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Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2008 > August > 23
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Falcons deserve measured optimism
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Owing to the softness of the early schedule, the team being forecast as the NFL’s worst could well be 2-1 by 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 21. But we shouldn’t overreact to such a start, just as we shouldn’t despair over anything we see this fall. No matter what happens, we should take the Falcons at their word.
That word is “process.” Thomas Dimitroff, the new general manager, invokes it in every conversation, as in, “This is a process.” If the Falcons don’t believe they’re going to go 1-15, neither do they, in their heart of hearts, foresee this as a playoff team. They’ve started over, and this season is, duh, just the start.
“We’re going to be systematic,” said Mike Smith, the new coach, speaking Friday night of his approach to choosing a starting quarterback. (It’ll be Matt Ryan, in case you haven’t guessed.) In the NFL, only systems succeed over the long haul. Players come and go. Once established, a system can purr on and on.
That system, you should know, isn’t fully (or even nearly) in place. Here’s Paul Boudreau, the astute line coach who has worked in the NFL since 1987: “We’d rather have our players fit the system, but we’re not going to force it. If they can’t fit the system, we’ll change and adapt to the guys we have … Right now we’ve developed an offense based on what we have. It’s like in college — you don’t run the option unless you have an option quarterback.”
The belief here is that these Falcons will play a slew of low-scoring games and will give themselves a chance to win, say, 10 times. Due to inherent personnel limitations, they’ll actually win half that number. To expect much more from a team that went 4-12 in 2007 and has changed coaches yet again and has shed four Pro Bowlers and is going with a rookie quarterback and a rookie left tackle and probably a rookie middle linebacker is simply to expect too much too soon.
But there are different kinds of losing seasons: There’s the 7-9 that should have been 10-6 (see Jim Mora’s final fling), and there’s the 5-11 that promises brighter tomorrows. That’s what this will be. There will come a time when this roster doesn’t lack talent. There will come a time when these rookies are rookies no longer.
Boudreau again: “As we expand this and we get better and we get our drafts going, we’ll start to address the needs of our team based on good players who fit our system. Thomas has made it clear we’re going to have a system here — how we’re bringing free agents in, how we’re bringing draft choices in.”
If you’re a Falcon fan — as opposed to a fan of he who must not be named unless this typist be accused of dredging up the past — that’s cause for optimism. Not giddy glee, but measured optimism. The cult of personality no longer holds sway in Flowery Branch. This regime isn’t going to install the West Coast Offense just because the head coach’s buddy happens to favor the West Coast Offense. There’s a set of beliefs shared by all who work in football operations. More than just being on the same page, Dimitroff and Smith co-wrote it.
This isn’t to say the Falcons are going to win big right away. Winning might take until 2010, and given the state of the economy and the fractured nature of this constituency, we might not see another home sellout until then. But popularity isn’t the immediate concern. Process is, process above all.
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