There was a lot of good for the Atlanta Falcons Thursday night

The Atlanta Falcons kicked off their preseason Thursday night in the Pro Football Hall of Fame game against the Broncos. They would lose their ninth straight preseason game in a fashion well known to Atlanta sports fans.

There was good and bad Thursday night for the Atlanta Falcons; not at all shocking given those that played.

We got what we expected – a lot of young talent got a lot of reps and their lack of football awareness was prevalent at times. While we talked about the preseason success under Dan Quinn has been indicative of their regular season success, this is a game that was ultimately meaningless. Roughly 95 percent of those that played last night will not make an NFL roster and used last night to live out a dream.

That said, there was some good that came out of last night and it was great to see.

Let’s start with John Cominsky. In June, I wrote about Cominsky more than likely being stashed on the practice squad in order to continuing to develop. However, last night was very apparent, that he is on his way to making the active roster.

He was not spectacular and has a lot of work to put into his craft, but his instinctive football ability was apparent. He was always around the football, did not get blown off the ball and was everywhere on special teams.

The one area that Cominsky has to develop is having and using violent hands on his pass rush. He has tremendous strength from top to bottom and he was able to overpower guys in front of him at times, but his lack of hand usage is going to cause him to struggle against starting guards across the league.

Another positive from last night was Chris Lindstrom. He looked like a first rounder among players that aren’t going to make an active roster. He was strong at the point of attack, read the linebackers well and overall did a really good job with the snaps that he got.

Kurt Benkert looked fantastic last night. He made some fantastic throws and out the ball in places were only his guys could go make the play. Like every quarterback, he had some throws he would like back, but overall he was impressive with his growth and there is no doubt that if he continues to play like he did last night, which the Falcons will be forced to move on from Matt Schaub.

Lastly, Brian Hill lived up to the statements that Dan Quinn made about him in the week leading up to the game. Last year, Hill struggled to catch the ball out of the backfield and in today’s NFL, a running back has to be able to be that type of weapon. Quinn talked early in the week about how much Hill had improved in that area and he showed that last night.

Hill looked like a more confident runner but also caught the ball well. He finished strong on runs and got penalized for a hit when he knocked Dymonte Thomas on his backside after a beautiful 19 yard run. If Hill continues to show what he did Thursday night, Barner will be the odd man out in the Falcons backfield.

The Falcons will travel to Miami to take on the Dolphins next Thursday in a preseason game that will see a few more starters actually dress and take a couple snaps.