Hard Knocks & Hard Liquor LIVE from Flowery Branch: The OFFICIAL 2014 Atlanta Falcons Season Thread
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Laughing at you n*ggaz like “ha ha ha”
Grantland: The Falcons are Super Bowl contenders
< Florida’s Muschamp knows what he’s doing, OK?
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By Mark Bradley
Julio’s back. That helps. (Curtis Compton/AJC)
As we know, offseason appraisals of the Atlanta Falcons have run from lukewarm (Football Outsiders projected them to be better but not quite good) to lousy (Pro Football Focusassessed theirs as the NFL’s 30th-best roster). Here’s one, from Bill Barnwell of Grantland, that’s wildly — wildly, I say — encouraging.
Barnwell lists the Falcons as one of the eight teams that can win it all. His reasoning:
I just think it’s shortsighted to write off a team that was so good for so long after one bad year. I can’t really prove that, because there just aren’t many historical comparables for the Falcons. I tried looking back at teams since the merger that averaged 11 or more wins per season over a four-year stretch before finishing with six wins or fewer during the next season. That fits the Falcons, who won 45 games (11.3 per year) from 2009 to 2012 before going 4-12 in 2013.
There are only nine other teams in that bucket since the merger. They averaged 8.9 wins in the season after their sudden collapse, and five of the nine won 10 games or more. It’s too small of a sample to prove anything, but it is fair to say teams have been on this roller coaster ride before and come out of it smiling. My suspicion is that the Falcons are one of those teams.
That’s kind of line with my thinking. I don’t believe the Falcons were as bad as they looked in 2013. (Although they did look pretty bad.) They had a bad schedule, a slew of injuries and not much luck. I believe they’ve gotten better via their offseason acquisitions. But mostly I believe those five consecutive winning seasons weren’t a figment of Arthur Blank’s imagination.
Which is why I’ve picked them to go 10-6. (So has Barnwell, FYI.) Which is why I believe they’ll beat the Saints on Sunday.
Do y'all believe?
Do y'all believe?
AVXL
Laughing at you n*ggaz like “ha ha ha”
Jones declares himself 100 percent for opener
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Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images
Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones was limited to five games last season after suffering a broken foot.
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By Chris Vivlamore
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
FLOWERY BRANCH —
Julio Jones declared himself “100 percent” and with “no limitations” for the Falcons’ season-opener against the Saints Sunday.
The Pro Bowl wide receiver will return after a disappointing 2013 season where he was limited to five games due to a second broken foot. He had surgery in October to place a second and bigger screw in the once before broken fifth metatarsal bone. The months of recovery and slow, calculated progression toward a return are about to end.
“I’m just happy to be back, just being healthy and going out there and playing in the regular season,” Jones said Thursday. “I was down last year. I wasn’t there to help my teammates. Now, I just feel great man. I feel like I’m 100 percent right now going into this game.”
Jones said he is at the point where he no longer thinks about the injured right foot. He continues to receive regular treatment.
And he has those new shoes.
Under Armour developed a shoe especially for Jones that is wider and has a steel shank. He said he has been wearing the cleat since February – well before he was cleared to start running. He has gotten more and more comfortable with the shoe. And the supply keeps coming.
Jones said he wears a pair about twice before replacing them. He wear a new pair for a game. You see, a 6-foot-3, 220-pound receiver isn’t kind on cleats.
“Very comfortable for me,” Jones said. “I don’t have to worry about them.”
AVXL
Laughing at you n*ggaz like “ha ha ha”
That was quickYou've always been cautiously optimistic about the local squads...how do you see us finishing with the Falcons?
9-7
"That is how you play cards."
what don't you likeI be the first to say I don't like the new stadium
I wish they would've have went with that other design.
I be the first to say I don't like the new stadium
I wish they would've have went with that other design.
Got to disagree with you breh, when I saw that new stadium on Hard Knocks I was like
, that other design makes it like any regular stadium
It looks beautiful architecturally.
to the city of ATL
It looks like some one took a soccer stadium and to make it into a FB stadium
plus I don't like the scoreboard being apart of the roof....The scoreboard it a weak
knock off what what they did in Jerry World.