To some it’s the most wonderful time of the year, a day that doesn’t come soon enough. On Saturday, the Atlanta Falcons opened fall training camp, and the fans came in bunches; over 4,500 people showed up for both the morning and the afternoon practices.
Last season, the Falcons reached the playoffs with an 11-5 record and lost in the first round to the eventual NFC champion Arizona Cardinals. In the offseason, head coach Mike Smith and his coaching staff knew that there had to be some changes that had to made with the personnel, especially on the defensive side.
So they let linebackers Michael Boley and Keith Brooking go and selected seven defensive players in the NFL draft including defensive tackle Peria Jerry, who was an All-SEC player in 2008.
Jerry was the first player selected by the Falcons, but he almost missed the first day of camp because he didn’t sign his contract until late Friday afternoon.
“I wasn’t really worried about it,” said Jerry about getting the contract negations done. “I was really worried about getting here on time so I wouldn’t be behind. I’m very excited everything is done.”
Fans were excited about Jerry, but everybody wanted to see what tight end Tony Gonzalez was going to do in his first day as a Falcon. Gonzalez was able to catch a few passes from Matt Ryan during the scrimmages, but he knows that he has some more work to do.
“It’s still very tough,” said Gonzalez talking about the rigors of camp. “It’s something that we’ve got to do in order to get where we want to go and we’re going to do it.”
Fans were also there to see quarterback Matt Ryan, the reigning NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year and he seems more comfortable with the position that he is in than in 2008.
“I think personally I’m in a little different situation than I was last year,” Ryan said. “I think as a team we are too. We got a better comfort level with the coaching staff. It was a good start, but we still have a long way to go.”
Based on the feedback by the fans and the coaching staff, it was a good start to the 2009 season, but if the Falcons want to go places that they wish to go, they need wide receiver Roddy White in camp as he missed the first two practices of camp because he holding out for a new contract. But head coach Mike Smith is not upset about the situation, as he knows he will be in camp sooner than later.
“How can you be angry when it’s the first day of training camp and the first day of the 2009 season?” Smith said after the first practice on Saturday. You can’t concern yourself with guys that aren’t here. All we can do is coach the guys that are here.”
Training camp will continue until August 24 and the first preseason game will be on Aug. 15 as the Falcons face the Detroit Lions at Ford Field. The first preseason home game will be on Aug. 29 against the San Diego Chargers. The first regular season game will be on Sept. 13 against the Miami Dolphins at the Georgia Dome.
Jones can be reached at bjones@scoreatl.com.
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