I was at the game, so I didn’t have the liberty of DVR rewinding and instant replays for every play, but I remember Adkins making a nice tackle while lined up at LB. He is fast and beastly. Obviously, he’s still very raw, but what is the general consensus on him this year? Does he make the squad and contribute on special teams and ultimately provide depth at LB late in the season, does he make the practice squad, or is he cut?
Personally, I want to keep him around. His upside seems huge. Not to mention, we can definitely use his speed at linebacker. There were some ugly misses last week due to lack of elite speed out of some of our LB’s.
What do you all think?
Source >> Atlanta Falcons Blogs

I hope this is just a mirage.

Please someone tell me we aren’t going to limp through September with Grimes. Houston is bad enough but Grimes is just not cut out for a starting CB in this league. UGH!!

WTH?

Why do you start a guy in 2008, then admit that he is not the answer because opposing QBs pick on him all day long, sign a free agent to replace him, then after losing free agent to a ridiculous big money contract in the offseason do the same **** thing that you know AIN’T GONNA WORK????????

Why have we drafted upteen DBs in the past couple of drafts just to have Super Smurf get picked on again?

I don’t understand so if you have better insight please help me.

Source >> Atlanta Falcons Blogs

There were a couple of things that happened at and before the game yesterday that I just wanted to share because they were telling or just impressive. To set the stage - I took my nephew, who is home on leave from Afghanistan (goes back tomorrow , my niece (his wife), my son and his daughter and of course - hubby and me. I had 2 sideline passes from the tags we purchased.

1. Starting before the game - love the new artwork in front of the stadium at Falcons Landing!

2. At the landing before the game - my son won a dance contest and got 2 tickets to the game + 2 more sideline passes. My niece and I went to one side of the stadium and my son and nephew went to the other side. They gave my son a t-shirt and both of them got to help with the big flag - really cool!

My son is the one in the black #2 jersey with the jeans on - here is his dancing debut!

Here is my nephew (army uniform) and son on the sideline (he’s in red tshirt next to my nephew)

A couple more pics of them on the sidelines - although Ryan kept getting in the way

Here is my niece on the sidelines

After viewing Roddy come out of the tunnel - look to the right of the picture - you’ll see my nephew in uniform helping with the flag:

CONTINUED:

Source >> Atlanta Falcons Blogs

Learning, getting better, improving, seeing situations you haven’t seen before, making mistakes, playing ugly, getting better, preparing for week one of a very long NFL schedule.

The defense was ugly, now the coaching staff with over 200 years of NFL experience knows what to work on, who can do what, when they can do it, who can blitz, who can shed blocks, who can wrap up on tackles, and everyone player that can’t do those things will be getting an earful for the next 2 weeks and will hopefully learn something from the way they played.

Now quit crying.
Source >> Atlanta Falcons Blogs

I’m a little depressed from all the defense highlights (as I think we all are), so I wanted to focus on a surprising development from the offense last night. Booker did a great job finding spots in zone coverage, and Ryan found him. At least one was a third down catch as well. I think Booker made a strong statement about being the number 3 WR last night, but so did Finneran with that great TD. I’m looking forward to these guys performing well in competition to lock down that spot.
Source >> Atlanta Falcons Blogs

Quick take on Falcons’ exhibition game

August 29, 2009 10:35 PM

Posted by ESPN.com’s Pat Yasinskas

Long ago, I learned not to read too much into preseason games. I saw Tampa Bay teams coached by Sam Wyche look good in the preseason and then hit double-digit losses in the regular season.

But I am going to take one thing seriously out of Saturday night’s preseason game between the Falcons and Chargers. That’s the Atlanta defense.

It didn’t look good at all and that’s a growing reason for concern. We all knew the Falcons would be entering this season with five new starters on defense and that means there is going to be some transition.

But shouldn’t we be seeing some positive signs by now? Probably. But we haven’t. In the only preseason game that really matters (because the starters play a fair amount), Atlanta’s defense struggled. Yes, San Diego has a good offense, but LaDainian Tomlinson wasn’t even playing. It didn’t matter because the Chargers barely ran the ball.

They were throwing it and throwing it very well. In the first half, the Chargers had somewhere around 250 passing yards. That’s not good news for any defense and every offensive coordinator the Falcons face in the regular season will be watching the video blueprint of how to carve up Atlanta’s defense.

The Falcons aren’t going to go out and blow up their defense at the end of the preseason. They’re going with what they’ve got and that’s a little scary. They could have gone out and grabbed some blue-chip defensive backs in the offseason. But they didn’t.

They’re going with Brent Grimes and Chris Houston as their starting cornerbacks and Erik Coleman and Thomas DeCoud as their starting safeties, for better or worse. If the Falcons are going to make the best of this, they need to do some of the same things they do with their offensive line. They don’t have a tremendous amount of talent there, but they make the most of it because they hide their weaknesses.

They need to do the same thing with the secondary. The best way to do that is with a pass rush. They’ve got an elite rusher in John Abraham, but they need more than that. They need third-year pro Jamaal Anderson to step up from the very start of the season. Anderson was a top 10 pick in 2007 and he’ll be on the bench if he doesn’t start quickly.

The Falcons have Chauncey Davis, Lawrence Sidbury and Kroy Biermann as alternatives to Anderson. One, or some combination, of all those defensive ends will have to step up or the secondary really might be in trouble.

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/nfcsouth/0-13-1…ition-game.html
Source >> Atlanta Falcons Blogs

This was a good team, quite possibly a playoff contender. There ere things we did well and things we did not heres what I think.
positives:
Matt Ryan looks like he is on the same page with Tony G.
Roddy White has shook off the rust.
Michael Turner looks amazing.
The O-line played lights out.
WR depth with Ferguson, Booker, Finneran, and Weems
Linebackers were flying around
Love the blitz we bring
Hard hitting linebackers
Grimes played well

Now for the things that didnt look to good
look like we get no pressure from our front four
Havent seen much out of abe
I hate to say but JA98 does not look to good (not hating)
Chris Houston seems like hes trying too hard to turn his head
and the lack of ability to stop the screens

but you have to remember 2 things this was a good team we played, and this provides good film for our coaches to swift through and work on the things we need to work on.

agree?
Source >> Atlanta Falcons Blogs

I have been hearing about how bad our secondary was last night, and I have been defending Brent Grimes. I think Brent Grimes played well, he was getting in with his blitz, and recorded our only sack. He stayed on his receivers fairly well, he does lack hight and there might be problems with that but he played well last night! As for Chris Houston I dont know what was up with him, it seemed that every big play that was being made out there was on his side, after a while I noticed that the chargers were targeting him. To me it seemed he was trying to hard to have his head turned and he was thinking too much, but thats what I saw.

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-game-highlig…vers-highlights

look at the video of Phillip Rivers highlights, the only big catch I saw made on grimes in the highlights, and in the game that I can remember is the Vincent Jackson play by the sideline where he clearly pushes off of him. Now look at how many passes were directed at chris houston he seems to not even have to look over to Grimes side. Draw your own conclusions….
Source >> Atlanta Falcons Blogs

I’ve talk to Houston Texans fans……. The Texans fans told me that the Texans has turned down D-Hall type money….. They are hearing that is not the money but its more about Dunta’s agent and Dunta Robinson wanting to play closer to home (Georgia) and not for the teaxans……

Dunta Robinson has told the Texans from day 1 (of OTAs) that he would sign the Franchise tag if it promise him that he would become a UFA next year…… The Texans Front Office said no way…lol….

Houston Texans fans think a possible trade could happen.

Source >> Atlanta Falcons Blogs

http://www.ninersnation.com/2009/6/4/89849…hawntae-spencer

Whither Shawntae Spencer?
by Fooch on Jun 4, 2009 8:00 AM PDT in News 19 comments

One guy who seems to get lost in the shuffle pretty easily is 49ers cornerback Shawntae Spencer. It’s easy to see why that’s happened: Since playing in 16 games his rookie season, Spencer has seen his games played number drop each season to 15, 13, 11 and finally 2 last season. He blew out his knee early on last season and that was the end of it.

The 49ers cornerback situation currently sits somewhere around questionable. I do like Dre Bly, but he did struggle last season. Our own Nate Clements was eaten alive at times, leaving us to wonder what’s up with our corners. And, of course, no matter how talented you might be, if you’re forced to run around all day waiting for a sack that will never come….well, that’s just not going to end well.

Given the injury to Walt Harris, where will Spencer end up fitting in? I thought that heading into last year, he was destined to a career as a nickel back. Not a bad position to be in certainly. However, it’s clear that he’s just not #1 material. When we did the roster projections for cornerback, I actually put Spencer on the bubble. Given his salary (a nice little extension through 2012), it’s reasonable to think he could have been a cap casualty.

Of course, the Walt Harris injury changed that. Bly and Tarell Brown will be battling for that second starting position. I do like Spencer, but I just don’t see him emerging as a starter anymore. Throw in the fact that he probably won’t be fully recovered from his ACL injury until training camp, and it makes it that much more difficult.

So, given that, what does his future look like in San Francisco? Consider both this season and long term. He’s 27 years old. It’s questionable where he’s at on the odomoter given how often he gets nicked up. However, his salary is rather cap friendly. His base salaries are in the $3 million range each season. On the one hand, you get some solid talent cheap. On the other hand, if you decide to cut him, it really won’t hurt you cap-wise.

So what do you do with Shawntae Spencer?
Source >> Atlanta Falcons Blogs