Atlanta Falcons’ offensive line thrived in 2015
By John Buhler
Though the Atlanta Falcons failed to reach the playoffs for the third straight year, their offensive line in 2015 had one of the best seasons in the NFL.
While the 2015 Atlanta Falcons finished 8-8 on the year and missed the NFC Playoffs by two games, the team did seem to improve drastically in one area this past fall: Atlanta had a top five offensive line in the NFL.
Pro Football Focus released its final grades for all 32 NFL teams’ offensive lines on Wednesday and the Atlanta Falcons finished fourth overall in those rankings. This is a vast improvement over the last two years of absolutely dreadful play up front, as quarterback Matt Ryan spent half of 2013-14 on his back due to poor pass protection, set up by even worse run blocking.
Last year, Pro Football Focus had the Atlanta Falcons ranked 26th out of 32 teams in the NFL up front. This year they finished sixth in pass blocking, eighth in run blocking, and third in penalties to achieve their overall No. 4 grade.
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Pro Football Focus praised the improved play of Atlanta’s tackles Jake Matthews and especially Ryan Schraeder, who author Khaled Elsayed wrote “is the kind of right tackle you don’t realize is as good as he is…which is a great thing at his spot.”
It was the great introduction of offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan’s zone blocking scheme that allowed this offensive line to go from one of the league’s worst to one of the league’s best in one season. Pro Football Focus said the moves to acquire guards Chris Chester and Andy Levitre helped stabilize the interior, but did criticize center Mike Person‘s inability to snap the football as a reason for the Falcons’ six-game losing streak.
Offensive line coach Chris Morgan received Pro Football Focus’ highest honor as Offensive Line Coach of the Year in 2015. Neil Hornsby said it wasn’t an easy task for Morgan who had to bring in three new interior players and helped the tackles become two of the best in the league in one season. Morgan was a major reason behind the Atlanta Falcons’ massive turnaround in 2015 on the offensive line.
Atlanta will obviously need to upgrade center over Person this upcoming season and may want to bring in a few rotational pieces that can challenge for playing time either at guard or tackle in the 2016 NFL Draft. The Atlanta Falcons now have a great offensive line, but it will take another season of tremendous dedication to keep Atlanta in the top five in 2016.
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For a unit that couldn’t keep its quarterback upright and hadn’t had a 1,000 yard rusher in four years, given the amount of uncertainty surrounding the offensive line in the final weeks of training camp, it is truly remarkable how well the offensive line played in 2015. Rise Up!