As we plow into the offseason most plowfully, we tend to focus on the big changes. We want to know if Vic Beasley, Ryan Schraeder and Robert Alford will be back, if the team will invest a first round draft choice at defensive end or guard, and which starters might take a major leap forward. We tend to focus less on the depth, at least until the summer.
As we learned this past year, that’s probably a mistake. Falcons fans (and really all NFL fans) tend to get crotchety when the team invests in a low-grade signing in March, grumbling that they’re not an impact player, but the Falcons were doomed as much by a lack of quality depth as they were by a lack of quality starters a year ago.