It’s time for the Atlanta Falcons to get a meaner offensive line

If you’re an Atlanta Falcons fan or one of the NFL in general, there are two things dominating the conversation.

Today it’s about Colin Kaepernick’s workout on Saturday and the bop heard ‘round the world. Yes, Myles Garrett thwacking Mason Rudolph upside the head in comic book fashion.

But let’s not get carried away. Before there was Garrett v. Rudolph and Mayweather v. McGregor, there was Mike Smith versus the Washington Redskins.

Let’s crack open the history books.

It was Matt Ryan’s second year. The Georgia Dome was the still the Falcons home. You think Ryan looked fast against the Saints on Sunday, look at the wheels on him then. He scrambled the pocket doing his best Michael Vick impersonation. (The wounds from Vick’s departure were still fresh.)

And he gets popped out of bounds by Laron  Landry. But former Atlanta Falcons Deangelo Hall, who could never turn down trash talking, was right in the fray. And what do we have here?

Falcons head coach Mike Smith gets in Hall’s chaps and sticks up for his quarterback. In fact, the entire sideline seemingly did. Mike Smith was a lot of things, but a pushover was not one.

That was back when the Falcons offensive line had a mean streak to them. When Todd McClure was the middle man, not always smiling Alex Mack. Back in the days of Curtis Lofton and John Abraham setting the tone on defense.

When being tough was showed on the field, not just talked about in post-game speeches. In fact, it’s something the Falcons need to get back to. Not committing assault on the field, or throwing futile punches at the best defensive linemen in the game, remember Freeman v. Donald?

But football toughness. The Steelers’ Maurkice Pouncey saw his quarterback get molly whopped, and he wasn’t having it. He made sure to let Myles Garrett know. The Falcons don’t have anybody on the offensive line that would come to Matt’s defense in that way.

In fact, after some hard hits Ryan has absorbed this year, where are the guys giving up those hits standing up for him? They aren’t there. As the Falcons enter a much-needed retooling, they need to find some guys on offense who are willing to back up their franchise quarterback.

Games are won in the trenches, and the ones in Atlanta are quite soft.