Atlanta Falcons: Play-Calling, Not Play Design Will Make 2012 Offense Explosive

Atlanta Falcons fans bemoan the signing of Dirk Koetter without even seeing him coach a game, but the Falcons offense will be explosive because of better play-calling even if the play design is similar to Mike Mularkey's.

When Koetter first got hired, Falcons fans and analysts didn't like the idea of bringing in a guy who led the Jaguars to the worst offense in the NFL last year. Michael Collins of Georgia Sports Craze described the move as:

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I'm all for change, and goodness knows the Falcons anemic offense needed to be changed.  But going from Mike Mularkey to Dirk Koetter is like changing your wall color from white to beige.  The Falcons need a shake-up on offense, and I honestly don't think Koetter is the one who can do it.

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However, to be fair, the Falcons offense was more of a yellow and they are changing it to an orange. Sure it's going to be very similar and there will be a lot of the same plays and same kinds of plays. However, when there is a complete change in what play gets called in which situation, that always is going to create the change needed in Atlanta's offense.

Let's keep in mind that he's not reinventing the entire offense. The Falcons don't need a complete reinvention of one of the best offenses in the NFL either. They need a tweak. So while Koetter's play design is almost identical to Mike Mularkey's, he will be giving a completely different script to the offense every week than the overly conservative Mularkey did. According to AtlantaFalcons.com's Daniel Cox:

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Just as the Falcons’ defense under Nolan plans to feature only tweaks, the same can be said for the Falcons’ offense under Koetter. 

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And that's not a bad thing. The biggest issue the Falcons had on offense was the bad play-calling. When the first play of every series is going to be a run up the middle to Turner, it's obvious to more than just Falcons fans. When the Falcons line up and have their tackles in a two-point stance, it was a pass and in a three-point stance, a run. The offense can't be that predictable.

In an attempt to increase the variety to the offense, Atlanta will be running more no-huddles in 2012 (via Gregg Rosenthal, NFL.com). This begs the question of why Mike Mularkey didn't do it before despite raving about Ryan to the press. Much like Mularkey, Koetter is seeing Matt Ryan as a great asset to the offense and has given an assessment of Ryan's mental abilities to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's D. Orlando Ledbetter:

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We spent a lot of time watching tapes together. That is one of the good things I like most about Matt. Matt will look you in the eye and tell you how he sees it and how he thinks, and not B.S. you. By the same token, I can tell him what I think, what I see and what the coaching staff sees. He takes coaching well, but he also gives good feedback. You can’t ask for better than that. I feel like Matt and I are going to be on the same page, will be on the same page and are on the same page.

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When the coordinator and quarterback are on the same page, it will only lead to one of the best offenses in the NFL. Just ask New Orleans Pete Carmichael Jr. about Drew Brees or New England's Josh McDaniels about Tom Brady.

They also run the no-huddle a lot because the coordinator trusts their play-calling. So while the offense may look very similar for the play design in Atlanta, having Dirk Koetter and Matt Ryan call the plays in 2012 will only lead to a more explosive offense.

Scott Carasik is an NFL draft and Atlanta Falcons Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the Falcons analyst at Drafttek and also runs the NFL draft website ScarDraft.com and the host of Kvetching Draftniks Radio.

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