and if this is his ceiling, he needs to be replaced at LT where you need a guy who gives up next to nothing.

Ryan Clady and Branden Albert both have contracts coming up...they're elite. Sam Baker is above average at best. I'd personally like to see what Baker can do if he'd move inside to guard, but you never know what the front office is thinking.

Were did you get your stats

[tone357]

It's a good thing that TD and Smitty know more about what's really going on than some of these armchair GMs. Some of them have really short memories. Baker got here with Ryan and protected his blind side just fine for the first 3 years. Then he gutted it out and played with a bad back for quite a while, had surgery and now he's back, playing at a high level, and some still want to cut him SMH!

[dmite]

It's a good thing that TD and Smitty know more about what's really going on than some of these armchair GMs. Some of them have really short memories. Baker got here with Ryan and protected his blind side just fine for the first 3 years. Then he gutted it out and played with a bad back for quite a while, had surgery and now he's back, playing at a high level, and some still want to cut him SMH!

Yeah, when he was healthy, Baker played pretty good the first couple of years. In 2010, he started poorly the first 4 games, but played the rest of the season very well. I'm glad he's playing well now. It gives us options with Holmes waiting in the wings.

[THE ICEMAN]

It's a good thing that TD and Smitty know more about what's really going on than some of these armchair GMs. Some of them have really short memories. Baker got here with Ryan and protected his blind side just fine for the first 3 years. Then he gutted it out and played with a bad back for quite a while, had surgery and now he's back, playing at a high level, and some still want to cut him SMH!

Well its TD and Smiths fault for a lot of the bashing the kid has taken instead of saying Baker has been really effected by back injuries threw his first 4 season and he needs to take care of it. They hide the injuries even after he'd been benched and then when its time to cut him they then say well he's never been healthy here really ever thats the reason his play has been bad its kind of hard to believe when they really haven't said his injuries were that bad.

Turns out Baker's not a bad player just a good player thats very injury prone

[xSICKxWITHxITx]

People wanted to crucify me when I said he was better than Svitek. I said he was just injured and did not suck. People were like is he you cousin.

[Exp]

Its a big relief that Baker's play has been better. Its scarey to have a not so great LT protecting your right handed Qb. Even more so this year because of how much Ryan has improved. They have to keep him safe and protecting his blind side is the biggest part of that, usually.

[Dirtybird56]

Even if we don't make any moves for OLinemen in the draft our line will still be slightly improved next year:

Baker-Blalock-Konz-Reynolds-Clabo

Prefer to upgrade a guard but stil that line is pretty good

[Kayoh]

I'd rather see

Clady-Baker-Konz-Moore-Clabo

[TheFatboi]

Well its TD and Smiths fault for a lot of the bashing the kid has taken instead of saying Baker has been really effected by back injuries threw his first 4 season and he needs to take care of it. They hide the injuries even after he'd been benched and then when its time to cut him they then say well he's never been healthy here really ever thats the reason his play has been bad its kind of hard to believe when they really haven't said his injuries were that bad.

Turns out Baker's not a bad player just a good player thats very injury prone

It was known his back was hurt. His first year he missed games with the same disc problem.

[THE ICEMAN]

I'd rather see

Clady-Baker-Konz-Moore-Clabo

There's no way they let Clady go And I think the same can be said about Moore as well wishful thing though.

The Only Big time LT that'll likely hit the market any time soon is Jake Long and that still may not happen as I'll find it hard to believe the Dolphins would let him walk surgery or not

[THE ICEMAN]

I'd rather see

Clady-Baker-Konz-Moore-Clabo

And theres no way I'd move Baker to Guard he a pass blocker that can handles athletic speed rusher but not over powering DT's he'd struggle there just not big enough. Clabo on the other hand could move to Guard and would most likely improve our running game as well.

Long - Blalock - Konz - Clabo - Baker

With Holmes there to fill in

[Kayoh]

And theres no way I'd move Baker to Guard he a pass blocker that can handles athletic speed rusher but not over powering DT's he'd struggle there just not big enough. Clabo on the other hand could move to Guard and would most likely improve our running game as well.

Long - Blalock - Konz - Clabo - Baker

With Holmes there to fill in

Leave Clabo out of this, he's our best olineman, not trying to shift him around. He hasn't ever proven that he can be a great guard, but he's a proven top 5 RT in the NFL and I'm not trying to change that.

??-??-Konz-??-Clabo is what we're working with.

Blalock is awful. Has been since the second half of the 2011 season.

Holmes might be able to be our LT, but we can't possibly know that...at least not yet. If he works out, that's huge, but we still need a pair of guards, and Clabo and Konz aren't the answers because they're much better at their positions.

If Brandon Moore makes it out of New York, he needs to be a priority for us in free agency, right up there with Henry Melton. If not, we need to try some things at guard. Maybe big Mike Johnson, maybe PK Manley, maybe even Reynolds who was showing promise before he went down hurt, I don't know, but we need to find ourselves a pair of good to great guards before next season or we risk having more games like Oakland and Arizona this year.

[Durrtay]

This entire board has to eat crow on this one... Who'da thunk it???

[THE ICEMAN]

Leave Clabo out of this, he's our best olineman, not trying to shift him around. He hasn't ever proven that he can be a great guard, but he's a proven top 5 RT in the NFL and I'm not trying to change that.

??-??-Konz-??-Clabo is what we're working with.

Blalock is awful. Has been since the second half of the 2011 season.

Holmes might be able to be our LT, but we can't possibly know that...at least not yet. If he works out, that's huge, but we still need a pair of guards, and Clabo and Konz aren't the answers because they're much better at their positions.

If Brandon Moore makes it out of New York, he needs to be a priority for us in free agency, right up there with Henry Melton. If not, we need to try some things at guard. Maybe big Mike Johnson, maybe PK Manley, maybe even Reynolds who was showing promise before he went down hurt, I don't know, but we need to find ourselves a pair of good to great guards before next season or we risk having more games like Oakland and Arizona this year.

So your saying Brandon Moore is elite but yet plays with one of the best centers in football and LT's as well in DaBrick and the Jets still can't run the ball Moore's over rated Clabo a top RT because Most teams put young LT's at RT then move them over. Trust me if Clabo was that good the Falcons would have moved him to LT a long time ago. He's struggle at times ever sense Dahl left and he one of our best because there isn't much there to start with.

[didz]

Like I say, judge players by their coordinators as well, not just how they performed the past 4 years. Its like working for a boss that is screaming and yelling at you for 4 years and the next year, you get a boss that is willing to work with you and get better, who are you going to perform better for?

[DaMeatTroughsEgo]

So your saying Brandon Moore is elite but yet plays with one of the best centers in football and LT's as well in DaBrick and the Jets still can't run the ball Moore's over rated Clabo a top RT because Most teams put young LT's at RT then move them over. Trust me if Clabo was that good the Falcons would have moved him to LT a long time ago. He's struggle at times ever sense Dahl left and he one of our best because there isn't much there to start with.

You have no clue what you are talking about. Moore is not elite, however he used to be. He's still pretty darn good but I wouldn't give him more than a few mil.

[Falkonator]

lol at blalock being awful, he has been our best Olineman since being drafted, Clabo is garbage has been for a while now, what people fail to realize is blalock has to constantly help mcclure because mcclure just cant hang anymore. i would say our best olineman are blalock,baker,konz,clabo,mcclure(in that order) i say move Konz to center, move Clabo back to RG, were he started his career and was better imo and either move baker to LT and see what Holmes can do or Draft a RT and see how Holmes developes(BTW i dont need stats to show me who our best olineman are, you can just see from watching the games)

[xSICKxWITHxITx]

This entire board has to eat crow on this one... Who'da thunk it???

Not I.