Hey, I'm collecting information for an article I am going to write for the Falcoholic and I was hoping you all would be willing to help out.

I'm going to be comparing the RB tandems of the NFC South and you all currently have a slew of RBs and it's pretty obvious your coaching staff is trying to create a run-first team.  I was wondering who you all think your RB tandem is going to be and to what effect are they going to be used.  Any chance you all will be utilizing the skill-sets of more than 2 RBs on a consistant basis?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

It is never too early to start making predictions. What better place to start predicting than within our own division?  Here are some quick facts: The NFC South had a combined 40 wins last season. That was the most wins out of any Division in the NFL last season In 2008, our division competed against the NFC North who had a combined win total of 25 In 2009, our division will be facing the NFC East who had the second best division win record in the NFL last season (go figure) with a total of 38 wins and tie.

 Join me after the jump where I'll be breaking down the schedules of every team in the division.  This is an excellent opportunity to discuss how well you think the other teams in the NFC South will fair against their schedules.  How many wins you think it will take to win the division?  Who is our biggest rival going to be this season?

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hey tlozwarlock, I'm borrowing your format for my report... hope you don't mind.

The afternoon practice didn't reveal too much different than the morning practice did, but the fans did get to enjoy Tony G suiting up and showing off some new plays on our offense that Matt has become instantly familiar with (including some plays that put the TE out wide).

The team came out in the afternoon much more fired up than they had in the morning.  Perhaps is was because they didn't feel the need to conserve any energy and didn't have to hold back (or Tony G's presence is just that contagious).  You could hear the defensive linemen crashing into the offensive lineman - the afternoon practice was much more aggressive.

• Roddy White mysteriously was cured of his morning dose of the dropsies, which was really fun to watch.
• Aaron Kelly is a QB favorite along the sidelines and in the corner of the endzone.  He made some spectacular catches that required him to pin his toes before falling out of bounds.  There was one catch he got over Grimes' head and another over Houston's
• The Falcons are trying out all the CBs on first squad.  They rotated out everyone from Owens, to Grimes, to Middleton with Houston being the only constant.
• Lewis looked strong out there with first squad and he seems to be a comfortable backup to Jerry.  Hopefully his injuries are a thing of the past.
• Tony Gonzalez decided to grace us with his presence and is a definite favorite target for Matt Ryan.  Their instant chemistry is remarkable.  Matt Ryan got the ball to him about 1 out of 3 times during the scrimmages.  I think he enjoys diving and falling on the ground for dramatic effect...
• Moore is a maniac and neck-breaking fast... his brakes don't work too well.  There was one play where he didn't slow down after Gonzo was about to make a catch and he wound up pushing Tony high and knocking him to the ground (and Tony still made the catch).
• Dahl has some serious anger management issues.  He was about to squish Jamaal Anderson into a smoldering pile of first round pick bust goo but was withheld by fellow teammates.  When McClure and Clabo came over to the sidelines a fan asked, "who started the fight" and McClure responded, "Dahl, as always"
• Matt Ryan's confidence is very reassuring.  Towards the end of practice a fan hollered for him to come over and do signatures and he responded, "you all are going to have to get louder than that!"

The practice ended with a rookie initiation game that I assume they do every year.  They would launch a football with a machine from one endzone to the next and the rookies were to attempt to catch it without pads (I felt so bad for those guys... that was scary).  McClure made what seemed to be a bet with Clabo that Moore would catch the ball because after Moore made the catch he held his hands up as to say "pay up".  Four of the rookies found success including Middleton, Adkins, Moore, and Owens.  Guess it isn't too important that Walker and Sidburry couldn't make the catch seeing as they won't be expected to make too many interceptions this season (as awesome as it would be).

After the minicamp, all the players came to the sidelines for signing, including Roddy White, Tony Gonzalez, and Matt Ryan.  All the Running Backs could be found over by the venders sitting at a table to hand out their signatures.

Overall, it was a truly entertaining experience and it was fun watching how much our offense can open up the field now.  The defense seemed to have slowed down a bit during the afternoon after their surprising performance during the morning practice.  Overall though, it is very hard not to find hundreds of reasons to have faith in this team and the moves by our front office.

Do any Falcoholics plan on attending the first mini-camp that is going to be open to the public?

I know I'm going to be there.  The gates open at 9:30 and the first 150 fans to arrive get a free $5 McDonald's gift card (there is actually an add on the blog site that says the first 300 fans now).  There is also a contest running on the team's blog site that will give 5 lucky groups the opportunity to have lunch with Falcons coaches and players.  The lucky selected winners get to participate with up to 3 of their friends (I'll probably only have one with me, so any Falcoholics that happen to be there will get to be the other 2... assuming the shot in the dark chance that I win).  Enter your email address here so you can be entered in the contest.

could the Falcons (8-5) still make the Wildcard if we win our last three games?

Now, as it stands, the Cowboys (8-5) and Carolina (9-3) hold the two Wildcard spots in the NFC with all the other hopeful teams having 7 wins or less.  If Tampa Bay were to win in Carolina and Carolina was to lose to the Giants and Atlanta won the last three games this season, wouldn't we win the tie breaker over Carolina with a 3-3 division record?

Is it in any way wrong to still be hopeful of this Falcons team that has soared above and beyond all reasonable expectations?