Atlanta Falcons: Free Agent Frenzy

By: Kellen Brechbill

All stats were obtained through Pro Football Reference

March 13th finally came and the Atlanta Falcons wasted no time making a splash in free agency. Signing FS Jessie Bates almost immediately after the free agent period began, GM Terry Fontenot set the tone early. Since then, the Falcons have also signed LB Tae Davis, OLB Kaden Elliss, QB Taylor Heinicke, WR Mack Hollins, CB Mike Hughes and DT David Onyemata. They have also extended RG Chris Lindstrom and RT Kaleb Mcgary, solidifying the right side of their O-line for the foreseeable future. These moves were much needed and added depth to positions that desperately needed it, especially the secondary, D-line and WR groups. The extensions of Lindstrom and Mcgary are just an added bonus that makes the Falcons offensive line a top unit for years to come. If these moves pan out, there’s a great chance that the Falcons could be extremely competitive in 2023. Remember, they still have $22 million in available cap space and the 8th overall pick in this year’s draft. There are going to be even more moves made within the next month by the Atlanta Falcons. But, for now, let’s take a deeper dive into the moves that have been made.

First, and most important, was the signing of FS Jessie Bates. This signing brings an immediate leadership presence to a promising young secondary. In his five year career, Bates has accumulated 14 INT’s, 43 passes defended and 327 tackles. He is one of, if not, the best Free Safety in the NFL. Him and AJ Terrell together give the Falcons a lock down corner and a ball hawking safety that are going to make things very tough for QB’s. The Falcons also still have CB Casey Hayward who played very well last year before getting injured, and safeties Richie Grant and Jaylinn Hawkins who are both young but solid. With the signing of CB Mike Hughes as well, this makes the secondary group deep with a lot of potential. However, none of this matters if the QB has all day to throw the ball.

Which leads me to my next point, the underrated signings of OLB Kaden Ellis and DT David Onyemata. Both these guys are very productive players and are going to make a difference on the D-line. Last season Ellis only played in 11 games and recorded seven sacks and 78 tackles. Those are extremely productive stats considering the amount of games he played. Onyemata also had a very productive year for a DT as he recorded five sacks and 43 tackles. Now, these stats may not jump off the page, but these signings add extremely productive depth to a group that desperately needs it. Remember, this is a group that has historically been below average for the Atlanta Falcons. Outside of Grady Jarrett, the production takes a huge drop. Last year Lorenzo Carter had four sacks and Arnold Ebiketie had 2.5 sacks, and that’s basically it. There was nobody else outside of Jarrett, Carter, and Ebiketie who recorded more than two sacks last season. You can’t win in this league if you can’t effectively pressure the QB.

But, there is promise for this group. Ebiketie was a rookie last year and will continue to improve, Grady Jarrett is still an elite DT in this league, and Lorenzo Carter is a good player as well. The signings of Kaden Ellis and David Onyemata add more threats to this group and will create even more opportunities for the other guys as a result. Because of that, I believe that this group will take a big step forward in 2023.

As for the other players signed, these moves were made mostly for added depth. With Marcus Mariotta departing it was imperative that the Falcons go out and grab another QB to back up and compete with Desmond Ridder. The signing of Taylor Heinicke brings a veteran presence to a very inexperienced QB room and allows for the Falcons to be more flexible in who they choose to play. When it’s all said and done I believe Ridder will start but you never really know until training camp begins, this move at least gives the Falcons options.

Similarly to the Heinicke move, was the signing of WR Mack Hollins. This move adds productive depth to an extremely thin and inexperienced WR group. In 2022, Hollins had a career high 690 receiving yards and four TD’s for the Raiders. The stats are solid, but not enough to make a difference. This is a group that desperately needs more production. At the moment, the Falcons only have two WR’s on the roster that had more than one catch last season. That being Drake London and now Mack Hollins. I would say this group worries me the most right now and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the Falcons drafted multiple WR’s in this year’s draft. The good thing about WR’s is that they can be very productive right out of college, so this could be a position that Fontenot targets heavily through the draft.

As for LB Tae Davis and CB Mike Hughes, these guys are most likely going to fill into second and third string roles. Neither guy started more than six games last year and don’t have many stats to show for. Mike Hughes will probably see a lot of reps because of how thin the CB group is but, in general, I think these signings were made to add more overall depth to the defense.

It will be interesting to see how the Falcons perform next season with the new additions. I still think they’re a few pieces away from being legitimate Super Bowl contenders, but I truly believe that they can win the NFC South next season with the team they’ve assembled. If the D-line takes a step forward next season and the secondary holds it down on their end, this could be an extremely tough defense to play. Combined with their nasty run game, I think Atlanta can really surprise people next season by making an unexpected playoff run. I still think they’re one good WR and pass rusher away from being actual contenders, but there’s no doubt that this team will be very competitive in 2023.

Atlanta Hawks: Woefully Mediocre

By: Kellen Brechbill

All stats for this article were obtained through NBA.com

After an exciting win against the Washington Wizards last night, the Hawks are bolstering a 33-33 record, and are now a couple games ahead of Toronto for the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference. The season hasn’t been the outcome many fans had expected as the Hawks have been woefully mediocre. To put it into perspective, not only do they boast a sub .500 record, but the Hawks have also scored 7,736 points this season while allowing 7,731. That’s only a five point difference! Statistically, this might be one of the most average teams in NBA history. As a result, it’s looking like the Hawks are poised to be a play-in team for the second year in a row. Retaining almost all of their core from the playoff run in 2021, and with the addition of Dejounte Murray, you’d think that this team was knocking on the door to a championship. However, unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case. If anything, it seems that this team has steadily digressed since the magical run in 2021.

It’s easy to blame Nate Mcmillan and the coaching staff, but the Hawks haven’t looked any better under Quin Snyder either. Obviously, it’s been a small sample size, but the team still looks like they’re not fully clicking on both sides of the court yet. I truly believe this will change as Snyder continues to learn about this team, but when it pertains to this season, I don’t think there’s much he can do at this point. If there’s going to be any turnaround this year, the players are going to have to hold each other accountable and step up. The Hawks have enough talent to be a top 6 team in the conference, there’s no doubt about that, but they really need to figure it out on both sides of the ball. There are still plenty of games left to make a run for the six seed. If they can string together some wins it could immediately change the trajectory of this season. But, it’s going to take a full team effort if they want to make a legitimate run for that six spot.

This leads me to my next point, where do the Hawks need to improve the most? As mentioned before, if this team wants to make a run they will need to be better on both sides of the ball, especially defensively. They currently rank 22nd in the league in defensive rating this season. It’s a slight improvement from last year where they ranked nearly dead last but still not good enough to consistently win games in this league. Surprisingly, a huge reason for the poor defensive rating has been because of rebounding. Currently, the Hawks rank 21st in defensive rebounding percentage and 25th in opponent second chance points. Meaning, that they are allowing way too many second chance points from offensive rebounds. It’s already extremely tough to win games in this league as it is, but giving teams multiple opportunities to score makes it even tougher.

The frustrating part about this is that rebounding is a pure effort stat, you can’t completely blame coaching for rebounding. At the end of the day, players need to box out and aggressively attack the glass. The Hawks have the athletes in Murray, Collins, Capela, Hunter, Okongwu, and Johnson to be a great rebounding team. They just need to start making it more of a priority to grab boards. It doesn’t matter how great of a coach Snyder is, if you can’t efficiently rebound the ball then you’re not going to win many games in this league. Until the effort changes on the glass, the Hawks will continue to be a below average team on the defensive end.

Defense and rebounding hasn’t been the only problem facing the Hawks either, they have also been struggling a bit on the offensive end as well. The stats may not show it, but the Hawks struggle mightily getting points from players who aren’t named Trae Young or Dejounte Murray. Combined, both players are averaging nearly 50 points per game, and that’s not even accounting for the points where they are the primary assist. Average in their assists and both players account for easily over 70 to 80 points per game. Remember, the Hawks currently average 117 points per game, that’s about 70% of their points accounted for by Young and Murray.

Now, this may not sound like a bad thing, which it isn’t. But, in order to win in this league, you need to have role players who can get their own buckets too. At the moment, outside of Bogi and Hunter, the Hawks don’t have that luxury. John Collins and Clint Capela are too reliant on the pick and roll with Trae, you rarely see them score points without Trae perfectly setting them up. We can’t rely on our guards to make every single play for our offense, there needs to be more production from other guys throughout the lineup as well. Guys like Collins, Okongwu, and Johnson need to start establishing more of an offensive presence down low to help free up our guards and create more of a balanced attack. If they can do that it’d immediately make our guard trio of Young, Murray, and Bogi much more lethal and our offense more dangerous overall. Other than that though, the offense has still been highly productive this season, ranking top 10 in offensive efficiency.

Even though the Hawks have statistically been extremely average this season, they still have a great opportunity to grab the six seed and avoid the play-in tournament. They have plenty of talent to do it, but it’s going to take better effort on the glass and the defensive end overall. The offense is lethal enough to give this team a shot, they just need their defense to be at least average. If the Hawks can clean up their rebound play and other defensive deficiencies, they could make some real noise down the stretch. They have another game tonight against Washington, it will be a good opportunity to get over .500 and get back to the winning ways.

Do’s and Don’ts of Sports Marketing

By: Kellen Brechbill

For over decades, sports marketing has been a key factor in generating revenue for sporting brands, major universities, franchises and all other entities involved. It even plays a role in team and employee wages and can also have an effect on ticket prices. Without marketing and advertising in sports, owning a franchise wouldn’t be profitable and it would consequently become more expensive for the fans as ticket prices would skyrocket. In this article, I’m going to explain the do’s and don’ts of effective marketing in sports and why you should follow these tactics.

First, let’s start with what you should not do. One of the biggest mistakes a marketer can make is false association, this occurs when a brand promotes a campaign or advertisement implying an association with another team, franchise or sporting event under false pretenses. It is vital to avoid this because it can result in major lawsuits. Next, marketers are not allowed to advertise in any way that influences or condones customers to bet and gamble. It is considered illegal against advertising codes and can also result in lawsuits. Overall, it’s best to focus on your product and price and let those two categories speak for themselves while advertising.

Lastly, there are three important concepts that all sports marketers should follow. First, create engaging content, for sports marketing the best way to do this is to use a famous sports figure or celebrity. Doing this instantly engages the audience because it relates your product with someone they like or are familiar with. Next, is to time your message correctly, the best way to do this in the sports market is to time your content right before gametime. Pre-game time is when fans are most engaged and tuned in with what they are watching. They also happen to be in a more excited mood because the game is about to start. Lastly, develop a target audience, developing a target audience helps you determine how to reach them. In the sports world, most the audience is likely to be male or older depending on the sport. So, if you sell make-up or women’s clothing, it is probably in your best interest to not advertise during a football game but a woman’s basketball game or gymnastics meet instead. To conclude, don’t make false associations or condone gambling and create timely engaging content that targets the correct audience.