Falcons Building 'Explosive' Offense Heading Into 2023
The vision of the Atlanta Falcons offseason has been to add versatility and depth to their roster through draft picks and trades.
By drafting running back Bijan Robinson in the first-round, the Texas product adds to a room of Caleb Huntley, Cordarrelle Patterson and Tyler Allgeier.
Along with trading a seventh-round draft pick for tight end Jonnu Smith, a veteran weapon who has experience working with head coach Arthur Smith.
And Atlanta believes this deep nucleus will play to its advantage following a 7-10 campaign last season.
"It allows you a lot of flexibility," Smith said. "You can get unique with your personnel packages - you can line up where it looks like 22 personnel, 10 personnel, 11, get into empty ... it allows you to put a lot of stress, even just pre-snap, logistically as you're going onto the field. Obviously [Robinson] can carry the football, that's obvious, but you're talking about the screen games, the intermediate stuff, so we feel really good where we're at skill-wise."
Pitts, a first-round pick in 2021, suffered a down season last year following a Pro Bowl nod in his rookie campaign - totaling just 356 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
But the Falcons are confident in the 22-year-old and his ability to pair nicely next to Smith, who has accumulated 1,841 receiving yards over his six-year NFL tenure.
"They are unique where you can line them up, but their skill sets are different, so they're not the same player," Smith said. "We didn't take [Robinson] thinking he's [Patterson], but they do have a lot of versatility, no different than [Pitts] does. [Pitts] can play in the core, he can play the slot, he can play outside, and [Smith] too can play in a lot of different places as well. Just another explosive player that we can add to our offense and we're really fired up we were able to get him at 8."
With second-year quarterback Desmond Ridder behind center, Atlanta looks to compete in the NFC South with a plethora of offensive weapons.
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