This week, Allen and I are joined by Rashad James to talk about the latest happenings with the Falcons. Those include discussion of changes to the right side of the line and whether it will work in the Falcons favor … Addressing the depth and rotation at defensive end and which players might step up opposite Osi Umenyiora to help the Falcons pass rush … Concern over depth at linebacker and which young players might step up including Pat Schiller and Brian Banks … Falcons depth at safety and whether or not more usage of Mike Nolan’s Big Nickel is on the horizon … Roddy White’s future in Atlanta … Revisiting the Julio Jones trade and other potential options … NFC South Division Race talk … Offseason Grades … Falcons Mount Rushmore … Are the Houston Texans for real?

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Duration: 1 hour, 4 minutes

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

Rashad can be found on twitter: @SaucedUp_Boss

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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DeCoud congratulates Moore

Falcons safeties Thomas DeCoud and William Moore were added to the NFC Pro Bowl roster in the wake of the San Francisco 49ers going to the Super Bowl. They will be replacing 49er safeties Dashon Goldson and Donte Whitner in this Sunday’s all-star game.

Also, Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan will sit out the game due to a shoulder injury he suffered late in the Falcons loss to the 49ers last Sunday in the NFC Championship Game. Ryan suffered a sprained AC joint in his left non-throwing shoulder. The injury will require up to a month for recovery, but will not require surgery.

Tight end Tony Gonzalez will also not be appearing in this weekend’s Pro Bowl due to personal reasons. He has been replaced by Minnesota Vikings tight end Kyle Rudolph. Gonzalez is expected to be mulling over his NFL future as he is finishing his 16th season in the league. Prior to last Sunday’s loss to the 49ers, reports indicated that Gonzalez was leaning closer to retirement after indicating at the outset of the year that he was 95 percent certain that 2012 would be his final year. Gonzalez’s contract expired once the Falcons season ended.

Wide receiver Julio Jones is the other Falcon player voted to the Pro Bowl team.

The NFL announced the Pro Bowl rosters today, among them included three Falcons players: quarterback Matt Ryan, wide receiver Julio Jones, and tight end Tony Gonzalez. The trio ties the Green Bay Packers, New York Giants, and Washington Redskins as the fifth most among NFC teams. The San Francisco 49ers paced the conference with nine players voted to the squad. Alongside the 49ers and Seattle Seahawks, the Falcons sent three offensive players.

Ryan broke his career-highs for passing yards (4,481), touchdowns (31), completions (394), and passer rating (100.2) this season. Both his yardage total and passer rating rank fifth in the league through 15 games. It marks Ryan’s second Pro Bowl appearance, after being voted to the team in 2010. Jones in his second season is making his first Pro Bowl. Through fifteen games, he has career highs in receptions (76), yards (1,142), and touchdowns (10). His yardage total ranks 11th in the NFL and his touchdowns are 6th highest in the league. Gonzalez is earning his 13th Pro Bowl nod, his 3rd as a Falcon since joining the team in 2009. His receptions (88), yards (889), and touchdowns (8) are the highest since joining the Falcons. His receptions and yards are both second-most among NFL tight ends this season, and his touchdown total is tied for third in the league among his position group.

A year ago at the midpoint I gave my picks for who I thought were some of the top performers for several superlative awards. I am doing the same this year.

Offensive MVP: Matt Ryan

Without a doubt Matt Ryan has been the most valuable player on offense. What a difference a year makes, as I had Ryan midway through last season as the most disappointing player (although he did bounce back to get the MVP by year’s end). But honestly without Ryan’s performance this year, I think the Falcons would be looking at just 5 or 6 wins instead of 8 right now. That is how much better I think Ryan is this year in comparisen to last year. He’s blossoming in Dirk Koetter’s offense and is in the mix for league MVP honors, not just some given out by some silly Falcon blog.

I should also note that on any team not helmed by Matt Ryan, Roddy White and Tony Gonzalez would also get love. Both are playing at elite levels for their respective positions, although Ryan certainly has a hand in that.

Read more…

Every year since 2005, members of our forums vote on several awards for who represent the best and occasionally worst performance for the Falcons each year. You can vote too by visiting the FalcFans.com Awards forum. If you’re already a member of the FalcFans Forums, just log in and vote. If not, then you can register by clicking here. Voting will end on Thursday, February 23.

Here are all of the honors that we have listed for this year’s awards: Team MVP, Offensive, Defensive, and Special Teams MVPs, Offensive and Defensive Rookies of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year, Newcomer of the Year, Most Improved Player, Assistant Coach of the Year, Mr. Falcon, Top Backup, Biggest Addition by Subtraction, and Biggest Surprises and Disappointments of the Year.

The team announced that wide receiver Roddy White will be added to the NFC’s Pro Bowl roster as an injury replacement for Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson. Tight end Tony Gonzalez was the lone Falcon to actually be voted to the team. White ranked first among NFC receivers with 100 catches, fifth in yards (1,296), and tied for six with touchdowns (8). It marks White’s fourth consecutive Pro Bowl.

At midseason, the pick was Matt Ryan due to some inconsistent play during September coupled with high expectations going into the season. But now, a new winner has clearly emerged.

That player is none other than Ray Edwards, who I discussed briefly when talking about the team’s top newcomers before. But Edwards was a major disappointment, considering the Falcons brought him in to improve their pass rush. And while the Falcons pass rush did improve overall, it was hard to tell just by looking at Edwards.

When you examine the fact that Edwards played twice as many snaps as Jamaal Anderson did last year in terms of plays where he was asked to rush the passer, yet generated the same number of hits and pressures is very telling. Sure, Edwards wound up with 3.5 more sacks, but if you really go back and look at all of those sacks, they become a lot less impressive.

In all of the cases of his sacks, they came on plays were a teammate of his was able to get pressure as well and essentially flush the QB into Edwards waiting arms.  Against Green Bay, his first sack of the year was the result of Aaron Rodgers spinning out of the grasp of Vance Walker into Edwards waiting arms. He had a sack in each of the Panthers games, and in one it came as a result from he, Babineaux, and Abraham all meeting Cam Newton practically at the same time. Edwards only wound up with the sack because it was to his side of the pocket where Newton slid to avoid the hits from Babineaux and Abraham off his backside. In the other Panther game, Edwards got backside pressure off the edge, but Babineaux got interior pressure, and with Babs in his face, Newton fled deeper in the pocket into the arms of Edwards. And then his half-sack against the Jaguars was shared with Abraham, because Abraham knocked Gabbert into Edward’s arms.

Now if you want to make the case that because the team’s overall pass rush improved, that Edwards presence and value was to help free up his teammates, then I will certainly buy that argument. And I will also buy that there were perhaps instances where teammates were assisted by Edwards in getting their own sacks just like he was by them.

But the fact still remains that the difference between Edwards and Anderson was fairly marginal, and that’s not at all what the Falcons were expecting nor paid for. Here’s hoping that Edwards is next year’s pick for Most Improved Player.

And just for the sake of argument, I would have also considered Sam Baker and Dunta Robinson. But in Baker’s case, he wasn’t particularly good in 2010, and many folks wanted him to be benched then. So the fact that he was benched this year in the eyes of many was just long overdue. And Robinson had enough good moments down the stretch to really keep him totally out of the doghouse.

This might be the hardest pick to make. At the mid-point, I chose Corey Peters as my pick. At that point in the year, he was playing his best football and looking like an impact pass rusher and playmaker. But unfortunately for Peters, the second half of the season was relatively quiet and it allowed for other people to be considered.

One obvious choice would be Sean Weatherspoon, who was picked as the defensive MVP. Weatherspoon had his moments as a rookie, but injuries and inexperience curtailed his success last year. The fact that he moved from role player last year to MVP this year, probably be default should make him this pick. But since I want to honor as many people as people, we’ll just leave him out of the running.

That could leave Harry Douglas, who went from afterthought last year to a guy that made some plays this year, particularly in the games in the middle of the year where Jones was out with injury. But unfortunately, Douglas sort of returned to being an afterthought once Jones came back from injury and was hitting his stride late in the year. So he too gets passed over.

Will Svitek would be another good pick, having stepped in and filled in for Sam Baker competently and being one of the major reasons why the Falcons were able to stabilize their ground attack and blocking up front. But as the season wore on, Svitek started to fall back to Earth a bit, so he too is out of the running.

Another good candidate would be Lawrence Sidbury, who hardly played a snap last year to finishing tied for second on the team with four sacks. Another good pick would be Dominique Franks, who also was a player that had a very limited role last year, playing on special teams. But late in the year with injuries mounting in the secondary, he was able to step in and solidify the nickel spot and seemingly improved with every single performance. But unfortunately for Sidbury and Franks both, it’s hard to pick them since while they were key contributors, their contributions were smaller due to the fact that they were role players and/or only played a smaller portion of the year.

So that brings us back to where we started with Peters as the best choice for the player that improved the most. Peters was a liability last year vs. the run, but was solid in that area this year. And his ability to make big plays and provide some pressure on the QB up the middle, coupled with the fact that he was a starter throughout the entire year makes him the best choice.

This is meant to distinguish which non-rookie addition to the team (i.e. free agent) stood out the most. At the midpoint, Kelvin Hayden was the pick. By year’s end, I can’t really take it away from him.

Hayden missed the last five games with injury, which is sort of damning that none of the other players were able to step up and take this honor from him in that span. And those other options would be Ray Edwards, James Sanders, and Reggie Kelly.

More on Edwards will come later, but he certainly did not produce anywhere to the level many expected from him. He was rarely a factor as a pass rusher, and while he made solid contributions as a run defender, the Falcons already had that player in Jamaal Anderson before.

Sanders got numerous opportunities to perform, having started for Thomas DeCoud early in the year, and William Moore later when he was out with injury. And while Sanders was okay, he never really stood out either against the pass or a run defender.

And don’t get me started on Reggie Kelly. He brought nothing to the table. He was tasked to be a blocker, but did very little there, and his lone reception was practically on account of charity by Matt Ryan.

So again, you’re stuck with Kelvin Hayden. Hayden was a solid pickup in the nickel. He wasn’t great all the time, but he at least inspired confidence that unlike Chris Owens, he was not going to get abused in that role. And while he gave his share of receptions, rarely were they big, game-changing ones like constantly seemed to be the case when Owens was in that role.

We might just as well re-name this to the Julio Jones Trophy. I don’t really have to explain the Jones pick, but I’ll just use this space to recap what the other rookies did this year.

Jacquizz Rodgers managed to make plays whenever he got opportunities as a runner and receiver, but most observers including myself can’t seem to understand why he did not get more opportunities. He runs as hard as any back on the roster, able to get yards after contact, and with his speed and quickness to make guys miss and hit the hole quickly, you just wonder what the coaches were seeing that the rest of us didn’t that merited him only getting limited carries. His primary role was in pass protection, another area where he was solid. I believe Rodgers could have made the race with Jones for this award much more interesting if it did not seem that the coaching staff was conspiring against him.

Akeem Dent played predominantly on special teams, and seemed to start to find his stride in the latter half of the year in coverage units. To the point that he might have been our best cover guy this year, which is saying quite a bit when you consider Weems had earned a Pro Bowl bid due to his abilities there just as much as his return skills.

Bosher has already been discussed. And Andrew Jackson and Cliff Matthews respectively spent the entire season on the practice squad or inactive, so there is really nothing to say about them. The only other rookie to make the squad was Darrin Walls, who played fairly well relative to his youth when pressed into duty late in the season, showing doubters like myself that he legitimately was deserving of a roster spot and not a player that just stood out from a weak group of corners this summer.

And I’ll briefly touch on Jones season. He was a bit inconsistent early in the year, and the injuries that plagued him during the middle of the year weren’t helping. But he really picked things up down the stretch and really was much more consistently able to showcase his game-breaking potential. He’s hoping he becomes even more consistent with showing that skillset in the future for the Falcons.