Falcons head coach Mike Smith makes no bones about what he’s expecting from his team in 2014, saying on Tuesday that he wants a squad that is bigger and stronger. Smith primarily needs his team to be those two things on the offensive and defensive line.
“One of the emphasis points for us as a coaching staff was to evaluate everything we do (and) one of the things that became very apparent is that we need to get bigger and stronger,” Smith said. “I think we’ve started doing that with our players.”
Right now, Smith and his coaching staff cannot work with the players due to the rules in the collective bargaining agreement. However, the coaches can meet with them. In the meantime, it is up to head strength and conditioning coach A.J. Neibel to get the players to where Smith wants them to be physically.
The Falcons went 4-12 in the 2013 regular season with a defense that gave up about 3,900 passing yards and allowed opponents to convert about 46 percent of their third downs. All of this to go along with an offense that averaged only about 78 yards per game running the football. Plus, the offensive line allowed quarterback Matt Ryan to get sacked 44 times.
Those numbers are precisely why Smith believes they need to get back to what he promised this team would do when he was hired as head coach in 2008.
“You have to win the line of scrimmage (and) have bigger and stronger players than your opponent,” Smith said. “I feel like we’ve lost our way, I’ve lost my way. The emphasis going forward (is to be) a bigger and stronger football team and win the line of scrimmage.”
Smith says that the changes to this team don’t mean they’ll become a totally different football team on both sides of the ball.
“I’m not saying that we’re going to become this three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust football team,” Smith said. “You’ve got to be able to run the ball when you have to run it and you have to be able to protect your quarterback. You’re fighting and battling for those six inches.”
One thing that could help this team is additions of offensive guard Jon Asomoah and offensive tackle Gabe Carimi. The team also added defensive end Tyson Jackson as well as defensive tackle Paul Soliai. The major theme of those four players is two things: bigger and stronger. That is something that Smith pointed out during his press conference, when talking about teams that have been successful in the past with this formula.
“If you look at the teams and defenses that I’ve been around that have been successful have had big men on their lines of scrimmage,” Smith said. “Sam Adams and Tony Siragusa in Baltimore and John Henderson and Marcus Stroud in Jacksonville.”
Smith does admit that the league is still being dominated by the passing game and around having a franchise quarterback. However, the difference is winning up front. That is something the Falcons did not do in 2013. That is what quarterback Matt Ryan says has been an emphasis for improvement for the offensive line in 2014 and beyond.
“We’re not naïve, those guys have taken some heat,” Ryan said. “They’ve had to answer tough questions all of last season and through the offseason so far and I think they’ve taken it as a challenge. They’re in there (the weight room) working as hard as they possibly can and I’ve been really impressed.”
Ryan says the turnout for these workouts has been great and he’s been given the opportunity to get to know the new players. It is also a chance for him to develop chemistry with second year tight end Levine Toilolo, after Tony Gonzalez decided to hang up the cleats. Ryan is trying to keep Toilolo from feeling too much pressure following up one of the best to ever play the game.
“You’re not going to replace Tony, it’s just not going to happen and that’s no slight (against Levine),” Ryan said. “It doesn’t matter who walks through that door, you’re just not going to be able to do that. That’s okay, we don’t need him to be Tony, we need him to be the best Levine Toilolo that he can be.”
Ryan is not getting the chance to work out with wide receiver Julio Jones just yet, with the star pass catcher still recovering from the foot injury that caused him to miss most of the 2013 season. Smith did say that the goal is to still have Jones ready for Week 1 of the regular season. He is expected to take part in walkthroughs, when the Falcons coaches are able to work with the players again.
Smith was also asked about the looming fifth-year contract option on Jones and what the team plans to do about it.
“I’m not going to talk about specific contractual situations,” Smith said. “I will say this, I do know that Julio Jones is going to be an Atlanta Falcon for a long, long, long time.”
The draft is coming up in two weeks from this Thursday. The team is currently slated to pick sixth overall in the first round and then be in line to add nine other players over those three days in New York City. The seeds have been planted for Smith to get his wish of a football team that will indeed be bigger and stronger. The next push will come over those three days in two weeks.
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