Tony Gonzalez: A Dream for Atlanta, a Nightmare for Opposing Defenses

It didn't take a genius of Belichick-ian magnitude to understand why the acquisition of Tony Gonzalez was huge for the Atlanta Falcons. Aside from allowing Atlanta to keep all of its draft picks in 2009 to help rebuild the defense, from a matchup stand point, it's going to create nightmares for opposing defenses.

It's pretty amazing Matt Ryan had the year he had last year with such a lack of production from the Tight End position.  Most young Quarterbacks rely on a Tight End as a safety net when defenses throw multiple looks at them. 

Falcon Tight Ends caught 19 passes last season for 211 yards and two touchdowns. Ryan targeted his Tight Ends just 30 times the entire season which was 6.9 percent of his attempts last year. It's pretty amazing the offense was as successful as it was without any real threat over the middle. 

Besides the obvious impact it will have on Ryan, it will also help the Falcon wide receivers.  Last year if defenses played a Cover Two against Atlanta, they would stick a linebacker on Justin Peele and use the deep safeties to limit deep routes. Gonzalez is too big and athletic to cover with a Linebacker.

Opposing defenses will likely need to use safeties to cover Gonzalez down the seam opening up Michael Jenkins and the explosive Roddy White for one-on-one coverage down the field. Atlanta can suppliment their advantage with the slippery Harry Douglas in the slot also stretching defenses thin. 

The Falcons will benefit from Gonzalez's red zone proficiency as well. While explosive up and down the field, Atlanta's offense wasn't that good in the red zone. They were in the middle of the NFL pack in red zone scoring. Nine of Gonzalez's 10 touchdowns last year came inside the red zone and most of those were inside of ten yards.

With the Falcons offense sputtering inside the ten with a majority of the focus on Michael Turner, if anything Gonzalez gives teams one more thing to think about in those situations.

While he's not known as being an elite blocker, Gonzalez's presence alone will make life easier for Michael Turner.  Most teams were intent on stopping the run and making Matt Ryan beat them with his arm, especially when Atlanta played on the road. 

At home, Turner averaged 129 rushing yards per game, on the road, including Atlanta's playoff loss to Arizona, Turner averaged 78.7 yards per game.

Without a real threat at Tight End teams could put their corners on an island and bring safeties up in run coverage.

Stacking eight defenders in the box might have been an effective game plan last year, but do it this year and watch Tony Gonzalez burn you for 30 yards down the middle of the field. It will keep defenses honest and create more favorable situations for the Burner.

Offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey was given the nickname "Inspector Gadget" due to his creativity with his offenses in Pittsburgh. He has an extensive playbook and likes to throw a lot at opposing defenses. He's not reckless though, and that led him to simplifying the playbook last year as to not overwhelm Matt Ryan and it obviously worked.

Ryan's a diligent student of the game and there is no doubt Mularkey will open up more of his playbook in year two of the Ryan era. Mularkey played nine years in the NFL as a Tight End so he's no doubt drooling over the possibilities with Gonzalez in the fold and a more experienced signal caller.

Barring any unforeseen calamity, the Falcons offense will be one of the NFL's most explosive in 2009.  If Atlanta is going to have its first back-to-back winning seasons in franchise history, Tony Gonzalez will be a big reason why.