Vic Beasley Is Perfect Fit for Atlanta Falcons' Revamped Front 7
What makes the NFL draft so compelling is its potential impact.
For a variety of reasons, teams can go from worst to first very quickly in the NFL. Of course, as the Atlanta Falcons can attest, the opposite is also true. The Falcons won 36 regular-season games in three seasons between 2010 and 2012 under then-head coach Mike Smith. Two years later, the team fired Smith.
The former head coach lost his job because a team that had been one game away from the Super Bowl in 2012 won just 10 total contests in 2013 and 2014. A top-heavy roster that Smith and general manager Thomas Dimitroff had built couldn't handle the decline of individuals and injuries because of its lack of depth.
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While that aggressive roster construction led to Smith's demise, it set up his successor, Dan Quinn, with some high-quality pieces to build around.
Quinn doesn't need to completely rebuild the Falcons roster. He isn't taking over a perennially poor team that is essentially a blank canvas. Instead, he already has his franchise quarterback, Matt Ryan, as well as two high-quality starting receivers, Julio Jones and Roddy White.
Adding Kyle Shanahan to be his offensive coordinator should mean that Quinn doesn't need to make (m)any big investments on the offensive side of the ball.
He can focus all of his efforts on the defensive side but, more specifically, on the defensive front seven. Quinn inherited one of the best NFL cornerbacks, Desmond Trufant, and one quality starter at safety, William Moore. That may not seem like a lot, but the combination of those pieces is huge for building a roster around a foundation of stars.
The Falcons' greatest weakness last year was their inability to rush the passer. Quinn's focus so far this offseason has been on addressing that, and he made the biggest possible move in the first round of the draft.
Vic Beasley was the best pass-rusher available in 2015 draft. The Clemson defensive end was an easy selection for the Falcons when they were on the clock at No. 8 overall, as he is the perfect fit for Quinn's system.
Over a four-year collegiate career with Clemson, Beasley compiled 90 total tackles, 52.5 of which went for a loss, and 33 sacks with seven forced fumbles. The 22-year-old primarily relied on his speed rush in college, but he showed off enough versatility to entice NFL teams early in the draft.
Beasley's tape as a pass-rusher was phenomenal at Clemson, but the major concern was his size and athleticism translating to the NFL. He eased that concern at the NFL Scouting Combine. Beasley measured in at 6'3" and 246 pounds while excelling in every drill he participated in.
Although Beasley struggled against the run in college, that won't be as big of a concern in Quinn's defense.
Quinn is expected to run the same scheme that the Seattle Seahawks have run under Pete Carroll. In that defense, there is a "Leo" position that pushes one defensive end wide of the offensive tackle. The Leo must be an outstanding pass-rusher to take advantage of his positioning, while the rest of the defense aligns to ease the pressure on him to perform against the run.
Even long before the Falcons selected Beasley, Quinn had discussed the Leo position with him, per ESPN's Vaughn McClure; Beasley said:
"He just said that he had guys like [current Seattle Seahawk] Bruce Irvin and other similar guys to me that could play that Leo position. That's kind of where we connected right there. I fit the Leo position because a guy like Bruce Irvin, we're similar body types. And we have similar games. We're both great edge-rushers.
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Comparing Beasley to Irvin is obviously meant as a compliment, but the younger edge defender should have higher expectations than that. Beasley has a burst that is special, and he has the overall athleticism and body control to be a truly outstanding pass-rusher.
In Dan Quinn's defense, he could have a similar impact to that of Robert Quinn with the St. Louis Rams. Quinn took a few years to fully hit his stride, and the Falcons should show that kind of patience with Beasley.
Speed off the line of scrimmage can be a wasted trait on some edge-rushers. For much of his early career, the Buffalo Bills' Jerry Hughes was a perfect example of this. Hughes could explode off the line of scrimmage, but he regularly went nowhere from there.
Beasley shouldn't have the same problem. His burst is even more impressive than Hughes' was/is, and he has the versatility to take advantage of the benefits it brings.
From the Leo position, Beasley will be able to explode off the line as aggressively as he wants. This will put major stress on the offensive tackle across from him to get back in his drop very quickly. Because Beasley can bend the edge, many offensive tackles are going to overplay the speed rush and hurry their drops.
This will open them up to a flurry of inside moves. Beasley can spin inside, but he can also plant his foot to push across the tackle's face quickly or use his strong hands aggressively to use the tackle's momentum against him.
In 2014, the Falcons didn't have a single player who could even come close to this kind of explosiveness rushing the passer.
They had just 22 sacks in 16 games, a number that was good enough for the second-worst in the league. The Buffalo Bills, who led the league in sacks, had 32 more than the Falcons. Atlanta's top sack-getter was Kroy Biermann (4.5), a limited defensive end who was coming back from injury.
Sacks alone aren't a viable measure of overall pass rush, but the Falcons couldn't get any kind of consistent pressure, either. They had the second-worst overall defense and the second-worst pass defense in the league, according to Football Outsiders' DVOA metric, which measures efficiency.
Atlanta will have to develop Beasley into a better run defender, but his value as a pass-rusher alone is going to make him a great asset in Quinn's defense.
Dealing with that kind of explosiveness and pass-rushing ability is always difficult for an offense, but it's even more so when facing a defense that is actively putting that skill set in the best position to succeed. By excelling in one area, Beasley is going to improve the pieces around him. He will free up other defenders by commanding the attention of tight ends and running backs when they stay in or chip defenders in pass protection.
Not only would that make it easier for players such as Ra'shede Hageman, Adrian Clayborn, Jonathan Babineaux and O'Brien Schofield to get to the quarterback, it will also force offenses to game-plan for a front that they never had to game-plan for last year.
Limiting how the offense can line up because of matchups is a minor but sometimes important nuance of the game.
The Falcons are in position to rebound quickly. The NFC South doesn't appear to be getting dramatically better for the 2015 season, although new Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston may prove problematic after his rookie campaign. If Shanahan and Ryan can click together, then Quinn and Beasley can immediately have a major impact.
Even if the impact isn't immediate, Beasley will eventually develop into a key piece for Quinn's front seven.
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