The following, a new weekly feature of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, allows our reporters to open their notebooks and provide even more information from our local teams that we cover daily. We think you’ll find in informative, insightful and fun.
Falcons tired of singing ‘Pass Rush Blues’
Former Ohio State star Zach Harrison is the latest, and he hopes to avoid the performances of his predecessors – Falcons’ pass-rush draftees who (for one reason or another) can’t get the quarterback on the ground.
Obviously there are multiple factors at play in the art of the quarterback sack, so the individual player isn’t totally at fault. But as someone once said, “numbers don’t lie,” and the sack totals for recent draftees are hard not to notice.
Remove the 2015 draft, when Vic Beasley and Grady Jarrett were selected. In the two drafts before 2015 and the six drafts after, Falcons’ draftees have 26.5 career sacks.
Yes, a total of 26.5 sacks. And that includes the 17.5 sacks in four seasons for 2017 first-rounder Takk McKinley.
So, will Harrison, a third-round pick who had 11 sacks in four seasons in college, become the “Man of Sack” in Atlanta? Maybe, maybe not.
But unlike previous years, the Falcons have taken a more proactive approach this time around. They’ve signed a creative genius as the coordinator of a defense that features several veteran pass rushers.
‘Men, let’s get ‘em on the ground now!’
Eight new players have a combined 192.5 career sacks, led by Calais Campbell (99) and Bud Dupree (46.5). New addition (not to be confused with the musical group New Edition) David Onyemata has 23 career sacks, all of them while playing for the Saints under new Falcons DC Ryan Nielsen.
Maybe the team will sing a different sack tune on defense this fall after all. And now maybe you can visualize New Edition.
Bridging old school and new school at Georgia Tech
GPS technology has become commonplace in athletic training, as athletes wear devices that track data such as speed, change of direction and acceleration. A similar idea has entered the weight room, including Georgia Tech’s. New strength-and-conditioning coach A.J. Artis has introduced technology that can measure how efficiently weightlifting sets are being completed by Yellow Jackets players.
Tech players have been measured by 3D cameras mounted on weight racks that track how quickly they are moving the barbells in their lifts.
“So essentially, what you want is, you want lighter weights to move fast,” said Artis, who was hired in December by coach Brent Key. “As you get stronger, you want to add weights on and move at the exact same speed that moved the lighter weights so you get more powerful, more explosive.”
The data, available immediately for athletes and coaches to digest, can also be tracked over time so that athletes can see how they have progressed over several months. It also can be a way to measure fatigue and prevent injury.
Georgia, LSU, Clemson, Ole Miss and Duke are among schools that utilize Perch cameras. Artis sees Tech’s weightlifting program as a marriage of old-school lifting principles focusing on basic lifts such as squats and cleans with the benefits of technology, a concept that Artis said that Key shares.
“You can’t be all old school one way, and you can’t be all technology,” Artis said. “It has to be a bridge of both.”
Feeling ‘whippy’ and ‘like fine wine”
Nick Anderson’s road back to the major leagues hasn’t been easy after missing most of the past two seasons with an elbow injury. But he’s back and doing good things for the Braves out of the bullpen.
It appears he’s good at painting the corners with pitches – and painting a picture with his words as well.
When describing his pitching arm, he used the word “whippy.” He wants to let it rip. Nothing robotic. Truly athletic.
Whippy hasn’t resulted in pain or soreness recently. So what’s behind the bounce back after each outing?
“Probably not old age,” the 32-year-old Anderson said, cracking up. “I don’t know.”
Eventually, he looked to his left, toward pitcher Charlie Morton’s locker.
“Maybe I’m like a fine wine,” he said. “Maybe I’m like another Chuck.”
-Reporters D. Orlando Ledbetter, Ken Sugiura and Justin Toscano contributed to this article.
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