With the exception of signing Tua Tagovailoa, all of the major moves the Atlanta Falcons have made this year have been on the sidelines. In addition to hiring a new President of Football, a new head coach and a new general manager, Atlanta also brought in several highly-recommended assistant coaches, one of which is an NFL legend.
That would be Bill Callahan, who is renowned as the best offensive line coach in the business. The challenge for Callahan will be taking a good Falcons offensive line and turning it into a great one.
So far, so good. Long-time left tackle Jake Matthews has been very impressed by Callahan’s coaching and sees something special starting in the trenches, per Josh Kendall at The Athletic.
“Bill made it really clear that first week that he respects us a lot, what we’ve done and put together and the type of players we are… He likes what we’re doing and has some tweaks. It means a lot coming from him and the experience he has. He’s got us all thinking a little bit differently and mixing things up… I think just speaking as an offensive lineman, the key emphasis is we want to be a team that outworks other teams, and when they put our film on, they see something different, I think we’ve got something special starting.”
On paper, the Falcons have all-important continuity going for them, returning four of five starters from last season and signing Jawaan Taylor to replace Kaleb McGary.
There is still plenty of room for improvement, though. Pro Football Focus graded out Atlanta at 68.2 in pass blocking, ranking 16th in the league. They came in at 71.0 in run blocking, ranking 10th.
The latter is where Callahan shines best, and the Falcons have arguably the most talented running back in the league. With a boost from Callahan’s scheme and being freed from the vulturing of Tyler Allgeier, Bijan Robinson may be about to explode to another level we haven’t seen yet. For his part, Robinson says he “loves” the new run blocking look that the Falcons have going.
This article originally appeared on Falcons Wire: Bill Callahan could turn good Falcons offensive line into a great one