Before spreading out to cities around the country, the Falcons gathered in the far corner of their practice field one last time.
Falcons coach Dan Quinn told the team, which was minus its four-time All-Pro wide receiver Julio Jones, that they had the “finest” offseason he’d ever been associated with before dismissing them on Thursday.
Quinn was not going to let the fact that Jones was absent from the mandatory minicamp put a damper on the offseason program. Not as the Falcons are trying to gain ground on the Saints, the defending NFC South champions, and stay ahead of the retooling Panthers and young and talented Buccaneers.
“Certainly, Julio has some things that he’s working on,” Quinn said of star receiver. “Would it have been ideal for him to be here with it? Yeah. No doubt. But I wouldn’t certainly quantify the offseason based on that. It was all of the work that’s been done by so many.”
The Falcons will gather again for the start of training camp next month.
The Falcons offense dipped from first to 15th in the NFL in scoring last season and second-year coordinator Steve Sarkisian put in several new wrinkles this offseason. Whenever Jones returns, he’ll have to play catch-up.
Quinn, who was looking forward to having Jones participate in the offseason program after he was out in 2017 recovering from surgery, elected to evaluate the offseason in its entirety.
“You have to go through the whole part of it,” Quinn said. “It started way back with the assessments that we did. Not just coaches to players.”
Quinn visited with every player and asked each one of them what the coaching staff could improve on, too. He wanted to know about things that they could do better as a team.
“It’s good that Q pushed us to do that,” offensive line coach Chris Morgan said. “You can’t just stay the same.”
After the wide-ranging internal self-assessments, the Falcons moved on to the scouting combine, free agency and signing quarterback Matt Ryan to a six-year, $150 million contract extension.
“Having the ability to get Matt signed that was a big part of the offseason,” Quinn said. “But the most important part was the way that the guys went for it.”
Ryan was also pleased with how the offseason program went.
“It’s been really good work,” Ryan said after the second minicamp practice. “But specifically throughout the OTA process, it’s been really good for us. We’ve had a lot of guys have opportunities to get snaps, to get reps. I think they’ve come along in the last couple of weeks.”
Quinn said that he and the staff tried to push and challenge the players mentally and physically. He pointed to their Navy SEAL-like training with the Acumen Performance Group and the team’s revamped weight room.
The APG, a team of former and current Navy SEALs, take strategies from armed combat and military missions and use them to teach teamwork concepts.
“Over those nine or 10 weeks, they really put work in on one to two things in their game that they really wanted to address,” Quinn said of the players. “All of us have many things, but there were a couple that were going to be really specific.”
The staff kept track of the progress.
“Those are some of the things when you’re already a good player and you’re trying to take it to a new spot, it can really be challenging,” Quinn said. “You have to dig hard as hell to get to the answers and find what is the truth and what you need to improve on.”
Quinn not only commended the players, but the coaches, some of whom took on additional responsibilities.
Big picture, they wanted to improve the scoring offense, especially in the red zone. Also, the defense wanted to increase turnovers.
Quinn scripted the practices to include red zone work in every two out of three practices. Defensive passing game coordinator Jerome Henderson came up with new drills to work on creating turnovers and ball awareness.
They had defensive back Desmond Trufant, who gets his hands on a lot of balls, work with the wide receivers. Trufant has 60 career pass breakups, but only nine interceptions.
“There were a numbers of players on our team that went for it, coaches as well,” Quinn said. “That’s why I’m so excited about this group.”
Despite all of the hard work and planning, the team’s top offensive weapon was in California running along the beaches with Hall of Famer Terrell Owens, according to Owens’ social media post.
Quinn is confident that Jones’ contract situation will get resolved in time for him to attend training camp, which is set for late July.
“The good news is that there are conversations that have begun,” Quinn said. “We’ll keep those private. I have a lot of faith in the organization and also in Julio that things will get resolved with good communications. I’m sure that’ll be a part of it as well.”
With the escalation in the wide receiver market over the offseason, Jones elected not to participate in the team’s offseason program and did not attend the mandatory minicamp. He informed Quinn of his decision on Monday.
By skipping the minicamp, Jones could potentially be fined nearly $85,000 by the Falcons.
Quinn wanted the players headed for break to continue to communicate. Several, including Justin Hardy and Mohamed Sanu, have been in touch with Jones.
“Now, it’s about base camp and how do you go and start your trek,” Quinn said. “A lot of what happens over the next four of five weeks to put your mind, body, heart and soul into that spot to come back and (be) ready to go.”
It’s trek that Quinn hopes they are taking with Jones and that it ends up with them back on top of the NFC South, in the playoffs and possibly back in the Super Bowl.
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