Photo by Thomson200, CC0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe Hedge Is the Plan Now
The Falcons hedged Da'Shawn Hand on cut-down day, trading for Gervon Dexter Sr. while Hand had not returned to practice. Monday turned that hedge into the entire interior plan, and the club has named nobody.
The Falcons hedged Da'Shawn Hand on cut-down day. Monday made the hedge the whole plan.
Atlanta allowed 126.2 rushing yards a game last season, 24th of 32, per TeamRankings and NFL.com. LaCale London re-signed in March. Hand signed March 16, one year, $3 million, half guaranteed, per OverTheCap. Maason Smith came by trade in April. Anterio Thompson came in April's draft. Five moves that lasted to September. The only outside signing in the five was a one-year deal for a 30-year-old.
Miles counted four interior players on August 31. Move five, August 30, cut-down day: Atlanta sent Clark Phillips III and a fifth-round pick to Chicago for Gervon Dexter Sr. ESPN put the reason in the same paragraph: Hand "has not returned to practice." The club insured its own signing before Week 1.
Hand played seven defensive snaps Sunday before the quad injury that ends his season. Defensive line coach Nate Ollie had nicknamed him "the Kingpin" this preseason, per the club. That was the expectation. The insurance is what is left.
Kevin Stefanski, Monday: "I am feeling really confident in the guys that we have currently in that room, in our building." No name attached. No roster move by Monday night.
In April, when Ian Cunningham took Thompson, I wrote "Patient. Surgical." In August I wrote that one franchise's depth absorbs failure. "The other franchise's depth creates it."
The room held Pittsburgh to 58 yards on 21 carries, mostly without him. One Sunday for April. The rest is August: a rookie on the non-football injury list, a signing out for the year, a coach pointing at a room instead of a name. Carolina ran for 125 on 22 carries and visits Mercedes-Benz Stadium Sunday. I am keeping the August sentence until the room takes it from me.
The Tilt
Atlanta's interior fix was volume, not Hand, and volume is what it has left.
— Dex Ponce
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