We're back. 

Fellow NFL Lead Writer Aaron Nagler and I climb back behind the mics to bring our NFL podcast out of hiatus. The Go Route Podcast returns after a 362-day layoff to drop some SMOKING HOT FOOTBALL TAKES on all of the happenings across the NFL. 

Among the litany of topics covered in this week's show:

We also riff on our topic du semaine: What would a J.J. Abrams NFL look like? Who would serve as the commissioner in such a universe? How would his vision compare to the modern-day NFL? Just thinking about it, I can almost feel the lens flares burning out my eyeballs already. 

Aaron and I tackle these topics and more in our second incarnation of The Go Route Podcast. Check out our podcast here, because we'll only be making it better in the coming weeks, including video formatting and more. Enjoy it and leave your own thoughts on our topics in the comments below. And this time...thanks for listening. 

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The Atlanta Falcons will be getting a new stadium in time for the 2017 season. It will be an open-air facility that many expect to compete for Super Bowl-hosting duties upon completion. 

There's just one glaring issue: the city already has an NFL stadium, one that's barely 20 years old. But the plan is to demolish the Georgia Dome as soon as the new, currently-unnamed arena is completed. 

What a waste. 

The NFL seems to be in an almost cannibalistic quest to get new stadiums in place for its teams, regardless of the costs for the cities that host them. While the accounting is made less and less obvious for these projects, it's still clear that the teams themselves are only interested in footing as little of the bill as possible. 

And once another team gets a new stadium, all the other teams want their own home fields updated as well. This, coupled with declines in game-day attendance league-wide, presents a scenario where a building like the Georgia Dome would meet an early demise. 

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Sometimes it's hard to figure out how NFL teams scout and sign free agents. Players with short, questionable track records land monster contracts, and players with Hall of Fame résumés coming off solid seasons can't get a sniff.

Age, injury and lack of production can all rightfully scare NFL teams away from offering big contracts to free agents—but in the middle of May, the big money has already been spent.

With OTAs just getting underway, there are still plenty of quality veterans still waiting for their phones to ring, still waiting for an opportunity to prove they can step in and make a team better.

Maybe they'll get picked up once the first wave of OTAs is complete and head coaches realize they can't scrape by with an unproven player at that position after all. Maybe their phones will ring when an injury strikes and a team needs immediate help. 

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Free agency isn't the panacea it was once thought to be, but it can certainly be used to augment a team's talent base. Occasionally, however, free agency produces a player who makes a major difference for his squad and helps take his team to the proverbial "next level."

In the video above, Josh Zerkle, Michael Schottey and I give our takes on which free agents are set to have the biggest impact on the offensive side of the ball. 

Let us know where you agree or disagree in the comments below, and let us know if there's anyone we should have included. 

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Like a musclebound Tai Chi beginners group, dozens of NFL newbies and wannabes gathered last week at training facilities across the land, moving, twisting and stretching themselves in new and difficult ways.

Meanwhile, middle-aged men with visors, clipboards and whistles stood around, trying to figure out if any of the dancing bears could help them win football games.

For the first time, the 2013 draft class put on the colors of their new employer—home, away and "do not touch" jerseys—and helmets that may have lacked logos or sported masking tape branded with their last name.

The odds are that few of those gathered will make the roster, and even fewer will make an impact on their respective team's win-loss record in 2013.

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Michael Vick. Nick Foles. Matt Barkley. 

Only one of these guys was drafted by the current regime. Granted, Vick enters offseason workouts as the nominal starter, but there's a better-than-remote chance we could see Barkley operating the controls of Chip Kelly's high-octane offense come opening weekend. 

What will Barkley look like in an Eagles uni? Take a look at a sneak peek in the video above, with help from our friends at EA's Madden NFL 13. 

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While the 2013 NFL draft didn't have the star appeal of some recent draft classes, mostly due to a lack of top-flight quarterback prospects, it did host a plethora of talent on both sides of the football. 

On the defensive side of the ledger, plenty of players selected throughout the draft will bring immediate help and support to their respective squads.

But which three or four will be in the running for Defensive Rookie of the Year come December?

We tackle that question in the video above. Let us know in the comments below where you agree or disagree and if there are any players you think we've left off out of our group.

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For every Tom Brady, there are hundreds of Todd Husaks.

Husak was the first quarterback taken after the New England Patriots selected Brady in the 2000 NFL draft. He spent four years bouncing around with five different teams—in both the NFL and in Europe—before returning to Stanford, his alma mater, to coach and eventually work in broadcasting.

Today, he manages an office of a large commercial real estate services firm and does color commentary for Stanford football broadcasts.

Successful in life? Certainly. But Husak, and many late-round picks, will never taste any bit of the NFL success that Brady has managed.

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