Believe it or not the Falcons only rushed for 19 more yards than they passed for last season. If you just watched the Atlanta Falcons last season, and didn’t look at any numbers, you would assume they had a lot more rushing yards than they did passing yards in 2022, but they were more balanced than most people think.
Now, with Desmond Ridder being QB1 since day one of the offseason, Kyle Pitts coming back from injury, and even more versatile and explosive weapons added on offense through the draft and free agency, the Falcons believe this is the year they put it all together on offense.
Falcons beat writer for The Athletic, Josh Kendall, explained to The Morning Shift earlier today just how Atlanta will not only keep their running game dominant but add a dynamic passing as well, and Josh started by explaining how eighth overall pick, Bijan Robinson, will take their already effective and efficient run game to an explosive level.
“I expect more wide zone this year. They think that Bijan Robinson is a guy who can really run that system. He ran mostly RPO stuff in college which is different, but they drafted him because they think he really fits great in the wide zone, which is how they like to run the ball.” Kendall said
Josh continued by explaining why Arthur Smith and the Falcons believe Bijan will be effective in the wide zone.
“They think he’s got the vision for it, they think he’s got the intelligence for it, sort of that innate playmaking ability, the ability to run between the tackles which is important in wide zone. You talk about wide zone and you think about getting outside, but it’s a play that can hit at any point of the line of scrimmage, they think Bijan can really do that, so I think we’re going to see a lot of Bijan Robinson in the wide zone.” Kendall said
Now, how will Atlanta compliment what should be an explosive running game with Bijan Robinson, Tyler Allgeier, and Cordarrelle Patterson? Well, Josh believes Kyle Pitts, Drake London, and the additions of Bijan Robinson, who will also get reps at slot receiver, Mack Hollins, and Scotty Miller will make the Falcons dangerous at all three levels of the passing game.
“We’ve seen them try to take advantage of different levels of the defense in the passing game, and they’ve been unable to do it for one reason or another at the various levels. I mean I think we saw some accuracy issues from Marcus Mariota last year that kept them from working that deep/intermediate area of the field.” Kendall said.
Josh continued by saying “We’ve seen a wide receiver core that was limited two years ago without Damiere Byrd deep deep down the field, so this is the first year I think they feel like they can access all three levels of the defense for the passing game, so in short I think they think they can put all of what they want to do together this year finally.”
With what should be an improved offensive line, more offensive weapons, and a quarterback that shouldn’t have the accuracy issues that Marcus Mariota had last season, there’s no reason this Falcons offense can’t be one of the most versatile and explosive offenses in the NFL this season.
