FLOWERY BRANCH – Falcons center Alex Mack played for offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan during the 2014 season with the Cleveland Browns.
Shanahan got out of his contract to join Dan Quinn’s staff with the Falcons last season. Mack bolted in free agency after the 2015 season.
“It’s nice that it’s the same offense that I’ve been through,” Mack said of his reunion with Shanahan. “We really haven’t worked much as a whole offense yet. But knowing the offense and having all of the calls, it’s like ‘oh yeah, I remember that.’ A lot of those moments are happening. It’s going really good.”
With Mike Person, who’d never played center until last season, the Falcons had quarterback and center exchange issues. Mack and Ryan have started working on that connection.
“After practice one day we just took a couple of snaps and just kind of ‘let’s see how this feels,’” Mack said. “It went well. It wasn’t nothing spectacular. He was throwing some routes and I went up there. He took like 10 snaps and I ran away.”
Ryan and Mack have to get their shotgun snaps together, too.
“Shotgun snaps, he has to be used to how I deliver it,” Mack said. “It doesn’t really matter for me who’s back there catching it. Under, we both…it went fine. It’s a lot of snaps. You do them a lot.”
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