One of the best facets of the team that the Falcons have had going for them over the past three seasons has been their standout offensive line play; no doubt the best we have seen in Atlanta since the days of Todd McClure, Justin Blalock, Harvey Dahl, Tyson Clabo and Sam Baker keeping Matt Ryan’s pocket clean and opening running avenues for Michael Turner to work with.
Out of the five offensive line positions, the Falcons have had three pillars, who have been here for so long that they even transcended
a complete regime change in what has been the type of continuity any team would dream of having in any position group.
Following some profound success behind the zone blocking scheme in the 2016 and 2017 seasons, general manager Thomas Dimitroff saw the writing on the wall in what was an aging group after a step back in 2018 and utilized significant resources to kick start a transitional rebuild of the unit, starting with the 2019 NFL Draft, which saw him spend two first-round picks on offensive lineman Chris Lindstrom and Kaleb McGary.
Dimitroff’s ultimate vision on that draft night wound up coming to fruition, although he had not been in Atlanta for years by the time it all came together with the ancillary pieces in place which propelled real success.
The Metronome: Jake Matthews
It’s very rare in such an ever changing league where rosters are flipped so frequently for a guy to survive multiple regime changes with the same franchise. That’s what Jake Matthews has done, after he joined the team as a top-10 pick in the 2014 NFL Draft when Mike Smith was still the head coach.
Since then, the team has had three more head coaches, five different quarterbacks going into respective seasons, a change at general manger and even a brand new stadium built — yet the common denominator has always been Matthews at left tackle, where he has started 179 consecutive games.
Matthews at age 33 is still dependable as ever, as he has not registered a PFF pass blocking grade of below 77 since his rookie season. 2024 was actually even a bit of a renaissance as he ranked in the top 10 among all tackles in pass-blocking grades for the first time since 2019, while registering his highest run-blocking grade since 2017.
Matthews has given the Falcons a 10-year return on their investment and counting, as he remains one of the most important players on this offense.
The Superstar: Chris Lindstrom
I will never forget how disappointed the Falcons’ draft party looked in 2019 after the announcement was made that the team was selecting Chris Lindstrom with the 14th pick. In fact, take a look for yourself.
Lindstrom has done a heck of a job making this video look hilarious in hindsight, as he followed a very solid rookie season with an enhanced and good sophomore campaign, before a third-year jump into being one of the best guards in the league.
What many did not see coming was the second big jump he made after Year 3 into an absolute wrecking ball of organized chaos. In each season between 2022 through 2024, Lindstrom has been PFF’s highest graded guard, with his elite run blocking paving the way for that honor (he’s been a top-5 G in run blocking grade every year since 2021).
Smack-dab in the middle of his prime at age 28, Lindstrom has had three straight Pro Bowl campaigns and has been named a Second-Team All-Pro in each of those seasons. He is the best player at his position and is far and away Atlanta’s best player right now.
The Steady Improver: Kaleb McGary
The difference we saw between Kaleb McGary’s rookie season in 2019 and his most recent campaign in 2024 is night and day. It’s like we were watching a completely different player.
Much like Lindstrom, McGary showed steady improvement from his rookie season and into the past three years, which have been a peak in play. The difference is that while Lindstrom was a league-average guard as a rookie, McGary was a disaster at right tackle, allowing a league-high 13 sacks.
The Washington product has been a lesson in how patience can pay off, as he had a high-water mark in 2022 following three seasons of below-average play, despite gradual improvement. It was in Year 4 when he graded out as one of the five best tackles in the league, and registered the second-highest run blocking grade among all players at his position.
McGary hasn’t reached the heights of 2022 since, but that year signified a watershed moment as he has consistently been an above-average tackle since.
We will not see McGary at all in 2025 following a knee injury during a training camp practice, but he will be back in 2026 after he signed a two-year contract extension earlier in the summer.
Before the great leap
For the first three seasons of Lindstrom and McGary’s careers, the Falcons always registered an offensive line in the bottom 10, despite Kaleb’s improvement and Lindstrom living up to the draft billing to go along with Matthews performing as always. The left guard and center positions were always massive question marks (and let’s be honest, so was McGary at right tackle during that time period) which tanked the overall performance of the unit.
Here is where the Falcons finished in overall PFF end-of-season offensive rankings from 2019 through 2021.
- 2019 – 24th
- 2020 – 21st
- 2021 – 27th
In 2019, Lindstrom missed most of his rookie season due to injury, and while Alex Mack was still stout at the center position, the guards that bookended him left a lot to be desired in Wes Schweitzer, James Carpenter and Jamon Brown (the latter two being free agent misses by Dimitroff in his last offseason as decision maker). As mentioned, McGary also had an awful season as the worst tackle in football.
2020 had some improvement, as the unit climbed out of the bottom 10 in rankings. Lindstrom playing the full season helped, but an Alex Mack regression and continued poor play from McGary and Carpenter held things back.
The low point for the unit came in 2021. The team got what they could have hoped from second-year man Matt Hennessy in relief of the departed Alex Mack, as he had a good run blocking season in the middle of the line. His struggles in pass protection combined with McGary’s continued poor play protecting the quarterback was a hindrance, but not as much as a full season starting Jalen Mayfield at left guard. Mayfield was one of the worst players at his position and him playing 989 snaps was a misery for the Falcons’ offense to the point where the unit tanked despite Lindstrom and Matthews’ best efforts to keep it afloat.
2022: The year everything clicked
By the time 2022 rolled around, the left guard position had been a pain point for years (as you can tell by the names who have manned it). The Falcons did what they could in a makeshift way to keep that spot afloat behind three different starters in Elijah Wilkinson, Matt Hennessy and Colby Gossett. It was passable, as was the play of new center Drew Dalman who wrestled the spot away from Hennessy.
Even when you consider left guard a position of weakness, it’s more than sufficient when there’s just one of those on the line instead of two to three, the way there had been in the years leading up. Kaleb McGary took a jump into being one of the league’s best right tackles in 2022, and Lindstrom took a quantum leap into becoming the best guard in football. That combined with Matthews’ continued consistency solidified the foundation of the unit and propelled this group into making one of the most dramatic jumps you will ever see from an offensive line.
Consider Atlanta’s O-Line PFF rankings I just shared leading up to 2022. They could never get out of the 20s. Here is what that ranking is during the next three seasons, from 2022-2024.
- 2022 – 5th
- 2023 – 4th
- 2024 – 11th
For there to be a 22-place jump without massive wholesale changes is incredibly impressive and a lesson in the fruits that internal growth and continuity can bear.
