The Atlanta Falcons' offensive line has underwhelmed this season, particularly across the last couple of games. For all of the money that's been invested into the interior, the run blocking has been subpar, and it's safe to say the interior OL is doing much to make Bijan Robinson's life easier.
Chris Lindstrom and Matthew Bergeron are at least two of the NFL's better guards who the Falcons have no choice but to trust to turn it around, but the center position has been a major sore spot.
After impressing in his first season as the starting center after Drew Dalman left last season, Ryan Neuzil has regressed to the point that it's clear he's not a long-term fix at center. Between bad snaps and a lack of reliability, the 29-year-old added center to the list of positions to address this offseason.
According to Pro Football Focus, Neuzil has surrendered seven pressures across the last five games, which is tied for fifth-most of all centers. He also gave up three pressures in the Week 9 loss to the Bengals, so his struggles all but confirmed he wouldn't be retained, but Ian Cunningham had enough.
Shortly before the NFL trade deadline passed though, Atlanta struck a deal to finally end the failed Neuzil experiment. In a deadline buzzer beater, they traded Neuz to the Baltimore Ravens in exchange for OG Andrew Vorhees and a 2028 sixth-round pick just to get any sort of assets out of this guy before he leaves in free agency.
The Atlanta Falcons are preparing to switch it up on the offensive line
And while it may not feel like much, the Neuzil trade indicates that the Falcons are frustrated with the lack of success on the offensive line and are actively willing to make changes to fix that--which is more than we can say about the previous regime.
Ryan Neuzil being dealt to Baltimore will reunite him with his former OL coach in Dwayne Ledford, but it'll also allow Bill Callahan to deploy this personnel a little differently and run things his way. He prefers bigger, more powerful linemen, so an undersized center was never going to work with him.
Callahan's guy Corey Levin will step in as the starting center despite having just seven games of starting experience--so it's a guarantee Atlanta will be in the market for center help this offseason. But what about Andrew Vorhees? He's 6-foot-6 and 330 pounds and started 17 games last year. He could be a long-term piece for this OL, and maybe mix in at center once he learns ths system.
What the Falcons could do is get real creative up front. Perhaps Bergeron moves back to left tackle (the position he played at Syracuse) and either Vorhees or Kyle Hinton takes the starting left guard job. It doesn't feel that unreasonable since it's clear Jake Matthews doesn't have much left in the tank.
But here's a wild one: what if the Dirty Birds teach Matthews to play center over the offseason with Bergeron at left tackle to compensate for his regression? That would be interesting, since he's slow for a tackle and often gets beat off the edge, but would have above-average quickness for a center. They have to pay him anyway. At least get something out of it.
More likely than not, the Falcons are going to add help all over the offensive line both in free agency and the 2027 NFL Draft, which is long overdue. There were a lot of questions, and many of them were about Ryan Neuzil, so now BilL Callahan gets to cater this group to his vision while Ian Cunningham showed he isn't going to sit around waiting for things to change.
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