Guerry Clegg: Winning season for Falcons not out of the question
Welcome to the 50th edition of Atlanta Falcons football. For those old enough to remember Randy Johnson and Junior Coffee, insert your own punchline here. Yes, many of the previous 49 seasons were, um, less than glorious. Then there was that whole stupid Brett Favre trade to the Green Bay Packers.
But there have been some good times -- the Super Bowl season of 1998, the five consecutive winning seasons to start the Matt Ryan-Mike Smith-Thomas Dimitroff period. (But it hardly rose to the distinction of "era.")
Smith is gone and now Dan Quinn is the 16th head coach in team history, 17th if you count Marion Campbell's two stints separately.
It says something about a franchise when it has had more interim head coaches (four) than NFL Coach of the Year awards (three).
Dimitroff had his power diluted as the roster builder and his future with the club could ride on the outcome of this season. Making the playoffs might not be a requirement for job security. But making progress after seasons of 4-12 and 6-10 is imperative, especially giving the weakness of the NFC South and the relative softness of the schedule.
Quinn has been impressive so far. He has stressed improving the defense, es
pecially the pass rush. The have six new defensive starters, including the return of safety William Moore, who missed most of last season with a shoulder injury. Another new starter is end Vic Beasey Jr., the first-round pick from Clemson. He ought to improve the pass rush. The question is whether he can hold his own against the run.
The other new starters are less familiar names -- tackle Ra'Shede Hageman, linebackers Justin Durant and O'Brien Schofield and safety Ricardo Allen.
They can't be much worse than last year's bunch. The Falcons ranked last in yards allowed, rushing touchdowns allowed, and passing first downs. They were sixth-worst in points allowed.
The new first-team defense looked much improved in the preseason, for whatever that's worth. It's one thing to play a few solid series before clocking out early. It's altogether different facing Eli Manning, Tony Romo, Andrew Luck, Drew Brees and Cam Newton, the latter two twice each.
We'll see. This is the same franchise that made Geno Smith look like an All-Pro.
Quinn has begun overhauling the defense without neglecting the offensive needs -- improving the protection for Ryan and ensuring that Julio Jones will stick around for five more years. The offensive line remains a work in progress but perhaps this new unit will understand that a few holding penalties would be a small price to pay to keep Ryan in one piece for 16 games. Ryan was sacked 75 times over the past two seasons. If the Falcons lose Ryan for any extended amount of time, Plan B should be to start preparing for the draft.
Amazingly, there are people who watch the Falcons on a regular basis and somehow come to the conclusion that Ryan is one of their biggest problems. Alas, there are some who believe the moon landing of 1969 was merely a propaganda hoax.
Ryan and Jones give the Falcons a chance to win.
It's hard to know what to make of these Falcons. No one is rushing to reserve Super Bowl accommodations. But the schedule does lend itself to playoff hopes. If they can go 4-2 within the division and beat the Jaguars, Redskins, 49ers and Titans, that's a .500 season right there. Pull a mild upset or two -- Giants, Texans, Vikings all are beatable -- and nine or 10 wins would be within reach.
-- Guerry Clegg is an independent correspondent. You can write to him at sports@ledger-enquirer.com
This story was originally published September 12, 2015 at 8:21 PM with the headline "Guerry Clegg: Winning season for Falcons not out of the question ."