The Atlanta Falcons didn't make any real splashes in free agency this year, coming in with zero moves on ESPN's list of the 50 most-impactful this offseason.
The new-look front office led by Matt Ryan wasn't totally idle, though. Perhaps their most-important signing outside of Tua Tagovailoa was adding former Kansas City Chiefs right tackle Jawaan Taylor, who is projected to replace the now-retired Kaleb McGary in the starting lineup.
Taylor is a pretty-decent tackle who comes with championship experience. However, one negative is his penchant for drawing penalties. According to an analysis by Pro Football Focus, Taylor has gotten flagged more times than any other NFL player since 2021 by a wide margin.
"Over three years with the Chiefs and two
with the Jaguars prior, Taylor racked up a league-leading 74 penalties, the most by a wide margin. He was especially a flag magnet protecting Patrick Mahomes, with 56 of those calls coming from 2023-25 alone. A key problem for Taylor has been illegal formation assessments, with his 10 in this span the second-most to only Braden Smith. Beyond that, Taylor was penalized for a league-high 35 holds."
Not ideal. That said, players can change - even those that have been in the league for a long time already. Especially if they are paired with a good coach. On that score, the Falcons have the best offensive line coach in the business, having hired Bill Callahan as part of Kevin Stefanski's Year 1 staff. If Callahan can't get Taylor to clean up his penalty problem, nobody can.
Should Taylor's issues with flags continue, the Falcons do have another option at right tackle. They also traded for his former Chiefs teammate Wanya Morris, who should be the next man up behind Taylor and left tackle Jake Matthews, who's starting to fall off if his PFF ranking is any indication.
This article originally appeared on Falcons Wire: Falcons' addition NFL's most-penalized player over the last 5 seasons
