Falcons Looking Forward to New Season

As we enter the home stretch before the Falcons' season opener this Sunday against the Dolphins, Mike Smith, Thomas Dimitroff and the Falcons organization as a whole is still working to make this team better. Not pleased with the performance of the secondary this preseason, the Falcons have added former first-round pick Tye Hill (traded from St. Louis for a 2010 7th round draft pick) and Brian Williams (free-agent signing, released from the Jaguars for salary cap reasons). Williams comes to town with experience under Mike Smith, who was the Jags' former defensive coordinator. Hill, though arriving to Atlanta prior to their final preseason game against the Ravens, has only seen practice time with the team, and is battling his way through learning this system. These moves will serve to put starting CB's Brent Grimes and Chris Houston on the hot seat, as both underperformed this preseason. The coaching staff still speaks highly of both, especially Houston, but their in-game performance will have to see drastic improvement if they hope to hold on to their starting gigs. I can't help but notice that the more experienced new player, both in the NFL and under Smith, Williams, has been slotted behind Grimes in the depth chart. It has yet to be decided if either player will see game time this Sunday. The tone of this this team, and the outlook, is vastly different now than it was just one year ago. Coming in to the 2009 season, the Falcons fans had very low expectations of the team - let's see if they can win a couple of games, and keep some of the other games close; let's see how this rookie Matt Ryan looks; let's see if this offensive line can keep Ryan on his feet at least on every other play. Now, the questions are slightly different, among fans and among pundits - let's see if the Falcons can string together back-to-back winning seasons; let's see how Rookie-of-the-Year Matt Ryan stuns opponents this year; let's see if this offense is as dominating as it looks. It's a refreshing change to be optimistic. Sporting News had the Falcons winning exactly one game last season, whereas they are predicted to win anywhere from 8 to 12 this season. ESPN almost universally has them winning the NFC South. Frankly, it kind of scares me. Many of these same pundits had picked the Saints to win the NFC South last year (who did finish with a respectable 9-7 season, though lower than expectations) and NOBODY saw the Cardinals in the Super Bowl. Heck, the Chargers have been the preseason Super Bowl champs a few times in the past few years, depending on who you ask. Fortunately, it doesn't appear that it has gone to the Falcons' collective head. Matt Ryan still emphasizes how much he can still learn. Mike Smith still talks about the process (not the finished product). Thomas Dimitroff has made player transactions as recently as Sunday (Williams). This team still looks like it wants to prove something. And that gives me hope. Next Game: Dolphins at Falcons, Sunday, 1pm (EST) CBS, 92.9 DaveFM