Falcons offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey was a hot head-coaching candidate after last season, but he returned to the Falcons after interviewing with Cleveland and pulling out of the Denver job search. Mularkey is set to enter his fourth season with the Falcons. Here’s a brief Q&A involving Mularkey and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s D. Orlando Ledbetter:
Q: How comforting is it having an established quarterback now, as opposed to a rookie just a few years ago?
A: Matt [Ryan] obviously makes everybody’s job a lot easier. He’s just such a professional about how he goes about his business. I take input from Matt. ... I take information from him, and that’s every week. He is so well-prepared on his own without us doing a lot of work. It helps the whole offensive scheme.
Q: What type of job did Ryan and John Parker Wilson do in getting Julio Jones ready for the season?
A: It was evident that Julio was ahead of the curve with the offense and some of things we were doing. The other thing was that during that brief period of when [the lockout was lifted], we had a playbook for just in case that happened. We wanted to have something ready. It wasn’t the full playbook, but it was enough to where it could get you off and running ...
Q: What does having a healthy Harry Douglas at slot receiver mean for the offense?
A: It’s nice to have Harry back healthy. I can’t say that was the case watching him last year at about this same time. I think he was still recovering from the injury. I just felt that as the season went on, Harry got stronger. You could see his level of play and everything about Harry has picked right up. ... I just think he’s going to be a really good complement to those other guys.
About the Author
