Atlanta is "Under Construction"

in the falcons third season coach FF has been gutting the franchise in hopes for a more competitive team to make another superbowl run in the 4th season. POTW awards have been scarce and aside from deshun ivory, many players just haven't been stepping up. age and digression has rendered the defense slow and confused, and with the recent rookie classes having such blazing speed the falcons have fallen behind the 8 ball in keeping up with leagues transition.

"i feel we just can't compete at the same level as some of these younger teams, and its clear on the field that changes needed to be made. i've had some great memories with these guys, but its time to make some moves and look ahead to the big picture." reports the coach.

many controversial changes were made already this season, but coach FF was able to further elaborate on his decisions for the trades when questioned by the press:

press: your first move this season involved the release of last years first round pick wr wheeler, davon bess and a 2nd round pick for the ram's first round, why give up two wr's when your team was already so thin at this position?

coach FF: we acquired eddie royal before the year, and wheeler was a flop in preseason...he wasn't who we wanted and felt bess was just too slow to beat the fast corners manned up on him. we need all the first round picks we can get for season 4, and intend on drafting the right wr this time around.

press: speaking of eddie royal, it appears he didn't even make it halfway through the season before he found himself being traded for beanie wells.

coach FF: eddies a great receiver, and an excellent returnman but his route running and constant drops in coverage wasn't producing the results we hoped for. beanies going to be the guys back we're riding next year to carry our run game in addition to many years down the road. hes only 24, has 99 truck and 89 speed with unlimited potential.

press: so what happened to michael turner? after essentially being featured as the core of atlantas offense you appear to have traded him to the texans for a no name lb in tyrone mckenzie??

coach FF: it was certainly a risky move, but one i feel will benefit our team not only in coverage on defense but also on offense. we all love michael and appreciate his contribution to getting us this far, but hes 31 and slowing down a lot...with the addition of beanie i felt it was time to let him go. mckenzie won't be a no name for long, with his 70 man cover rating and 80 zone cover rating he fits into our defense just perfectly, hes young, fast and has great potential.

press: and about that defense, jared allen has gone to jacksonville in exchange for their 1st round pick...is this similar to the first rams trade?

coach FF: is the same idea, allen is unquestionably an elite end...but i feel we can find us a new jared allen in this years draft for years to come.

press: in a large deal that moved several players around with the raiders, you released your defensive captain jon vilma, along with roy williams AND darnell dockett. is there even anybody playing on the line this week? tell us about who you got in return and how they will fit into atlantas future.

coach FF: kroy beirman has progressed well, and we plan on mixing lb's at end to better integrate our new blitz packages. in return we got a young mlb in sintim, an all pro wr in greg jennings and the raiders 2nd pick in the draft. roy was just bench warming this year, and although vilma is a great lb jennings and sintim will prove far more valuable in the upcoming years.

press: the redskins have taken what appears to be the heart of your defense in deshun ivory, how can you possibly replace someone of this caliber?

coach FF: easy, you add miles austin to compliment greg jennings and upcoming star ogletree with potentialy a new rookie from the draft. deshun was great, and not to take credit but 90% of the time it was me out there telling him what to do.

press: so with all these new draft picks, what is your strategy in drafting this year?

coach FF: we're looking to firstly upgrade our cb's and dline, then work towards possibly a slot/4th wr.

press: can you give us a breakdown of the old vs new lineup?

coach FF: sure can, here is a list of our old vs new starters so far for next year:


OLD DEFENSE------------NEW DEFENSE

LE - darnell dockett-------LE - draft pick
RE - jared allen-----------RE - kroy beirman
DT - tony brown----------DT - tony brown
LOLB - michael boley------LOLB - michael boley
MLB - jon vilma-----------MLB - clint sintim
MLB - antwan barnes------MLB - tyrone mckenzie
ROLB - deshun ivory-------ROLB - antwan barnes
CB - charles tilman--------CB - justin tyron
CB - nate clements--------CB - bryce mccain
CB - justin tyron----------CB - draft pick
CB - bryce mccain---------CB - draft pick
SS - darrell stuckey-------SS - darrell stuckey
FS - tanard jackson-------FS - tanard jackson

OLD OFFENSE------------NEW OFFENSE

QB - sam bradford---------QB - sam bradford
HB - michael turner--------HB - beanie wells
FB - sammy morris---------FB - sammy morris (pending retirement)
WR - eddie royal----------WR - greg jennings
WR - tj houshmenzadah---WR - miles austin
WR - roy williams----------WR - draft pick
WR - kevin ogletree-------WR - kevin ogletree
TE - clay harbor----------TE - clay harbor
TE - todd heap-----------TE - todd heap

Great post..

You have way to much free time at work Lol

Your FS changed his name?

nice work, lookin good for next year

yeah we get slow right after our christmas rush, i pretty much spent a better part of my morning doing this. i have X amount of work i need to stretch out this week lol...if only i put the time into my original draft that i did repairing it :/

i'll fix tanard* 'turd' jackson as well, idk how u caught that...

great post and that is a huge overturn of a team and the biggest i have ever seen

Wow...excellent post bro!