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Falcons Q & A: Smith gives Jamaal Anderson update

4:32 pm July 28, 2010, by D. Orlando Ledbetter

On the eve of training camp, one of our regular commenters, BJK, wanted me ask head coach Mike Smith a few questions.

Q: (BJK) HOW MUCH TIME WILL JAMAAL ANDERSON SPEND BETWEEN TACKLE AND END?

A: (SMITH) Jamaal reps will be very similar in terms of what we did last year. In our base defense, we spent about half of the time in base defense and half of the time in sub defense. You have about 1,000 snaps a year on average, Some where between 950 and a 1,050 offensive snaps a year. We end up playing half of our snaps in base defense and half of our snaps in sub, give or take a couple of percentage points. He will continue to play left defensive end in our base package and then depending on what the offense does either by down and distance or by personnel . . . we have to play in sub, we are going to reduce him down and have him play some tackle for us.

We want to have a good rotation in terms of all of our defensive guys. He’s not going to be a guy that plays 65 snaps. Of course we don’t have any defensive linemen who play 65 snaps in a game. Most of our guys, we try to get in the 40 to 50 snap range for about six of the guys. Then there are two other guys, who will be playing in the 15 to 20 snap range.

Q: (BJK) ANY OF THE UNDRAFTED FREE AGENTS YOU’RE INTERESTED IN SEEING IN TRAINING CAMP, BASED ON WHAT THEY DID IN OTAS?

A: (SMITH) I think there are a number of young guys that showed very well for themselves in OTAs. But I think it’s way too early to (single anyone out) because we haven’t put the pads on yet. Really to me that’s when you really find out what kind of football player that you have. You must have an opportunity to see them in pads.”

It'll be interesting to see what Anderson's playing time will look like by the end of the year.

I think the Falcons are going to need him particularly early. That way Biermann and Abe should be fresher as the season wears on, as well as potentially Sidbury picking up more slack down the stretch as well.

And I think he'll be used early at DT because I don't expect Corey Peters to come in right away and start getting a huge number of reps

Agreed Pudge. JAM will provide a little time for Peters and def ends Sid and Bierman to ramp up. I don't expect JAM to get alot of def end duty but he'll be more of a fill in at the position. I'll be curious to see if JAM as made any improvement from last year since if he doesn't he'll be on the chopping block next off season.