2020 Atlanta Falcons Season Preview: Chris Lindstrom
There’s always talks about what are the most important positions on a football team.
If you had three top choices, it would be the quarterback, the player who gets to the quarterback, and the player who protects the quarterback.
The Falcons have had many issues with that last position.
After injuries began to pile up on the offensive line, there was no certainty on if Matt Ryan would be protected every Sunday.
Now with everyone healthy, Ryan should be able to do his job safely behind the line. One of those players fully healthy coming back is Chris Lindstrom.
2019 Recap
Lindstrom was selected with the 14 pick last season because the Falcons couldn’t protect Ryan in 2018. They gave up 43 sacks that year.
Sadly, the team wasn’t able to see him at his full potential in 2019.
Lindstrom suffered a broken foot in the season opener against the Minnesota Vikings and missed the next 11 games of his rookie year.
This wasn’t good for the Falcons, and worse for Ryan.
The offensive line gave up 50 sacks last season, and Ryan missed a game due to injury. If anybody knows, it’s a rare sighting to see Ryan hurt.
The run game was also a disappointment, as the team ranked 30 in the league. That was due to both the line, and the running backs not creating much space to make plays.
Luckily for the Falcons, Lindstrom did return in the last four games of the season. In those four games, pass protection looked better, the run game steadily improved, the team went 4-0 to end the year.
Maybe Lindstrom was the key to the Falcons success.
2020 Preview
Lindstrom will be fully healthy heading into the season and have his rookie year under his belt.
With COVID-19 putting a strain on things, Lindstrom said he ordered a gym for his house during the offseason so he could keep working out.
He also trained with former Falcons offensive linemen Kynan Forney to work on his technique.
The Falcons should have most of their line set this upcoming season with Lindstrom, Kaleb McGary, Alex Mack, and Jake Matthews.
Lindstrom still has much to learn, and with Mack and Mathews on the team he should be an even better linemen by the end of the 2020 season.
Expect the second-year linemen to have a breakout year for the Falcons.
Check out our full list of Atlanta Falcons player previews here.
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