The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Concerns to address
Five issues to watch heading into this week’s minicamp.
FLOWERY BRANCH — The defending NFC champion Falcons are set to wrap up their offseason program with a three-day minicamp that runs Tuesday through Thursday.
The Wednesday practice, which starts at 2:05 p.m., will be open to the public.
This will be the final time the coaching staff gets an up-close look at the 90-man roster before the team reconvenes for training camp in late July.
Here are five major issues the Falcons will consider while evaluating the mandatory minicamp:
1. There’s depth at cornerback. With the return of Pro Bowler Desmond Trufant to practice during the OTAs from pectoral surgery, the Falcons, after years of development, have some depth at the cornerback position.
Trufant is headed back to left cornerback, but will the Falcons leave Jalen Collins at right cornerback and move Robert Alford inside to play nickel back? Brian Poole is at nickel back, too. Rookie Damontee Kazee is working at safety but projects as a nickel candidate.
“You can’t have enough cover corners, cover guys in this league, the way people are throwing the ball around the yard nowadays,” said Jerome Henderson, the defensive passing-game coordinator. “When you look at us specifically, how many passes we saw to runs as a defense last year, people were trying to drop back and throw it a bunch on us. So, you can’t have enough cover guys.”
Falcons defensive backs coach Doug Mallory was elated with the return of Trufant.
“It’s great to get him back,” Mallory said. “Even when Desmond was hurt last year, he was in on every single meeting. Even though he was hurt, we didn’t lose his leadership. He was there every day.”
Trufant signed a six-year, $68.75 million contract extension this offseason.
With Trufant out, Alford and Collins improved their play last season.
“It was kind of a blessing in disguise that other guys stepped up when (Trufant) went down,” Mallory said. “If you look at Robert Alford and the level of his play and the level of his game went up. Jalen Collins was able to come in and give us some good and productive play last year.”
2. Rebuilt defensive line. Outside linebacker/defensive end Vic Beasley is preparing for teams to adjust their protections to stop him after leading the NFL with 15.5 sacks last season.
“I’m going to accept the attention,” Beasley said. “I know that other elite pass rushers around the league like Khalil (Mack) and Von (Miller), they get a lot of attention just like that. I know that we have a great line, and we have people that we have put into the puzzle and, you know, I think they are going to execute very well.”
Receiving the extra attention is a sign of respect of Beasley’s All-Pro status.
“I was definitely expecting it as I progressed as a player and became a better player over the course of my career,” said Beasley, who plans to play at between 240 and 245 pounds. “I knew that I would start getting more attention like the elite pass rushers in this league. It comes with the success.”
Defensive line coach Bryant Young wants to create a balanced pass rush that will make teams pay for over-compensating for Beasley.
“You always have protections where they can either (identify) the (middle linebacker) or slide to a certain guy,” Young said. “I think when you have guys that are able to put pressure on different areas of the line, you can’t slide the protection all of the time to one guy. We are hoping to have some balance there and we understand that may be happening sometimes when they are sliding to a guy.”
Defensive tackle Grady Jarrett broke loose for a threesack game in the Super Bowl, matching his regular-season total.
The Falcons hope defensive tackle Dontari Poe can push the interior of the pocket. They also drafted defensive end Takkarrist McKinley, who’s recovering from shoulder surgery, and are getting back Adrian Clayborn from pectoral surgery.
A pass-rushing line of Beasley, Jarrett, Poe and McKinley or Clayborn looks dynamite on paper. Poe, a twotime Pro Bowler, has only 13 sacks over 78 NFL games. He had a career-high six sacks in 2014.
3. Battle at right guard. For those keeping track of meaningless OTA reps, it appeared Ben Garland, during the two open sessions, received slightly more reps than Wes Schweitzer with the first-team unit.
Garland and Schweitzer are battling to replace Chris Chester at right guard. The