The Falcoholic
One of the best facets of the team that the Falcons have had going for them over the past three seasons has been their standout offensive line play; no doubt the best we have seen in Atlanta since the days of Todd McClure, Justin Blalock, Harvey Dahl, Tyson Clabo and Sam Baker keeping Matt Ryan’s pocket clean and opening running avenues for Michael Turner to work with.
Out of the five offensive line positions, the Falcons have had three pillars, who have been here for so long that they even transcended a complete regime change in what has been the type of continuity any team would dream of having in any position group.
Following some profound success behind the zone blocking scheme in the 2016 and 2017 seasons, general manager Thomas Dimitroff saw the writing on the wall in what was an aging group after a step back in 2018 and utilized significant resources to kick start a transitional rebuild of the unit, starting with the 2019 NFL Draft, which saw him spend two first-round picks on offensive lineman Chris Lindstrom and Kaleb McGary.
Dimitroff’s ultimate vision on that draft night wound up coming to fruition, although he had not been in Atlanta for years by the time it all came together with the ancillary pieces in place which propelled real success.
It’s very rare in such an ever changing league where rosters are flipped so frequently for a guy to survive multiple regime changes with the same franchise. That’s what Jake Matthews has done, after he joined the team as a top-10 pick in the 2014 NFL Draft when Mike Smith was still the head coach.
Since then, the team has had three more head coaches, five different quarterbacks going into respective seasons, a change at general manger and even a brand new stadium built — yet the common denominator has always been Matthews at left tackle, where he has started 179 consecutive games.
Matthews at age 33 is still dependable as ever, as he has not registered a PFF pass blocking grade of below 77 since his rookie season. 2024 was actually even a bit of a renaissance as he ranked in the top 10 among all tackles in pass-blocking grades for the first time since 2019, while registering his highest run-blocking grade since 2017.
Matthews has given the Falcons a 10-year return on their investment and counting, as he remains one of the most important players on this offense.
I will never forget how disappointed the Falcons’ draft party looked in 2019 after the announcement was made that the team was selecting Chris Lindstrom with the 14th pick. In fact, take a look for yourself.
Lindstrom has done a heck of a job making this video look hilarious in hindsight, as he followed a very solid rookie season with an enhanced and good sophomore campaign, before a third-year jump into being one of the best guards in...
