Atlanta Falcons should be excited about Hayden Hurst’ future

The Atlanta Falcons should be excited about the future of Hayden Hurst with the team.

Hayden Hurst goes into his second season with the Atlanta Falcons and quarterback Matt Ryan (we think) and he’s still a young, athletic player. With a better offensive coordinator, that should spell trouble for opposing defenses.

The Atlanta Falcons have a weird knack of landing highly talented and productive players at this position.

Most recently, that’s Austin Hooper.

Hooper’s last two seasons in Atlanta ended with Pro Bowl nods and his yardage, receptions, and touchdowns increased every year from his rookie season. That was the result of a guy putting the time in with Ryan and learning the offense and system.

Hooper wasn’t nearly as athletically gifted as Hurst is. We saw flashes of that throughout the 2020 season.

Still, the Atlanta Falcons failed to make him a priority when other receivers were being shut down. Hurst proved he had the speed to burn linebackers and is physical enough to box out corners and smaller defenders much like Tony Gonzalez.

Gonzalez came to Atlanta on the clear back end of his career and still found success. He arrived at age 33 and played and started in every single game in his Atlanta Falcons career. He also had at least six touchdown catches and 70 receptions every year.

Heck, go back to Alge Crumpler even.

He racked up four straight Pro Bowl nods, just like Gonzalez did during his time here. While Crumpler didn’t possess the hall of fame talent as Gonzalez or the quarterback play of Matt Ryan he was still in the conversation for best tight ends in the league.

How important is the tight end position? The Falcons have to look no further than the two Super Bowl teams. Rob Gronkowski and Travis Kelce. Without those guys, the Buccaneers don’t win and the Chiefs don’t even make it there.

There is nothing those two players can do that Hayden Hurst can’t. It’s truly a matter of better play calling, schemes, and Ryan making it a point to get him the ball in the red zone and between the 20s.

If Hurst’s trajectory follows anything of the Falcons’ tight ends of the path, Atlanta should be grinning ear to ear about what he’ll bring to the field on Sundays.