Falcons special teams developing ‘attitude’

FLOWERY BRANCH — Falcons special-teams coordinator Keith Armstrong likes what he sees as the team is set to conclude organized team activities today.

Armstrong has to take a different approach. He’s not worried about quarterback Matt Ryan, defensive end John Abraham or running back Michael Turner. He’s looking at the back of the roster, the rookies, second-year players and free agents who likely will make up the special-teams units.

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Curtis Compton/ccompton@ajc.com

Falcons special teams coach Keith Armstrong says the two most important elements of his unit are attitude and intensity.

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“The biggest thing, obviously, we are looking at is attitude,” Armstrong said. “That’s the one thing with a lot of the rookies who are going to have to make an adjustment. There’s no doubt about that. The one thing we attack is the attitude.”

In addition to attitude, Armstrong is looking for intensity.

“The intensity of the special-teams play is a lot different,” Armstrong said. “It’s probably the biggest thing that they have to adjust to.”

Last season, while Ryan, Turner and Abraham were stealing the headlines, the Falcons’ special teams were turning in strong performances.

The punt-coverage unit set a league mark for fewest punt-return yards allowed with 49, four better than the previous mark set by the 1991 Buffalo Bills, and the kickoff-coverage unit allowed 24.6 yards per return, fourth-best in the NFL.

Kickoff returner Jerious Norwood was fifth in the league in the percentage of returns (70.6) that went for 20 yards or more, and rookie Harry Douglas made four returns of 20 yards or more, including a 61-yard touchdown against Carolina.

Also, place-kicker Jason Elam won two games on the final play.

Armstrong has been studying the players who might play on special teams this season because he knows coach Mike Smith expects a strong encore.

“We are trying to get faster as a football team, and I think when you are faster, one of the areas where that will show up is your special teams,” Smith said. “Not to put any pressure on Keith and that unit, but we expect to see improvement.”

The Falcons have added a lot of new players who are special-teams candidates.

“They are young,” Armstrong said. “They are new at it. We have to improve their techniques. They are being introduced to a lot of new things.”

A key area for Armstrong is getting the new players used to the nuisances and different rules of the pro game. The biggest special-teams rule change calls for only two-man wedges on kickoff returns.

Player safety was the reason as some severe injuries have been suffered while trying to bust up three- and four-man wedges.

While Armstrong cites his players’ need for the right attitude, Antoine Harris, one of the Falcons’ top coverage-unit players last season, likes his coach’s attitude.

“Keith is a great coach, he gets us fired up,” Harris said. “A lot of times, when you come in the meetings, he’ll have something off the top to say. Sometimes it’s out of left field.

“[Recently] we were working on punt block and when he said ‘1, 2, 3,’ everybody in the whole room said, ‘Take the ground that belongs to me.’ When you come in the room, you can just feel the energy.”

Douglas wants to continue to develop as a receiver, but he also wants to earn an expanded special-teams role.

“That was one thing that I got real comfortable with last year,” Douglas said of his punt-returning chores. “I did it a little bit in college, but not that much. Last year the coaches and my teammates had faith in me.”

Armstrong would like for the punt protection to improve. He’s still mad about two blocked punts last season, and there were a few big returns that he would like to have eliminated.

“For the most part we dominated, but there were some big plays that slipped out,” Armstrong said.

He has noticed that the team is much faster.

“Now we have to teach them,” Armstrong said. “Now, we are going through that whole learning curve.”