Here's the all new and scammer free Falcons thread. Some previous highlights-

Top-15 #NFLDraft order: 1) HOU 2) STL (WAS) 3) JAX 4) CLE 5) OAK 6) ATL 7) TB 8) MIN 9) BUF 10) DET 11) TEN 12) NYG 13) STL 14) CHI 15) PIT

So we're drafting 6th.

At the top of my wish list is Jake Matthews or that Lewan kid from Michigan at OT.

I maintain that O-line is a greater need than D-line, and I think Clowney might be kinda overrated anyways.

Blah, Imo clowney will be a hof NFL player

Def need O line tho

You can't pass on Clowney. Can't see him being available in 6th anyways.

“I want to be transparent with my answer. . . .I’m going to give you a little different answer than what Smitty gave you last week. He was asked a question about how tough our team was. I read his answer. In many ways I would agree with him and in some ways I would not agree with it. I think the nature of the game is that it is a physically violent game. It is a tough game. To play football at the professional level, the college level and even the high school level, you’re got to be a tough kid. A tough person.

“I think a lot of our players are certainly that. I think, at the end of the day, if I asked you as a player, to give me brief definition of what toughness is, I think you might say something to me (like), ‘It’s how you control the line of scrimmage. Can you run the ball? Can you stop the run? Can you run the ball? Can you stop the run? You’ve got pass to put up points in the NFL, we understand that. I don’t think we did either one of those things very well this year. I would say if you look at toughness from that perspective, I don’t think we were as tough as we needed to be.

“It doesn’t mean that we want players that are going to end up in different sections of the newspaper other than the sports section. But I think we do want players that have the capacity to be tough and as tough as they need to be, to play right up to the line, to the edge of the line and we need coaches that are prepared to coach them that way as well.”

http://www.ajc.com/news/sports/falco...linemen/nckNL/

Falcons hire Cox to coach d-line.

http://www.ajc.com/news/sports/footb...ke-tice/ncfpt/

Hire Mike Tice to coach o-line

http://atlantafalcons.blog.ajc.com/2....pcclBAUl.dpbs

Todd McLure likes this hire

It's about time and it can only help.

Huh. I did not know Mike Tice was hired. Awesome.

I like it too. He worked with Smitty in Jacksonville. And Todd McClure thinks it's a positive for the team. Should be an improvement.

Cox has been all over the league but never in one place too long so I hope it's not just a change for change's sake. Though that might not be a bad thing considering last year's performance.

I like the Mike Tice hire too.

The draft can't get here soon enough!

Looking forward to bouncing back after last year

I'm kinda glad we had a tough year. Gets the riff-raff fans off the bandwagon.

I'm going to forget this thread exists unless I get my little "replied to" arrow on it so yeah, hey guys.

Here's hoping we get some combo of Jake Matthews/Gregg Robinson in the first round and a DL in the second!

Here is a great slideshow about the Falcons' cap situation.

tl;dr version is we are expected to have around $16.5M, depending what the league sets the 2014 cap at.

The radio is saying we hired Scott Pioli to be assistant GM

All I know about him is that he was highly regarded when he was with Dimitroff in New England,

then he got a GM job in Kansas City, where he thought it'd be a good idea to give the keys to the franchise to Romeo Crennel and Matt Cassel

Snowpocolypse! Yeah Georgia DOT!

Everyone alive?

I am

Man last night was brutal. Spent like 10 hours in my car them had to walk 2 miles home. I hope you guys are in warm places with lots of food and alcohol. Doesn't look like anyone is going anywhere today.

Was really really lucky yesterday that GSU closed at 1pm and I didn't have to go in. Like goddamn The Last of Us out there last night

You guys workin etc tomorrow?

Well guys the ice storm is going to be of "historic proportions." Be somewhere safe tonight. I'm heading to home depot to buy a generator. Expecting the power to go out.

Sigh Tony G. A little left over hard feelings from not being traded. His wife was reportedly furious over it. Rumor is he might come back to another team.

The Tony G. stuff surprised me. I thought he wasn't traded because that was his preference and now we find out he was definitely willing to go to another team. So awful we didn't get value for him. I guess we were hoping if we kept him that would improve the chances of him coming back next season. bleh.

What he said about Ryan was completely right though. 'excellent, but not elite' and 'he's this close' is a pretty accurate description I think. The fact that he actually told a reporter that does kind of seem like sour grapes though. If he does come back next season with another team that would be hilarious.

This weather is killing me. I don't know how they're going to make up this time at school..especially in the labs. Oh well. GL the next few days everyone.

This so much. A wasted opportunity.

Yeah it kind of sucks that we could have gotten a mid-late round draft pick for him if we traded him to a contender when we were basically done for the season.

The part that really gets to me is that we might have even lost another game or 2 and been in a great spot to draft Clowney if we had just given up on the season when it was pretty obvious that our ceiling was going to be around 5-6 wins at best.

Well there's nothing we can do about it now, and I'm feeling pretty good about the direction this team is heading with the cap space and management realizing that it's super important to at least be decent at the line of scrimmage.

Having great weapons on offense isn't worth much when the O-Line can't block for our RBs or give the QB/WRs any time to run a route or go through progressions.

If we can put together a decent pass rush and solid interior D-Line while improving the O-Line significantly we should be in pretty good shape next year.

I'd love to see us get a legit pass rusher in FA, and there's a few good options available. We should be able to get a great OT prospect with our first draft pick, and a good DT prospect with our second.

After that we still have a few holes to fill but we have enough cap space and this draft seems deep enough that we should be able to address everything in free agency and the draft.

We just gotta hope for a solid draft that produces a couple immediate starters and maybe even an impact player from day 1.

Gonzalez is going to CBS. Marino and Mr.Ed are out, Tony is in. Wow. He'll do well. He's intelligent and articulate. And not playing for a division rival

Yeah I think he'll be fantastic in that role

Jason Snelling retired on Tuesday.

Called it quits at 30, citing family reasons.

I'll always remember him as a guy who always hustled, especially on special teams.

We re-signed Babineaux!

3 yrs, $9M, $4M gtd.

He's still productive, and a great leader. I just hope he doesn't fall off a cliff anytime soon, at 33.