As has been the case in past years, we’ll be looking at which players have reportedly talked to the Atlanta Falcons during the week of practices for the Senior Bowl, a collegiate all-star game that will be played on Saturday, January 28, 2012.

Sources for this information, including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Twitter.

• CB Brandon Boykin, Georgia
• TE Ladarius Green, Louisiana-Lafayette
• WR Brian Quick, Appalachian State

As more information becomes available, we’ll continue to update this list.

The Falcons will have to make a decision on whether to keep or let Harry Douglas go in free agency. And you could make the case for either happening. The Falcons are expected to install a vertical offense under Dirk Koetter. And playing the vertical game is really not a strength of Douglas. He’ll make the occasional play down the field, but his bread and butter is really the shorter and intermediate routes where he can use his quickness and burst after the catch to make plays. So in that sense, it would make sense for the Falcons to pass on Douglas and find someone that is a better fit for the scheme.

But at the same time, it’s not like you’re going to run 3 or 4 verticals every snap of the game, and having a nice outlet option underneath to make teams pay if they set their coverages too deep is a valuable commodity.

Ultimately the main issue with Douglas is the price. For the right price, the team should want him back. But at the wrong one, it’s probably best if the team lets him walk. And that’s going to be the big question surrounding this year’s free agent market at wide receiver.

Last summer, the market wasn’t very big for a lot of players. Outside Sidney Rice and Santonio Holmes, no one really got paid that much. Now making $2-3 million a year is not chump change, but a lot of young receivers were expecting to cash in with lucrative long-term deals and did not. If that repeats this off-season, then a lot of players like Douglas could be left out in the cold. And that would make the chances that the Falcons can get Douglas for a modest price very high. And it seems based off deals that players like Earl Bennett and Jordy Nelson signed this past fall/winter, it doesn’t seem like teams are willing to break the bank for these complementary receivers.

If the Falcons are looking for a receiver that is a better fit in their more vertical-oriented passing attack, targeting someone with size and speed would be best. There are a number of players that sort of fit that mold as guys that are good going down the field. The ideal player would likely be Brandon Lloyd (St. Louis), but he’s likely to price him out of the Falcons range since Lloyd should be looking for starter’s money. The same could probably be said of Pierre Garcon (Indianapolis).

Next on the Falcons list would probably be Mario Manningham (NY Giants) and Robert Meachem (New Orleans). But both are quasi-starters for their respective teams, and will probably be looking for more lucrative deals and playing time. But with both, they have proven they are good No. 3 receivers and able to make big plays downfield, their primary roles with their respective teams.

Another pair of cheaper options I like are Chaz Schilens (Oakland) and Devin Aromashodu (Minnesota). Schilens is more big than fast, but his size allows him to make plays downfield because he can be so valuable on the jump balls. Aromashodu has a better mix of size and speed. The good thing about both is that it’s very likely both will come fairly cheap because neither have had more than 29 receptions in a single year. Frankly, if the Falcons could keep Douglas as well as sign one of them, it would be a good move for their wide receiver corps.

One issue the Falcons may face if they do choose to retain Douglas, is that whoever could potentially join the team as the fourth receiver would need to be able to play on special teams. That is a role that none of the previously mentioned free agents have really done. It’s a role that Douglas has performed little of. And it’s why the team has valued players like Eric Weems and Kerry Meier in recent years. That could make a player like Devin Thomas (NY Giants) a bit more attractive. Of course Thomas has been plagued with inconsistency throughout his career and has made minimal contributions on offense. If the Falcons signed him, it might be too lofty of expectations to think he will make any significant contributions on offense. It could be similar to when the Jaguars signed Kassim Osgood a year ago to be more of an offensive playmaker than he was in San Diego, and that did not work out so well.

Either way, the Falcons will have to address their receiver depth this off-season. If none of those free agents can be had at the right price, they might turn their attention to getting bigger and faster via the draft.

To be honest, when I wrote up the free agent focus article on the running back position, I completely ignored the fullback position. It was an error on my part because it’s a position that is often overlooked, but in the case of the Falcons it certainly will be worth watching this off-season.

New offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter by many accounts prefers to use more two-tight end sets rather than using the traditional fullback position. But from what I’ve read, it seemed that in Jacksonville Greg Jones was so good as a lead blocker that he couldn’t really phase him out like he normally would. For much of the Mike Smith/Mike Mularkey Era, Ovie Mughelli has widely been considered the best or one of the best lead blockers in the game. But that all changed last year. If I’m not mistaken, Mughelli injured his knee early against the Bears (perhaps on the opening kickoff), but proceeded to continue playing with the injury until he was placed on injured reserve in October. That injury could explain why Mughelli was largely ineffective as a lead blocker through the first month or so of the season. Or it could be age starting to catch up with him. But Mughelli was only 31 this past year, and other top fullbacks similar to him like Lorenzo Neal, William Henderson, Mack Strong, and Tony Richardson were able to continue playing at a high level into the mid-to-late thirties.

But all of this raises questions about his future with the team. Mughelli is coming off season-ending knee surgery, entering the final year of his contract which will pay him $3 million in base salary. That’s a hefty price to pay for a fullback, even one as good as Mughelli. Especially if the Falcons shake up the running back position as much as they potentially could.

Part of the equation will be how the Falcons felt about Mughelli’s replacement, Mike Cox. Cox will be a free agent, and he certainly had his moments as a lead blocker, but he certainly didn’t come close to playing at the level that Ovie has been known to play at over the years. But if Koetter intends to minimize the role of the lead blocker, then it’s probably smarter to go with a cheap but solid guy like Cox, rather than the more expensive Mughelli. One certainly expects that Cox can be re-signed for considerably less than the $3 million the team would be paying Ovie. Retaining Jason Snelling also would give them another alternative option.

The Falcons also need help at tight end, and likely will target some young guy in the draft to groom as the heir apparent to Tony Gonzalez. And it will be interesting to see if they target someone that is more of an H-back type than your traditional inline tight end. If that is the case, then it would de-emphasize Mughelli’s role and value as well.

At this point, I would probably be pleasantly surprised if Ovie Mughelli returns to the Falcons in 2012. Just the sheer combination of age, injury, salary, and the fact that the team has two decent alternatives in Cox and Snelling, probably puts Ovie behind the eight ball. I would personally love to see him return because I still think a healthy Ovie can be a very effective player on this team and within this offense. But I can certainly understand if the Falcons brass decide to move in a different direction.

I’ve already discussed that I believe the Falcons should be parting ways with Michael Turner this off-season. And if that were to happen, then it would leave a pretty large hole atop the team’s depth chart at the running back.

One hope would be that Jacquizz Rodgers can fill that hole or at least a large part of it. Rodgers was underutilized by the Falcons this past year, and he could blossom in Dirk Koetter’s offense. Koetter maximized the abilities of Maurice Jones-Drew in Jacksonville, and there are many similarities between the two players. But more than likely, the Falcons aren’t going to want to thrust such a huge responsibility on Rodgers. And by no means should the Falcons put all of their eggs in that basket.

Turner’s potential departure should improve the odds that Jason Snelling should return to the Falcons. Snelling is by no means great, but he’s a consistently solid and is versatile due to his ability to play a multitude of roles as a runner, receiver, blocker, and on special teams. He’s proven in the past to be a capable replacement starter for Turner, and thus should get another opportunity to showcase that ability.

But what the Falcons really need to do is go after someone that is in a position to potentially take over the No. 1 spot and be the sort of workhorse that receive up to 250 carries next year.

The big names on the market are Baltimore’s Ray Rice, Chicago’s Matt Forte, and Houston’s Arian Foster. But it’s been well-known since October that Rice and Forte will receive the franchise tag from their respective teams, and Foster is just a restricted free agent. So barring the Falcons packaging players and both of their Day 2 draft picks in a trade, they won’t have the opportunity to even sniff at any of them.

But the free agency cupboard still is not barren after those guys, just there is nobody that is clearly a top back. Cedric Benson (Cincinnati), Michael Bush (Oakland), Tashard Choice (Buffalo), Justin Forsett (Seattle), Ryan Grant (Green Bay), BenJarvus Green-Ellis (New England), Tim Hightower (Washington), Peyton Hillis (Cleveland), Thomas Jones (Kansas City), Marshawn Lynch (Seattle), and LaDainian Tomlinson (NY Jets) are some of the backs in that next group of runners.

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The team announced that secondary coach Alvin Reynolds won’t return to the Falcons in 2012, joining former offensive line coach Paul Boudreau as another assistant that the Falcons opted not to renew their contracts with the team. Reynolds came over to the Falcons with Mike Smith in 2008 after several years as the defensive backs coach with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The Falcons hired Tim Lewis two years ago to help improve their secondary play, and presumably he will take over full duties of that position group with Reynolds departing.

On the potential front of replacing Boudreau, the Falcons were reportedly interested in Jaguars OL coach Andy Heck, who served with both Dirk Koetter and Mike Smith in Jacksonville since 2006. In Jacksonville, Heck replaced Boudreau that year. But according to Tania Ganguli of the Florida Times-Union, Heck will be retained by the Jaguars under new head coach and former Falcons offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey. Boudreau has since been hired by the St. Louis Rams, the same team he served prior to joining the Falcons in 2008.

The Falcons have to make a decision with their backup quarterback this off-season. Chris Redman is a prospective free agent, and they will have to determine whether he’s worth bringing back. Redman has been solid reserve for the Falcons, but with a new offensive coordinator coming into the fold and him on the verge of turning 35, it may be the right time to move in a new direction.

It seemed like the Falcons were hopeful that John Parker Wilson would develop into the clear-cut choice for the No. 2 position by now, but Wilson showed minimal progress this past summer. So little that he was cut by the team and kept on the practice squad for most of the season. If the Falcons saw Wilson as the eventual backup to Ryan, it’s very unlikely they would have risked losing him to waivers last summer.

So that means that if the Falcons want to address their backup quarterback situation, they are likely to look elsewhere. Two options that immediately jump to mind are Luke McCown and Trent Edwards. What both players have in common is experience in Dirk Koetter’s offense. McCown had a disappointingly short stint as the Jaguars starter this year before being benched by Week 3 in favor of rookie Blaine Gabbert. But he has been a Jaguar since 2009 after getting traded there by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Edwards was picked by the Jaguars in 2010 after the Buffalo Bills cut him, and spent this past summer with the Oakland Raiders before being cut loose.

Neither player has really shown that they are better than Redman in recent years, but a good strategy for the Falcons would be to sign both players and have them compete directly for the No. 2 job. Unlike Redman, they won’t need to be taught a new system and their experience can help facilitate Ryan’s knowledge of the system as well. And one imagines that via the competition, the better of the two would emerge and in theory should be as competent as Redman would be.

One of the issues I have with Redman is that I think he is perfectly content to being the backup here in Atlanta, and collecting his $3 million or so paycheck. While people think that he could and should get looks by other teams, I don’t think there are any teams that are viewing him as a potential starter, just a backup with the same role/function he had here in Atlanta. And personally, I don’t think a team’s backup should be content. I’d much rather have someone that has some desire to be the starter and therefore will do everything in his power to try and push the starter, even when he has no realistic chance of landing said gig (like here in Atlanta).

Redman is going to be 35, and the end of his career is right around the corner. He should be chomping at the bit to try and get one more chance to be a starter elsewhere. If Redman had the previously mentioned mentality, the Falcons would have virtually no chance of re-signing him. But I don’t get that vibe from him. It’s somewhat a Catch-22, if the Falcons can re-sign Redman then they should not want to, and if they cannot, then they should want to.

I don’t know whether or not Edwards or McCown have such a mentality, but given their relative youth (29 and 30, respectively), I assume they are probably a bit hungrier.

What the Falcons do with the fourth arm in camp is up to them. They could give Wilson another shot, or they could look at other options in the draft. But they certainly should be looking into developing somewhat long-term that can be a backup to Ryan.

2011 was an interesting year for Matt Ryan. While he had a solid, productive season, he faced more scrutiny than probably any other year besides his rookie season. Ryan’s less than stellar performances in some of the team’s bigger games this year has caused much concern among the fan base on whether Ryan is truly this team’s franchise quarterback going forward.

Personally I think Ryan is that player, but I do think there is a lot of room for improvement from him as well as this coaching staff. Asking him to simply be a game manager is not going to cut it, especially if they cannot invigorate him with the confidence to be able to make the big plays in the big games when this team needs him to. Against the New York Giants, Ryan played poorly. Frankly, he played with the confidence of a guy that had just been handed the starting job a few weeks before. And while Ryan deserves ample blame for his impotent performance, I can’t help but point a few fingers at the coaching staff as well. Especially when I’m watching Alex Smith and the 49ers do exactly what should have happened with Ryan and the Falcons, which is basically playing like they have a pair.

One of the weaknesses of Ryan this past year was his ability to throw the deep ball. It’s never really been the strength of his game dating all the way back to his days at Boston College, but he’s been effective from time to time during his short NFL career (particularly as a rookie). New offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter is expected to install an offense that emphasizes the vertical pass, and so it will be critical for the Falcons to get Ryan to improve significantly there.

Personally, I think one of the reasons why Ryan struggled with his vertical passing this year is because of how much this coaching staff stresses not to make mistakes and turn the ball over. It’s why Ryan is consistently overthrowing his streaking receivers because “if you’re long, you’re never wrong,” a statement I’ve heard Ryan say more than once. Throwing the ball shorter, which will allow his playmakers like Julio Jones and Roddy White to go and get the ball should make him more effective. But at the same time it will allow defensive players more opportunities to make a play on the ball. But if Ryan is going to work in this new offense, then this coaching staff is going to have to be much more tolerant of turnovers and interceptions. It simply comes with the territory.

You hate to put it in a sort of ultimatum, but if this coaching staff cannot trust Ryan enough to coach him that way, or are unable or unwilling to coach him that way, then something has got to give and someone is going to have to go. Being too conservative and “playing scared” which in my eyes summarizes the disappointment of the 2011 season is simply not going to cut it anymore. Championships are not going to come to you, you have to be willing to go out and take them.

The measure of any good talent evaluator is not only to be able to determine where a player is currently, but also to project where a player will be in the future. In Tom Callahan’s book, The GM, which detailed the life and career former Giants GM Ernie Accorsi, one of the few things that stuck with me was when Accorsi stated he’d rather be accused of getting rid of a player a year too early, rather than a year too late.

And it’s that statement that leads me to believe that the Falcons should part ways with Michael Turner this off-season.

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Jay Glazer of FOX Sports reports that Falcons have hired Mike Nolan as their new defensive coordinator, replacing Brian VanGorder who departed for Auburn earlier this month. Nolan is an experienced defensive coordinator, serving in that role for 14 seasons. The Falcons will become the seventh different team that he has held the position with.

Nolan served as defensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins the past two seasons. This past year, the Dolphins were the 6th ranked scoring defense and 15th ranked total defense. Prior to joining the Dolphins, Nolan spent a year as the defensive coordinator of the Denver Broncos, where they ranked 7th in total defense and 12th in scoring defense. Prior to that, he was the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers for four seasons, compiling an 18-37 record. Before taking the 49ers job, he was the Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator for three seasons. The Ravens were a Top 10 scoring defense for the latter two years he was. He joined the Ravens coaching staff in 2001 as their wide receivers coach. For 2001 and 2002, he coached alongside current Falcons head coach Mike Smith. Prior to joining the Ravens, he was the defensive coordinator of three different teams: New York Giants (1993-96) under former Falcons head coach Dan Reeves, Washington (1997-99), and New York Jets (2000). Prior to joining the Jets, he coordinated 4-3 defenses, and since then he has worked primarily with 3-4 defenses.

It is not known if the Falcons will continue with their 4-3 defense, or try and transition to a 3-4 scheme. The last time the Falcons were a 3-4 defense, it was in 2002-03 under coordinator Wade Phillips. For much of the 1980s and early 1990s, the Falcons were a 3-4 defense.

Nolan is the son of former San Francisco 49ers and New Orleans Saints head coach Dick Nolan.

The team announced that offensive line coach Paul Boudreau will not be returning to the Falcons this year due to his contract expiring. Boudreau joined the team’s coaching staff in 2008.

Boudreau has served as an assistant coach in the NFL for 25 years, having previous stints with St. Louis (2006-07), Jacksonville (2003-05), Carolina (2001-02), Miami (1999-00), New England (1997-98), Detroit (1994-96), and New Orleans (1987-93). In 2010, Tyson Clabo was the tenth different blocker to make the Pro Bowl under Boudreau’s tutelage.

It is not known if the Falcons will hire a new offensive line coach, or potentially elevate assistant OL coach Paul Dunn to the lead position.