Falcons trade former Dawg ILB Akeem Dent to Texans for backup QB TJ Yates

Looks like we have a lot of confidence in the linebackers we had. From what I've heard and read, a couple of the rookies had already passed Dent on the depth chart.

Yates graduated from Pope High School in East Cobb so he's coming home. I know his wife, who also went to Pope, so they're both excited about coming home.

Dent was horrid. Yates is a decent backup I supppose.

Yeah I loved AD at UGA but it was extremely hard to watch at the pro level. He was nothing more than a liability so a pretty good backup is an addition.

Not a bad move, Yates is a pretty reliable backup if anything happens to Ryan, God forbid.

We're set at ILB. Worrilow had 127 tackles in just 12 games. That's outstanding. And Bartu had 88 tackles in just 13 games from the OLB position where he's isn't exposed to as many tackle opportunities.

But with the switch to 3-4 base, Bartu will move inside permanently along side Worrilow. That combo could net 230+ tackles, which would be stellar. Shembo, Dobbins, and Smallwood will be ILB depth.

Biermann, Massaquoi, Umenyiora, and Maponga will be our OLB's. Starr and Spruill will likely go to the PS unless we unload Umenyiora or Biermann.

Matthews and Goodman will move to 3-4 DE behind Jackson, Babineux, and Hageman. Jerry or Peters will play NT behind Soliai. Which means one of them is likely getting cut. Probably Jerry. Travian Robertson likely gone too.

I like how the front 7 looks with the new 3-4 base.

Yates is 6'4 220 with good arm. He's a better backup QB than Davis and has a playoff win under his belt too. It is what it is. At least we improved the position.

The biggest surprise is that Dent had trade value. He sucks big time.

Yates.

Back in 02, I was winding up my time as the McEachern head 8th grade coach. It was the last of my 12 years in that position. We beat North Cobb in the 1st round and Marietta in round 2. Pope had won their side and we squared off in the championship game. We won 22-16 and I was fortunate to ride off into the sunset with one last title.

But......if their coach would have commited more to Yates on the QB draw, we would have lost. He was 6' 1" even then and every time they ran that play, he got 8-12 yards up the gut. But he only ran it about 10 times the whole game and got to cute in calling plays,especially on 3rd downs. Sure, it wouldn't have been a thing of play calling beauty but they would have beat us with TJ running straight up the gut about 10 more times.