Bleacher Report - Atlanta Falcons

Roddy White: 'I Know We Know What It Takes to Get over the Super Bowl Hump'

Knox Bardeen — Sat, 18 May 2013 07:17:11 -0400

Playoff obstacles are nothing new to this Atlanta Falcons football team. In fact, enduring and overcoming past postseason hardships has made this team a more cohesive unit and taught them how to push forward.

With the arrival of general manager Thomas Dimitroff and head coach Mike Smith in 2008 came unparalleled success for the franchise. In 2009 the Falcons put together their first back-to-back winning seasons in franchise history. Since 2008 the Falcons have won 56 games and been to the playoffs four times in five seasons.

But the team’s first playoff win under Smith as coach and Matt Ryan as quarterback was elusive. After three one-and-done appearances in the postseason, the Falcons found a way in 2012 to put the pain of postseason’s past behind them by beating the Seattle Seahawks in the divisional round of the playoffs and advancing to the NFC Championship Game.

The Falcons came up just a few yards shy of beating the San Francisco 49ers to move on to Super Bowl XLVII and that pain is something that still sticks with wide receiver Roddy White.

“When you’re 10 yards away from a Super Bowl and you’re right there at the doorstep, it adds incentive to make you go even harder than you’ve actually gone [before]," said White, almost four months removed from the loss at home to the 49ers.

With the recent success of the franchise, with all the pieces Dimtroff has put together for this team, Atlanta is extremely close to the ultimate goal of a Super Bowl. The Falcons are in absolute “win now” mode and the next playoff obstacle for Smith and Ryan and every other player on the roster is making it to Super Bowl XLVIII in New Jersey after the 2013 season.

The Falcons learned so much by suffering through three painfully early playoff exits that now White feels getting past this next obstacle and into the Super Bowl will be easier than getting the playoff-win monkey off their backs last season.

“I know we know what it takes to get over the Super Bowl hump,” said White. “So now the players we all realize we need to get to the Super Bowl. Everybody’s on the same page, so it’s time for us to get over the hump.”

White has been working feverishly in the offseason to prepare for the 2013 campaign. He said he had a specific routine that he follows, a training regimen that includes football activities, workouts and diet, and even the rewarding opportunity to take some time to teach kids about health and football.

White will take two days on June 17 and 18 in Marietta, Ga. to team up with ProCamps and popchips® at Lassiter High School and put on a football camp for boys and girls between the ages of seven and 14.

The advanced kids will doing a lot of 7-on-7 drills and activities that White called “more competitive” in nature. The younger kids will be learning football fundamentals, and everyone will be eating popchips®.

“Popchips, they’re doing an excellent job of teaching kids how to eat healthy and giving out healthy snacks and things like that,” said White. “We need people like that because of the obesity problem that kids are going through at such a young age.”

Once White finishes with the kids at his camp, he’ll return his full attention to the Falcons, who he feels have done an excellent job in the offseason at bringing in talent to upgrade the team.

“I think the Steven Jackson move was a great move for us,” said White. “It [the offense] will be much more balanced. That guy can run, catch; he’s a three-down back so we won’t ever have to take him out of the game.”

Being able to leave Jackson in the game at running back on all downs will help offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter disguise his play-calling even more in 2013. Instead of having to alternate running backs Michael Turner and Jacquizz Rodgers for different aspects of the offensive play-calling, having Jackson in there all the time will make it tougher for defensive coordinators to catch up with what Koetter’s offense does on a down-by-down basis.

That will greatly enhance on of Koetter’s best traits: His aggressive tendencies on offense.

White called Koetter a “fearless play-caller” and said he expects the offense in 2013 to be even better and to dial up big things. This Falcons offensive unit will regularly be on the attack and have a number of new wrinkles with the addition of Jackson and the natural and needed progression by Koetter from Year 1 to Year 2 as coordinator.

Another aspect of the Falcons offense to watch out for in 2013 is slot receiver Harry Douglas, who caught 38 passes last year and has averaged just over 30 catches per year in his four pro seasons (he missed the entire 2009 season with a knee injury).

White said he’s anxious for Douglas to break out and marvels over Douglas’ work ethic and preparation techniques.

“He’s [Douglas] kind of the hidden guy that’s waiting to explode,” said White. “I’m just hoping this is the year he takes off and all of us get 1,000 yards, just like the [Indianapolis] Colts when they had all those guys running up and down the field and catching all those balls.”

With White, Julio Jones and Tony Gonzalez on the team, White admits it will be hard to find enough touches for Douglas, who White believes would catch 60 to 70 passes if the receiving corps were less crowded. But Koetter knows how to integrate numerous weapons into an offensive scheme, and with Jackson now in Atlanta, defenses will have to prepare more for an Atlanta rushing attack which will open up passing lanes for not only the Falcons’ “Big Three” but Douglas too.

This Atlanta team has improved in the offseason, but White’s also noticed improvement within the division (he still calls new Tampa Bay cornerback Darrelle Revis the best cornerback in the game) and among the powers of the NFC, San Francisco and Seattle.

“I still think from top to bottom we’re one of the best teams, if not the best team in the NFC,” said White. “We’ve just got to, with the experience that we have, go out there and find ways to win.”

And if the Falcons don’t find a way to take that next step?

“If we don’t get to the Super Bowl it’s going to be a disappointing season for the Atlanta Falcons,” said White.

Unless otherwise noted, all quotes and statements were obtained firsthand.

Knox Bardeen is the NFC South lead writer for Bleacher Report and the author of “100 Things Falcons Fans Should Know & Do Before they Die.” Be sure to follow Knox on Twitter.

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Atlanta Falcons: 5 Players Poised for Breakout Campaigns in 2013

Al Bruce — Fri, 17 May 2013 03:59:47 -0400

As the offseason rolls on, we'll continue our look at the Falcons’ pre-training camp roster by discussing which players are poised for breakout seasons in 2013.

What's a breakout season? For the purposes of our discussion, we'll simply define a breakout season as one in which the player reaches a major milestone that he hasn't yet hit in his career (Pro Bowl, leading the team in a key statistical category, making an impact as a full-time starter for the first time, etc.).

Since the rookies have not competed in full pads yet, this evaluation will be limited to veteran players with at least one year on the team.

The players who made this list were evaluated based on their age, on-field performance and the role they will be expected to play for the team in 2013.

Let’s dive in.

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The 5 Biggest Takeaways from the Atlanta Falcons' Rookie Minicamp

Al Bruce — Mon, 13 May 2013 07:16:06 -0400

Let's be real about this. Besides the obvious difference in the level of talent on the field and the football terminology, rookie minicamp in the NFL is a lot like what summer passing league was in high school for many of us.

Players are in helmets, t-shirts and shorts instead of full pads, and they spent just as much time in a classroom as they do on the field. It's just a taste.

Football is still a contact sport. The real player evaluations can't happen until these guys starting hitting.

Nevertheless, NFL coaches like Falcons head coach Mike Smith still attempt to learn what they can about their incoming rookies each year in early May.

This year, the Falcons' goal was to overload their rookies with information and get them acclimated to the Thomas Dimitroff/Mike Smith process.

Now that we've had a week to digest all of what happened at minicamp, let's discuss the five key takeaways we can glean from the team's reaction to the weekend of practice sessions.

Begin Slideshow

Brian Banks Will Make the Atlanta Falcons Roster to Complete His Epic Journey

Scott Carasik — Sun, 12 May 2013 10:40:16 -0400

Atlanta Falcons linebacker Brian Banks will complete his odyssey from wronged man stuck behind bars in prison to an NFL roster spot in the 2013 season.

At first, Banks' story reminds people of what happened to Sisyphus in Grecian mythology. Sisyphus was the man who thought he was more clever than the gods. He had played games with gods from Thanatos to Hermes after violating Zeus' laws.

So when he finally got put to his eternal rest and led across the river Styx into hell, Zeus drummed up the punishment to have him push a boulder up the hill, and once he could finally get it to the pinnacle, he would have finished his task.

However, Zeus revealed that he was more clever than Sisyphus with how he enchanted the boulder to be too much for Sisyphus to carry once he got to the top of the hill. So it would then roll back to the bottom creating an excessively futile task—much like Zeus' initial attempts to punish Sisyphus.

While he wasn't continually rolling a boulder repeatedly up a hill, the task of attempting to join an NFL roster must have felt similar. The almost Herculean task of even getting into an NFL training camp—something reserved for just 2,880 men in the country—was looking like Banks' own boulder.

Instead, Banks' journey is much closer to what Odysseus experienced in Homer's Odyssey. Much like The Odyssey, there was a light at the end of the tunnel for the 6'2", 250-pound linebacker. He had the talent to get recruited by Pete Carroll at USC in his junior year of high school.

Banks always had the ability to be a great player and would have compared to former Falcon Curtis Lofton had he stayed on the same progression coming out of college. He's going to be used as a thumper, much like Lofton was used.

Banks' experience of going to prison for something he never did for a five-year term is similar to how Calypso trapped Odysseus on her island for seven years for slaughtering Helios' scared cattle. Once he was finally free, he finally made his way back home to the island of Ithaca and his wife Penelope.

In Banks' case, he made his way to the NFL and back to his love—football. He has many things working to his advantage and has made an impression on both the coaching staff and his fellow players during rookie minicamps.

The Falcons don't have much competition for him

When it comes to roster depth for the Falcons at linebacker, there isn't much after the starters of Stephen Nicholas, Sean Weatherspoon and Akeem Dent. While, yes, Pat Schiller and Robert James were with the Falcons last season, the Falcons have essentially five undrafted rookies and James competing for three spots.

Paul Worrilow, Nick Clancy, Schiller and James all look to be competing on the outside for a roster spot. That leaves Brian Banks tom compete with Joplo Bartu for the backup role behind Dent in the middle of the 4-3 base.

Despite being in prison and fighting this battle for almost the past decade, Atlanta is showing a ton of trust that Banks should be able to earn the spot. He's definitely a good fit long-term, and he could eventually start with the proper training and fresh legs.

After a while, Banks could end up the starter

Now that he is finally back in football shape, the Falcons could end up using Banks as the starting middle linebacker if there's an injury to either Nicholas, Weatherspoon or Dent. The Falcons love his ability to play in their multiple defenses, and at 27, he doesn't have much mileage on his frame.

Dent is no guarantee to start for Atlanta, and neither is Nicholas. The Falcons could very easily move Dent to the strong-side linebacker role. However, they'd have to make sure he could handle all three downs and cover tight ends.

That, or the Falcons should have multiple packages. In base defenses, running with Banks and Dent would give Atlanta much better run defense and could help an Achilles' heel from the 2012 season. When they run the 3-4 sets, that's where the addition of the large-framed Banks could make a big difference.

But since he's a low-mileage 27-year-old linebacker, the Falcons could easily train him over the next year or two to be the starter at middle linebacker. In doing this, they could make it to where Dent takes over the role that Nicholas currently has. But starting is something that would be much further on the horizon.

In the end, Brian Banks' story will look more like the story of Odysseus than the story of Sisyphus. He's finally with Penelope, and the Falcons have their own version of an epic hero.

All stats used are either from Pro Football Focus's Premium Stats, ESPN, CFBStats or the NFL. All contract information is courtesy Spotrac and Rotoworld. All recruiting rankings come from 247Sports.com.

Scott Carasik is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. He covers the Atlanta Falcons, NFL and NFL draft. He also runs DraftFalcons.com.

Follow @ScottCarasik

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