HEADLINES

Atlanta Falcons News & Rumors

Falcons Denied Kyle Smith Permission To Interview For Bills’ Assistant GM Job

June 8th, 2022 at 10:32am CST by Sam Robinson

Brian Gaine ended up replacing Joe Schoen as the Bills’ assistant general manager, but the team did interview outside candidates. Buffalo attempted to meet with another, according to Brandon Beane, but was denied the opportunity.

The Bills identified Falcons vice president of player personnel Kyle Smith as a candidate for their assistant GM post, according to ESPN.com’s Michael Rothstein (on Twitter). The Falcons denied Smith permission to meet with the Bills, leading to Gaine’s promotion.

While Gaine may well have been promoted regardless of Smith’s availability, the Falcons used an NFL rule to ensure Terry Fontenot‘s top lieutenant remained in Atlanta. Since Smith is classified as Fontenot’s second-in-command, Buffalo’s assistant GM gig was considered a lateral move. That opened the door for the Falcons to block the Bills from meeting with the western New York native.

The Falcons hired Smith shortly after Fontenot took over last year. He had previously spent several years with Washington, finishing out his time there as the team’s VP of player personnel. The young exec ran multiple drafts for the team, which was without a traditional GM for a stretch, but left ahead of Ron Rivera‘s second year in the nation’s capital.

Buffalo now has Gaine, Terrance Gray and Matt Bazirgan positioned in high-ranking posts under Beane, who has lost a few top staffers over the past two offseasons. The Giants hired Schoen as their GM, and Schoen took ex-Dolphins GM Dennis Hickey with him. Buffalo lost Dan Morgan last year, when he became Carolina’s assistant GM. The Bills interviewed former Steelers staffer Brandon Hunt for the assistant GM job this year, but he is now with the Eagles, joining a team that lost four staffers to assistant GM roles this year.

Falcons Work Out QB Drew Plitt

June 3rd, 2022 at 3:04pm CST by Sam Robinson
  • The Falcons worked out multiyear Ball State starter Drew Plitt this week, Aaron Wilson of ProFootballNetwork.com tweets. Plitt worked as the Mid-American Conference program’s primary starter from 2019-21, piecing together a 59-19 touchdown pass-to-interception ratio in that time. The Falcons have 2021 UDFA Feleipe Franks as their third QB currently, alongside Marcus Mariota and third-rounder Desmond Ridder.

49ers C Alex Mack To Retire

June 2nd, 2022 at 1:56pm CST by Sam Robinson

After a lengthy stretch of contemplation about retirement or playing a 14th season, Alex Mack looks to have decided on the former. The decorated center is set to retire, Michael Silver of Bally Sports reports (on Twitter).

This will cap Mack’s 49ers tenure at one year and give the team another interior offensive lineman to replace. Mack started all 20 49ers games last season, rejoining Kyle Shanahan after the two previously linked up in Atlanta and Cleveland. Joining Ryan Fitzpatrick as a Thursday retiree, Mack finishes his career as a seven-time Pro Bowler.

Mack’s seven Pro Bowls are tied for sixth all time among pure centers, and although the Pro Bowl alternate era factors into this count, that number ranks behind only Maurkice Pouncey and Hall of Famers Jim Otto, Jim Ringo, Mike Webster and Kevin Mawae. Mack joined Pouncey on the 2010s’ All-Decade team at center.

The 49ers have had extensive time to prepare for this outcome and gained around $4MM in cap room Thursday by reducing Mack’s contract and moving $500K up to a June 2022 payment. Mack, 36, signed a three-year deal worth $14.85MM in 2021. That telling transaction will allow the 49ers more flexibility to potentially sign a Mack replacement, though Jimmy Garoppolo‘s $26.9MM cap hold has clogged San Francisco’s payroll for a while. It does not look like that lofty figure will come off San Francisco’s books in the near future, and the team entered Thursday ranking 31st in cap space. Mack’s adjustment still stands to help.

The Browns drafted Mack in the 2009 first round, and he delivered three Pro Bowl seasons in six Cleveland years. The Cal alum enjoyed an interesting offseason in 2014, when the Browns transition-tagged him and Jaguars submitted an offer sheet. The Browns matched the five-year, $42MM offer, but that deal gave Mack the right to opt out after two seasons. He did, doing so in 2016 en route to rejoining Shanahan — his Browns OC in 2014 — with in Atlanta. The Falcons handed Mack a five-year, $45MM deal, giving Matt Ryan a quality center ahead of a key season.

Atlanta’s Shanahan-conducted 2016 offense scored 540 points, which still ranks eighth in NFL history. Mack earned the second of his three second-team All-Pro nods, helping Ryan claim MVP honors. This season ended infamously in Super Bowl LI, but Mack made the Pro Bowl in his first three Falcons campaigns. He only missed two games during his Falcons years, playing out that five-year accord ahead of his return to the Bay Area. Mack earned his seventh Pro Bowl invite, albeit as an alternate, for his 49ers work.

Mack’s arrival helped the NFC West squad, which saw a severe Weston Richburg injury alter its center plans previously. This marks another belated retirement announcement on the 49ers’ O-line, which lost Joe Staley to an April 2020 retirement. The team responded by trading for Trent Williams. If the 49ers have a similar mindset two years later, some experienced snappers are available.

NFLPA president J.C. Tretter remains on the market, after the Browns made their five-year center a cap casualty in March. Former Broncos and Panthers starter Matt Paradis is also a free agent, with ex-Bengals starter Trey Hopkins and former Texans pivot Nick Martin available as well. The 49ers, who lost five-year left guard Laken Tomlinson in free agency, have some young internal options. None resides in the experience ballpark compared to the aforementioned UFA contingent.

Minor NFL Transactions: 6/1/22

June 1st, 2022 at 9:43pm CST by Ely Allen

Today’s minor moves around the NFL:

Atlanta Falcons

Carolina Panthers

  • Signed: DE Drew Jackson

Minnesota Vikings

Pittsburgh Steelers

Tennessee Titans

  • Signed: WR Juwan Green
  • Waived: TE Ryan Izzo

Falcons Convert Avery Williams To Running Back

May 29th, 2022 at 9:26am CST by Rory Parks

The Falcons selected Avery Williams, a Boise State cornerback, in the fifth round of the 2021 draft. In his rookie campaign, Williams appeared in 121 defensive snaps but factored more prominently into Atlanta’s ST unit, as he was on the field for 73% of the club’s third team snaps. That included considerable time as a return specialist, as he handled 20 punts and 23 kickoffs.

Neither his limited run as a defensive back (11 completions allowed on 14 targets) nor his efforts as a return man (7.7 yards per return on punts, 21.3 yards per return on kickoffs) generated much excitement. And while he may still compete for return duties, the club is moving Williams from cornerback to running back, as Michael Rothstein of ESPN.com tweets.

The switch is somewhat telling of the team’s belief (or lack thereof) in Williams’ upside as a defender. The Falcons have A.J. Terrell and free agent acquisition Casey Hayward locked in as a strong pair of boundary corners, but there is not much depth behind them, especially since Atlanta did not select a CB in last month’s draft. Although the team re-signed Isaiah Oliver to serve as its top nickel back, Oliver was limited to just four games in 2021 due to a knee injury, and 2021 second-rounder Richie Grant — who saw some time in the slot last year due to Oliver’s injury — is expected to work primarily as a safety in 2022.

Despite that, it appears that 2021 fourth-round selection Darren Hall will have the chance to continue honing his craft as a corner, while Williams will be tasked with carving out a role in a crowded offensive backfield. The Falcons just signed Jeremy McNichols several days ago, and they brought in Damien Williams shortly after free agency opened in March. The club also picked up Tyler Allgeier in the fifth round of this year’s draft and is of course still rostering 2021 revelation Cordarrelle Patterson. Qadree Ollison and Caleb Huntley round out the current RB depth chart.

Patterson is hardly a prototypical back, and he will likely continue to be utilized in a hybrid receiver/running back role. Damien Williams, meanwhile, has only received more than 100 carries in a season once in his seven-year career (not including his 2020 COVID opt-out), and there is a reason McNichols was still available in late May. So there is a chance that Avery Williams can make some headway in a rushing attack that ranked near the bottom of the league in every major statistical category in 2021, but with the sheer number of bodies in Atlanta’s running back room at the moment, it’s difficult to argue that this positional change bodes well for his professional future.

NFL Staff Notes: Texans, Ravens, Falcons, Panthers

May 28th, 2022 at 6:57pm CST by Ely Allen

The Texans hired D.J. Debick away from the Patriots this weekend, according to Aaron Wilson of Pro Football Network. Debick served in New England as a Midwest area scout, but, in Houston, he’ll have a bit more responsibility in the role of assistant director of pro scouting.

Debick is likely a replacement for former co-assistant of director of player personnel Matt Bazirgan, who departed earlier this month to join the Bills as a senior personnel executive.

Here are a few other staff moves from around the NFL, starting with a promotion up in Charm City:

  • The Ravens recently announced the promotion of David Blackburn, according to Wilson. Blackburn joined the Ravens in 2007 as an area scout, getting promoted to national scout in 2020. Blackburn’s most recent promotion places him in the position of director of college scouting, a huge move from where he started 15 years ago with Baltimore.
  • ESPN’s Seth Walder reports that John Taormina is no longer with the Falcons. Taormina joined Atlanta back in 2015 as a football analyst, working his way through a few promotions to his most recent position of director of football data & analytics. Taormina had served in the position for 11 months before parting ways with the team earlier this week.
  • The Panthers made an interesting staff move this week, according to Joseph Person of The Athletic, moving former-communications assistant Jordan Trgovac into a role in the team’s scouting department. Her role will assist with both college and pro scouting. Jordan is the daughter of former Panthers defensive coordinator Mike Trgovac, who has been a senior defensive assistant with the Raiders for the last three years.

Poll: Which Rookie QB Will Make Most Starts In 2022?

May 28th, 2022 at 12:40pm CST by Sam Robinson

As players widely linked to first-round destinations fell into the third, the long run of skepticism about this year’s quarterback class manifested itself. While this was the lowest-rated quarterback crop since at least the 2013 class, a few of these passers have paths to early playing time.

Russell Wilson‘s rapid rise notwithstanding, third-round QBs do not have an extensive track record for extended QB1 run as rookies. Only six non-Wilson Round 3 QBs (Joe Ferguson, Mike Glennon, Chris Chandler, Davis Mills, John Hadl and Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton) made at least 10 starts as rookies. (Wilson is the only third-round QB to start a full season.) The bar is low for the likes of Desmond Ridder, Malik Willis and Matt Corral, but they each landed in interesting situations.

Conversations around starter promotions for this year’s class must first include Kenny Pickett, who ended up going 54 spots before the next quarterback came off the board. The Pittsburgh alum, who will turn 24 next month, was a four-year starter at the ACC school. Pickett’s NFL entrance looks similar to new teammate Mitchell Trubisky‘s. The No. 2 overall choice in 2017, Trubisky unseated Glennon after the latter signed with the Bears that offseason. A value gap between being picked second and 20th certainly exists, but the Steelers clearly have Pickett penciled in as their long-term preference.

Four of the five QBs taken in last year’s first round were full-time starters by September, while three of the four 2020 first-rounders moved to the top depth chart position by October. The Steelers bumped 2004 No. 11 overall pick Ben Roethlisberger into their lineup in Week 3 of his rookie year, following a Tommy Maddox injury. How eager will they be to put Pickett out there? Trubisky has 50 career starts to his credit, and the oft-maligned Bears draftee rebuilt his value in Buffalo — to some degree — to create a bit of a market in March. A Trubisky-Mason Rudolph depth chart adds some fuel to a scenario in which Pickett waits a bit before taking the reins.

The second quarterback chosen this year, Ridder joins a Falcons team amid a full-scale rebuild. This is a similar situation to the one Mills walked into in Houston. Ridder started four seasons at Cincinnati, topping it off by helping the Bearcats become the first Group of Five team invited to the College Football Playoff. Marcus Mariota resides as Atlanta’s stopgap starter, and while Ridder’s No. 74 overall draft slot does not mandate a lengthy look as the team’s long-term arm, Mariota has not made it past October as a starter since 2018.

The former Arthur Smith Titans pupil would stand to buy Ridder time in a low-expectations season post-Matt Ryan, but Ridder has a clear path to an extended look — if he proves worthy in the coming months.

Willis’ tumble doubled as one of the modern draft’s most notable freefalls. Linked to teams in the top half of the first round, the Liberty prospect fell to No. 86, when the Titans traded up for him. Of the top QBs taken this year, Willis seemingly has the best chance for a full-on redshirt. Ryan Tannehill has not seen his job threatened since taking over for Mariota midway through the 2019 slate, though the Titans have featured one of the lowest-profile QB2 situations since Mariota left for Las Vegas.

Willis’ all-around skillset, which allowed the Auburn transfer to nearly put up a 3,000-1,000 season during a year in which he accounted for 40 touchdowns, will make things interesting for Tennessee — if the Titans struggle after losing a few key offensive starters.

Perhaps the biggest wild card here, Corral resides on a Panthers team that spent the past two offseasons trying to made a big quarterback splash. Sam Darnold still represents Carolina’s projected Week 1 starter, unless the team finally decides to acquire Baker Mayfield. The Panthers have balked at trading for the disgruntled Browns QB for several weeks, due to his $18.9MM fully guaranteed contract. Darnold and Corral’s performance this offseason may well determine if Mayfield ends up a Panther, with Matt Rhule on the hot seat and Darnold showing little — albeit behind a bad offensive line — in 2021. Corral finished last season with a 20-to-5 TD-to-INT ratio, adding 11 rushing scores, and led Ole Miss to its first major bowl game in six years.

Which quarterback will make the most starts for his team this season? Vote in PFR’s latest poll and weigh in with your thoughts in the comments section.

Which rookie quarterback will make the most starts this season?
Kenny Pickett 62.93% (927 votes)
Matt Corral 14.80% (218 votes)
Desmond Ridder 14.66% (216 votes)
Malik Willis 4.82% (71 votes)
Another QB (explain in comments) 2.78% (41 votes)
Total Votes: 1,473

Falcons Waive DL John Cominsky

May 26th, 2022 at 6:45pm CST by Sam Robinson

A rotational defensive lineman with the Falcons, John Cominsky hit the waiver wire Thursday. The Falcons moved on from the former fourth-round pick.

The team will create nearly $1MM in cap space by jettisoning Cominsky, who was going into the final year of his rookie contract. He will hit free agency if unclaimed in the next 24 hours. Atlanta, however, used some of its available space by signing running back Jeremy McNichols earlier Thursday.

Cominsky, 26, emerged out of Charleston (West Virginia) in 2019. His most notable season came in 2020, when he saw action on 44% of Atlanta’s defensive plays. The 285-pound defender registered a sack and three tackles for loss that year. Last season, the Falcons’ Dean Pees-headed defensive staff only used Cominsky in four games and on just 13 defensive plays.

The Falcons have some questions about how their non-Grady Jarrett front seven will look, with even Deion Jones‘ status up in the air. The team used a second-round pick on Marlon Davidson in 2020, but he started just one game last season. Eleven-game starter Tyeler Davison is no longer with the team; the Falcons released him in March. This would seemingly clear a path for Davidson. The team did not use a draft choice on a pure D-lineman, though it did add two edge rushers (Arnold Ebiketie and DeAngelo Malone) on Day 2.

Latest On Falcons, Deion Jones

May 26th, 2022 at 3:37pm CST by Sam Robinson

One of the Falcons’ few Super Bowl LI cornerstones still with the team, Deion Jones will be sidelined for a while. The veteran linebacker underwent shoulder surgery recently, and he will not be ready until training camp.

This operation, which Arthur Smith called a cleanup procedure (via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s D. Orlando Ledbetter), further complicates Jones’ status. The only way for the Falcons to generate any kind of cap savings by parting ways with the veteran linebacker would be a post-June 1 trade. Jones’ surgery stands to hit pause on those rumors for a while.

A 2016 second-round pick, Jones has anchored Atlanta’s linebacking corps throughout his career. He has already returned five interceptions for touchdowns. Only three linebackers — Hall of Famers Derrick Brooks and Bobby Bell and longtime pro Karlos Dansby — have notched more pick-sixes (six apiece) in NFL history. The six-year starter made 137 tackles under new DC Dean Pees last year. Jones, however, has not made a Pro Bowl since 2017 and carries the highest cap number on the Falcons’ payroll — by a wide margin.

Tied to a $20MM cap figure this year, Jones has two seasons left on his contract. Thanks to two 2021 restructures, the Falcons releasing Jones after June 1 would slam them with $18MM in dead money and save them barely $1MM. The team already has $63MM in dead-money charges, much of that from the dead-money record ($40MM) on Matt Ryan‘s contract, but the regime that drafted and extended Jones is gone. The Athletic’s Jeff Schultz recently tabbed Jones as almost certain to depart Atlanta soon.

Once healthy, Jones will be worth monitoring as a trade candidate. While teams might be leery of the $9.6MM (guaranteed) and $11.9MM (nonguaranteed) salaries he is due over the next two years, the LSU product is still just 27 and has missed only one game over the past three seasons. Jones deferred $4MM of his 2021 salary to 2022; the Falcons already paid that out as a March roster bonus. A post-June 1 trade would save the Falcons more than $10MM, though they would likely collect a low-level return.

Atlanta signed ex-Titans first-rounder and Pees charge Rashaan Evans in April and drafted Troy Andersen in Round 2. Despite losing Foyesade Oluokun in free agency, the team also added Nick Kwiatkoski late in free agency and has Mykal Walker returning as well. It will be interesting to see if the Falcons hang onto Jones or if he will be another piece moved as the team rebuilds.

Load More Posts