The Atlanta Falcons’ offensive line has a lot of room for improvement. Jon Chuckery already told you last week that three of the five starters on the Atlanta Falcons offensive line are in the bottom ten of starting offensive lineman when it comes to pass blocking, and those three starters are Jalen Mayfield, Matt Hennessy, and Kaleb McGary.
It may not seem like there are a lot of options at right tackle for the Atlanta Falcons besides Kaleb McGary, but Wednesday night on The Jon Chuckery Show, Jon explained why McGary is in the most danger to lose his starting spot along the offensive line. Chuck gives you a few factors that could lead to Kaleb McGary losing his starting spot.
The number one reason Kaleb McGary seems to be in the most danger of losing his starting position with the Atlanta Falcons Jon says is “the fact that obviously they didn’t draft him here with this regime, and they didn’t pick up his fifth year option”. Kaleb McGary was drafted with the 31st overall pick in 2019, and was a draft pick selected by the Dan Quinn, Thomas Dimitroff regime.
Arthur Smith, Terry Fontenot, and the rest of the new Falcons regime have no personal ties when it comes to Kaleb McGary, and they didn’t draft him, so they aren’t extra invested in him to try and make things workout. The Atlanta Falcons not picking up McGary’s fifth year option is already an indicator that he hasn't done enough yet to make them believe in him, so Jon says “I think that that’s the first point you start with.”
Jon believes the second indicator is the personnel the Falcons brought in this offseason on the offensive line. This offseason the Atlanta Falcons have brought in Germain Ifedi, who has been a starting tackle in this league, Elijah Wilkinson, who has also has played in 58 career NFL games and has started in 27 of them, or the Falcons also have the option of moving Jalen Mayfield back to the position he played during his time at the University of Michigan, you guessed it, right tackle. Jon says “I don’t know if that’s going to make him any better, but maybe they feel like that would do something.”
Germain Ifedi is a guy that Chuck says “is probably a little bit better in pass protection, probably not better in the run, but probably a little bit better in pass protection”. Elijah Wilkinson Jon says “is a guy that has started, but my guess would be that they would probably want him to be a swing guy, so while the guys the Falcons brought in aren’t head and shoulders above the talent that Kaleb McGary is, it does put pressure and create some healthy competition along that Falcons offensive line.
When it comes down to it Jon believes that Arthur Smith and Terry Fontenot might not have much faith in McGary right now saying “I’m not even sure that even if he has a good year, i’m not even sure that they look at him as the answer to right tackle.”
Again, with the Falcons bringing in Germain Ifedi, Elijah Wilkinson this offseason, drafting Drew Dalman last year and drafting Justin Shaffer this year, Kaleb McGary might not be the only Atlanta Falcons offensive lineman in trouble, and Matt Hennessy and Jalen Mayfield’s jobs could be in jeopardy as well, but when you put everything together it seems like Kaleb McGary is the closest to losing his starting job, and maybe even being in a new uniform sooner rather than later.