The 2014 Atlanta Falcons were a rickety, shallow team that clung to a few pieces of sturdy driftwood when injuries struck. The team was lucky to have Ryan Schraeder at right tackle and Kemal Ishmael at strong safety, but mostly the ongoing hit parade served to illustrate just how thin the team really was.
On paper, at least, that has changed in 2015. A linebacking corps shakier than a man on stilts during an earthquake now has a couple of legitimate starters and a ton of competition duking it out for backup roles, for one, and the offensive line looks just a little more robust than it might have a year ago.