The Falcons announced that wide receivers coach Terry Robiskie will be adding assistant head coach to his current title.

Robiskie was among the first hires by Mike Smith back in 2008. Prior to joining the Falcons, Robiskie had spent roughly three decades patrolling NFL sidelines, getting his first gig as an assistant special teams coach in 1982 with the then Los Angeles Raiders. That came on the heels of a five-year playing career with the Raiders and Miami Dolphins as a running back and fullback.

Robiskie has spent time both as an offensive coordinator, most recently with the Cleveland Browns in 2004. He also served as an interim head coach twice in his career, compiling a 2-6 record. His first stint came in 2000 with the Washington Redskins after the dismissal of Norv Turner, which was followed up in Cleveland after Butch Davis was axed in 2004.

Last week, it was reported that the Falcons would not retain strength and conditioning coach Jeff Fish due to “philosophical differences.” At that time, it was reported that A.J. Niebel would be replacing him in the role. Well, earlier this week the team made that move official. They also announced that Marty Lauzon would be promoted to the role of director of sports medicine and performance, another move that was reported last week, after spending the past three years as the team’s head athletic trainer.

Niebel joined the Falcons in 2011 as an assistant strength and conditioning coach. He served under Fish, who was hired in 2008. Prior to working with the Falcons, most of Niebel’s NFL experience came working as an assistant with the Oakland Raiders for six years (2003-09). During that time he also served as a consultant for the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball and their Class A club in San Jose.

Lauzon began his pro football career working as an intern with the Montreal Machine of the World League in 1992 before joining the Ottawa Rough Riders of the Canadian Football League the following year. He joined the Cleveland Browns in 1999, and would then be promoted to head athletic trainer for his final four years there before resigning in 2009. He was hired in 2010 by the Falcons to replace long-time Falcons trainer Ron Medlin.

Andy Dalton will face a lot more scrutiny in 2013.

It was an interesting wildcard weekend. For my picks, I went 2-2 against the spread and 3-1 straight up. Had Andy Dalton and Cincinnati been able to move the ball early on against Houston, and at least gotten a field goal on one of their early drives, I could have gone 3-1 against the spread. But alas, Andy Dalton proved to be Andy Dalton.

The Bengals didn’t even move the ball past Houston’s 45-yard line until midway in the third quarter. The big question that arises in Cincinnati after their loss to the Texans is whether or not Andy Dalton is really their franchise QB. What appears to be happening in Cincinnati is the classic case where people are more focused on wins than they are production. Despite the Bengals record under Dalton, he has showcased himself to be nothing more than a below average to average quarterback.

Dalton is still young and has a lot of development to do. I don’t want to sound like I’m writing him off after his second season. The Chargers basically did that with Drew Brees, and look how that turned out. But the thing that is worrisome about young quarterbacks is not whether they are missing throws, it’s missing reads and making bad decisions that is concerning. You can’t have a guy that is afraid or unwilling to pull the trigger. And you cannot have a guy that is not seeing the field. Dalton is now in his second year in Jay Gruden’s offense, and the Bengals should not be forced to manage him as much as they have this year. That’s not a good sign going forward.

It doesn’t mean that they need to not give Dalton another year to showcase his skills, but they need to start thinking about a contingency plan in case Dalton doesn’t show the strides in 2013 that they hope to see. The problem is that you don’t want to find yourself down the same path that the New York Jets went down. The Jets under Mark Sanchez were 19-12 during the regular season in his first two seasons, and 4-2 in the playoffs. The Bengals are 18-13 with Dalton and 0-2 in the playoffs. With Sanchez, the Jets won despite him. There are similarities with the Bengals. They have a very good defense and one of the top defensive coordinators in the league in Mike Zimmer. Their offense is also predicated on the ground game, although not quite to the degree of the 2009 and 2010 Jets (who ranked 1st and 2nd, respectively in rush attempts in those years). They have one of the league’s best offensive lines, and they have one dynamic weapon on the outside in A.J. Green.

They don’t need to do anything dramatic this off-season. But I think a contingency plan that involves having another young, talented QB on the roster waiting in the wings makes a lot of sense. You don’t want to go into 2013 with just Bruce Gradkowski and Zac Robinson as your backup quarterbacks. If they can find a Nick Foles type in the third or fourth round, I think Cincinnati should jump all over that.

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A lot of the talk also today has been about whether the Redskins should have pulled RG3 from that game. I don’t get it. Maybe, I wasn’t watching the same game that everyone else was watching. But I don’t understand how people can say that the franchise quarterback that had practically single-handedly carried that team to a seven-game winning streak and into the playoffs, one of the few times in league history where a 3-6 team managed to make the playoffs, should be pulled from the game because his knee is hurt. His knee looked messed up the week before against Dallas, but they still won the game.

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I am joined once again by my friend Allen Strk to recap the Falcons 2012 season. We give our thoughts on a plethora of Falcon players and our favorite moments from the season. We discuss the health of players like John Abraham, William Moore, and whether Mike Smith made the right call playing the starters against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But quickly our attention turns to the Falcons upcoming playoff matchups, each giving our opinions on the different scenarios the team could see in the second round. We each give our insights on the Redskins, Vikings, Seahawks, 49ers, and Packers as potential obstacles to the Falcons potential journey to the Super Bowl. Eventually we wind up giving our picks for who will make it to the Super Bowl, as well as our thoughts on the many coaching vacancies around the league.

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Duration: 1 hour, 10 minutes

Allen writes for TJRSports.com as well as the Bleacher Report. His twitter handle is: @Allen_Strk.

If you have any questions and comments, you can hit us up on Twitter, post in the forums in the podcast thread, or drop an e-mail at: pudge@falcfans.com.

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Alex Marvez of FOX Sports reports that following an interview for the head coaching position of the Kansas City Chiefs on Tuesday, Falcons offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter signed an extension that will keep him off the head coaching market for at least one more season.

Koetter joined the Falcons this past January after former offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey accepted the head coaching position with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Under Koetter’s guidance, the Falcons had one of the top-rated passing attack, finishing 6th in passing yards. They also finished the 2012 season as the 7th-ranked scoring offense, and 8th-ranked total offense. Quarterback Matt Ryan set new career highs in all major passing categories, setting new franchise records in terms of attempts, completions, completion percentage, passing yards, and touchdowns.

Koetter, along with defensive coordinator Mike Nolan and special teams coordinator Keith Armstrong have drawn a lot of interest from teams that have fired coaches. Seven NFL coaches were fired on Monday. Koetter was set to interview with the Chiefs, Cleveland Browns, and Philadelphia Eagles this week. Both Nolan and Armstrong are candidates with the Eagles. Armstrong is also set to interview with the Chiefs and Chicago Bears, according to earlier reports.

Alex Marvez of FOX Sports tweets that Falcons special teams coach Keith Armstrong is set to interview for head coaching vacancies with the Kansas City Chiefs and Chicago Bears. Armstrong joined the Falcons in 2008 after seven seasons coaching the special teams of the Miami Dolphins. He also coached with the Bears for four years (1997-00) prior to his stint with the Dolphins.

Football Outsiders rates special teams play with their DVOA metric. Twice since joining the Falcons (2008 and 2010) Armstrong’s special teams units were graded among the Top 10. This past year, they finished 13th.

Alex Marvez of FOX Sports reports that Falcons offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter has three interviews lined up this week, while the Falcons have a first round bye in the playoffs. Koetter is set to interview for the vacant head coaching positions with the Cleveland Browns, Kansas City Chiefs, and Philadelphia Eagles. According to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, Koetter will interview tomorrow with the Chiefs.

Koetter joined the Falcons last January, as a replacement for Mike Mularkey who left to become the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. The 2012 Falcons offense ranked 7th in scoring and 8th in total yards. The Falcons were led by their passing attack, which ranked 6th in the league in passing yards.

Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that according to a source, the Cleveland Browns have already contacted Falcons Director of Player Personnel David Caldwell about the now vacant general manager position, following the dismissal of Tom Heckert. Caldwell’s name has been mentioned in connection to a number of potential front office vacancies around the league. Steve Wyche of NFL.com indicates that Caldwell’s potential popularity stems from the Falcons on-field and off-field success under GM Thomas Dimitroff. Per Wyche, down the road current Falcons Associate Director of Player Personnel Lionel Vital and Director of Football Administration Nick Polk could also be sought-after GM candidates.

Cabot also mentions that Falcons offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter is a candidate to take over the head coaching spot in Cleveland, after the team dismissed Pat Shurmur today as well.

Pat Forde of Yahoo! Sports reported on Sunday that after the University of Kentucky fired its head coach Joker Phillips, that according to sources Falcons offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter was among several candidates on the short list by UK athletic director Mitch Barnhart to take over the gig.

Koetter joined the Falcons this year after five seasons as the offensive coordinator of the Jacksonville Jaguars. He has been a college head coach before, with stints at Arizona State (2001-06) and Boise State (1998-00). During his nine seasons as a college head coach, he compiled a 66-44 record, including a 3-2 bowl record.

Fellow candidates per Forde include former University of Tennessee head coach Phil Fulmer, Louisiana Tech head coach Sonny Dykes, University of Florida offensive coordinator Brent Pease, Texas Tech offensive coordinator Neal Brown, and Western Kentucky head coach Willie Taggart.

The team announced yesterday that they have completed their coaching staff by promoting offensive assistant Glenn Thomas to quarterbacks coach, and hired Joe Danna as defensive backs coach. Thomas spent the past four seasons with the team as their offensive assistant. The team hired Andrew Weidinger to replace him in that role. Danna was previously on the Falcons staff as a defensive assistant from 2008-09 before going to the Miami Dolphins, where he worked under new Falcons defensive coordinator Mike Nolan as the assistant defensive backs coach. Weidinger spent the past four years with the Falcons as an administrative assistant to Mike Smith, after joining the team in 2007 as a scout.

Thomas replaces Bob Bratkowski, who moved onto Jacksonville alongside former offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey. Thomas joined the Falcons in 2008 after seven seasons as an assistant at Division II school Midwestern State. For the final four years he served as that team’s offensive coordinator, after working with wide receivers his first three years.

Danna takes over for Alvin Reynolds, and will team with Tim Lewis to try and improve the Falcons secondary.Danna was a college assistant before joining the Falcons, coaching defensive backs at James Madison (2007) and under former Falcons defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder at Georgia Southern (2006). Prior to that he spent four years as an assistant at Central Michigan, where he coached wide receivers, safeties, and worked as an assistant on special teams. Danna helped improve the Dolphins secondary in 2010, which improved from 24th ranked against the pass in 2009 to 8th ranked a year later.

Prior to joining the Falcons in 2007, Weidinger spent several years in various positions at the University of Arizona.