Atlanta Falcons: Dirty Birds Taking Flight, Ryan Leads

4 wins, 12 losses.

That was the disgusting taste of the 2007 season left in the mouth of Falcon fans.

"Star Atlanta Quarterback Jailed" and "Petrino bails for Pig-Sooey" were the national headlines surrounding a team drowning in turmoil. "We've just got to turn this thing around and rebuild." After hearing this statement from owner Arthur Blank, Falcon fans looked towards 2010 before they could invade the Georgia Dome for any type of playoff run. But the rebuilding process all began with the 2008 offseason.

With any type of hope for the 2010 target as the playoff year, Blank had to connect with all of his gambles and connect is exactly what Blank did.

First came Thomas Dimitroff, who had previously served as the Patriots' Director of College Scouting, to become the new GM. His first assignment was to find a head coach who could best help turn this team the quickest, but more importantly someone who wouldn't sneak out the fence when he faced adversity, as did the current Arkansas coach.

The man he found was Jags' defensive coordinator Mike Smith, and the Falcons had the vacant Board of Advisers spots filled. But now came the more difficult task: finding personnel.

With a glaring hole at the quarterback position, this seemed to be the most obvious place to start. As draft day closed in, it looked to be a lock that the Falcons would select LSU star defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey. The Falcons appeared that they would have an emerging defensive line with Dorsey and Abraham and the hope that Jamaal Anderson would recover from his sackless rookie season.

"With the third pick, the Falcons select Matt Ryan, quarterback, Boston College" is what resounded out of the commissioner's mouth and with that, the potentially star studded defensive line hopes exploded. "He lacks the arm strength!", "How's he gonna be ready for the bigs when he played at BC?" These are just some of the criticisms that followed Matt Ryan as he entered Falcons training camp.

All of this changed in his first pass against Detroit when he threw a beam to Michael Jenkins for the first Falcon touchdown of the season. The amazing rookie QB play from Ryan ("Matty Ice" in Atlanta) and the emergence of career LaDainian Tomlinson backup Michael Turner has Atlanta fans thinking "Maybe, just maybe 2010 could turn into 2008."

In a city starving for a championship this group of Dirty Birds have given Atlanta some team that they can trust in.

The glimpse of hope of the third overall pick has now turned into a ray of sunshine and the almost hands-down Rookie of the Year winner. The risk of signing backup Michael Turner has turned into the NFL's third leading rusher. The only bright spot of the 2007 season, Roddy White, has proven last year was no fluke and has opponents fearing the three headed monster of White, Turner, and Ryan.

Atlanta fans seem to have made the transition from reading the morning headlines of "Vick rushes for 124 in Falcons loss" to "Ryan Rises Again". With a record standing at 7-4, the Falcons look to be true playoff contenders.

Don't get your hopes up quite yet Atlanta, as we do live in the same city that houses the Braves, and we all know how they perform under the bright lights—getting tossed from the first round of the playoffs four straight years and not making the playoffs since—but that's a whole other article in its own right.

Hopefully some of that Turner Field depression won't rub off on the Georgia Dome magic.

Maybe, just maybe, Atlanta can enjoy some of that playoff magic the Hawks enjoyed against the eventual champion Celtics, this time taking it to the Gridiron.