Falcons players serve as coaches during early portion of training camp

Falcons players serve as coaches during training camp acclimation period

Matt Ryan, Grady Jarrett and Ricardo Allen are among those leading drills in Flowery Branch

FLOWERY BRANCH - During the early portion of this unique NFL training camp, one thing noticeably absent from the practice field: coaches. That doesn't mean there isn't any coaching, however, for the Falcons.

"We're lucky that we have some veteran players that can kind of serve as coaches on the field," said quarterback Matt Ryan.

During the 9-day acclimation period of training camp, players are only on the practice field for about an hour, with coaches not allowed to run the workouts. This is part of the plan to slowly ramp up players' activity levels towards the season, after offseason workouts and minicamps were canceled due to COVID-19.

Watching the Atlanta Falcons on the practice field, you could see a veteran player putting their teammates through drills with just about every position group. Among them: Matt Ryan showed receivers what he wanted from specific routes, Alex Mack held a piece of paper as he got the offensive linemen in the right spots, Grady Jarrett physically moved tackling dummies into place and Ricardo Allen made sure the defensive backs had their technique sharp. 

"Trying to be that one who brings everyone together," said Allen, a safety who also served as a team captain last season. "Starting with myself by being an open book and giving to others any way I can."

Jarrett says coaches gave he and the other veterans leading workout groups some instruction on what to do, but left the rest up to them. There will be plenty of time for coaches to work on what they choose, so early in camp, Jarrett says the important thing is knocking off any rust and getting prepared for the more intense parts of camp.

"Get the guys working, get them moving around, back used to making football movements, so that by the time we put the pads on we'll be ready," said Jarrett.

The next portion of training camp is called the "gradual ramp-up peiod", which starts on August 12th. Teams can spend more time on the field, with actual coaches participating, during that period of camp.