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Will the in-house gamble work?"WhiteFanposts Fanshots Library FalcFans Podcast on The FalcoholicContact The FalcoholicFalcons StoriesScheduleRosterStatsYahoo Falcons NewsYahoo Falcons Team PageYahoo Falcons ReportYahoo Falcons Depth ChartYahoo Falcons TransactionsYahoo Falcons PhotosOdds About Masthead Community Guidelines StubHub 鉁旹arly look shows Falcons pushing chips in on self-improvement for 2019New Stitched Brian Poole Jersey ,43commentsWill the in-house gamble work? ESTShareTweetShareShareEarly look shows Falcons pushing chips in on self-improvement for 2019Dale Zanine-USA TODAY SportsWe’ve all been wondering how the Atlanta Falcons were going to take steps forward in 2019 to improve on what was, in large part, a face plant of a 2018. Well, we’ve been looking in all the wrong places as to how that might go. Intuition says look outward. At least for now, the Falcons seem to be pointing us back in their direction. It’s been discussed at length here and beyond about what ails the Falcons: They have to get tougher and better in the trenches, they need an infusion of new talent, they need to get old contracts off the books and reallocate that money to better use, the coaching needs an uptick. In January, the Falcons took care of the coaching part with three new coordinator changes, and in February, the team released Robert Alford and Brooks Reed and let Matt Bryant’s option expire. One assumed that perhaps a release or restructure was on the way from then, before that glorious influx of new talent started arriving in March. The early word from the organization might be pumping the brakes on the assumed revamping. Just in the last week or so, Ty Sambrailo has been extended and flagged as the starter at right tackle, Vic Beasley has been discussed as perhaps returning on his fifth-year option (a cap hit of $12.8 million per Spotrac in 2019, good for fourth overall at the moment on the roster) and Ryan Schraeder ($7.75 million) looks to be sticking around as competition for now. Insert your favorite “wait, what?” GIF here. These are crucial decisions the team had to make this offseason. Beasley’s cap hit is prohibitive for a player who Youth Brian Poole Jersey , while laden with potential and character, has underwhelmed since his 2016 emergence. Sambrailo is a career reserve who is just recently proving he has starting capability, but still only has a limited sample of on-field success. Schraeder struggled in 2018 and was assumed to be looking for a new home. If anything, the biggest change is that Sambrailo now costs more against the cap. It’s fair to wonder how expectation and reality clashed so mightily in such a short amount of time. Past’s RewardsTo their immense credit, the Falcons in the age of Dan Quinn have been pretty steady at zeroing in on issues and correcting them in the offseason. In 2016, the team fixed its woes by adding a stalwart center in Alex Mack and a sturdy possession receiver in Mohamed Sanu to better run Kyle Shanahan’s system, and brought in a king’s ransom of young defensive talent and a wily veteran rusher in Dwight Freeney. In 2017, the team got largely content with itself, outside of bringing in Dontari Poe and, later in the year, Ahtyba Rubin, to better the interior defensive line. Those moves gave Atlanta one of its best run defenses in years. First-round pick Takk McKinley also popped in his first snaps to help the pass rush. In 2018, the team focused on fundamentals like blocking and special teams; moves for Logan Paulsen, Justin Bethel and Russell Gage were all hits in their respective roles. Drafting Calvin Ridley added a dynamic to the Falcons offense it sorely needed, and young players like Isaiah Oliver, Ito Smith and Foyesade Oluokun all flashed potential for down the road. Letting Poe and Adrain Clayborn walk in 2018 without firm replacements on hand hurt badly Stitched Grady Jarrett Jersey , a knock on the team’s philosophy to groom the talent on the roster to new opportunity. But more often than not, the team has been good about this part of its business. They’ve mostly earned our trust when it comes to addition by addition. But, for the first time, they’re beginning to ask fans to trust addition by maintaining stasis.Future’s GambleUnless something changes, the Falcons seem to be relying on Quinn’s return to play-by-play coaching to fix the problems that linger on defense. He’s said he’ll take a “hands-on” approach with Beasley, who will make the kind of salary that typically is given to a top-flight pass rusher. Make no mistake, this is a ticket for the riverboat. Right now, the team is gambling on Quinn’s coaching and Beasley’s potential to mesh for this season. This investment means Beasley will very much start if all goes according to plan, and with Takk McKinley already a starter on the DL, means they’ll be your rusher in the nickel package. It means the team might not draft an edge first in the draft like some hoped they would; they can only take on so many players that aren’t fully where they need to be at such a crucial position on the roster. Signing a flashy edge in free agency might not be all that realistic now; the big fish of finding Vic’s 2016 potential being chased by Quinn and Beasley in offseason training sessions. With Grady Jarrett’s contract (or franchise tag) on the horizon, the big investments for the defensive line seem to already be in place. That’s a gamble, and it’s not guaranteed to work. Nothing really ever is, to be honest. It’s the NFL, and you don’t get guarantees unless they’re in your contract. Sambrailo’s extension is gamble in and of itself, if only because of the strength in the draft class for the position, as is not voiding Schraeder’s deal before the new league year begins and free agency gets underway. The team is probably going to have to sit out on the bigger March conversations now Youth Grady Jarrett Jersey , with the cap as it is. They’ll have money to add a few guys, probably not any starters. The “draft and develop” mentality seems to still be the North Star for this organization. It’s hard to tell if, right now, that’s another wise move for the organization or a showing of reluctance to change and adapt in roster building techniques. The stakes are high right now for this front office and coaching staff. No one is guaranteed a 2020 if this team falters. They’re betting on themselves to correct the problems at hand, in part with the guys they’ve already invested in. They’ve earned our trust with their offseason decisions in the past. Should we be more trusting in the process, even if it doesn’t make a lot of sense right now? They’ve mortgaged the immediate future of the trenches for now on guys already in-house. Should we be encouraged or worried? It’s a roll of the dice that will either make or break problems that desperately, desperately need fixing. One of the best Falcons quarterbacks, in an era where quarterbacking was impossible."Welcome to Forgotten Falcons, a 2019 offseason series where we remember some quality players who have been largely forgotten by the fanbase over the years. Today, we’ll take a look back at one of the first decent quarterbacks in team history, Bob Berry. Time in Atlanta: 1968-1972Stats: 8,489 yards, 57% completion percentage, 57 touchdowns, 56 interceptions, 8.1 yards per attempt Stitched Terrell McClain Jersey , 127 sacks In the year 1969, when Bob Berry enjoyed his best run on paper with the Atlanta Falcons, the game of football was a very different one than it is today. Even the worst quarterbacks in the year 2018 were putting up numbers that would have seemed eye-popping in 1991, but 1969 football may as well have been played on a different planet. Just nine of 16 NFL teams threw more touchdowns than interceptions that year, and the league high for passing touchdowns was 25. The league high for passing yardage was 3,158 yards, and and the league high completion percentage for a team was 56%, both managed by the San Francisco 49ers. If you could throw more touchdowns than interceptions, much less a lot more, you were doing pretty well. It makes a season like Roman Gabriel’s 1969 MVP campaign, where he threw for 24 touchdowns and 7 interceptions, look insanely impressive.And that’s where we enter Bob Berry. Steve Bartkowski was the first borderline great quarterback the Falcons had, Michael Vick was the most exciting, and Matt Ryan is pretty much agreed to be the best in team history at this point, the advantages of his era notwithstanding. But Berry was the first good, capable quarterback the Falcons had Marcus Green Atlanta Falcons Jersey , and really the only one who consistently played at even a reasonably high level before Bart came along, with a live arm and good ball placement for his era. That 1969 season stands out because he tossed 10 touchdowns versus two interceptions, going 4-3 in a year that also saw the immortal Randy Johnson managed 8/5 and Bruce Lemmerman managed 1/4. Berry had two lackluster seasons and a quality 1970 (16/13 with a nice 58% completion percentage) and a very solid 1971 that saw the Falcons earn a winning season for the first time in franchise history, as partially chronicled in the extremely cool video below. The Falcons wouldn’t be that successful again until 1977 with Bartkowski at the helm, and while Berry can’t take sole or even primary credit for that success, it was his pass to Ken Burrow in the team’s final game against the Saints that pushed them over the top. A guy like Berry is worth remembering because he played for a Falcons team that was legitimately bad, riddled with the kind of crippling holes that we take for granted the Falcons will at least partially fix in the modern era but were just part of this team’s identity in the early years. Despite the very real odds against him and having to mostly share time with a revolving door of lousy quarterbacks, Berry did solid work and is one of only a handful of quarterbacks to achieve even moderate success for the Falcons. He’s been justifiably overshadowed by Bartkowski, Vick, Ryan and even Chris Chandler and Chris Miller, but he’s worth remembering. I wasn’t around to watch Berry play, but I’m hoping that those of you who were will share your favorite memories and long-lost clips of him with the rest of us.