First, the Cincinnati Bengals beat the Atlanta Falcons in the Georgia Dome last night, 24-19. I watched most of that game and the Bengals look to be for real indeed.

As the starters battled in the first half, it became more and more apparent that the Bengals are picking up where they left off last season. While both teams were tackling extremely well for the early preseason, that’s to be expected of a veteran defense like the Falcons. The fact that the Bengals looked every bit as good should be encouraging for fans starved of a winner up until last year. Oh sure, they’d have a season here, a season there that they would do okay, but they appear to finally be putting some good pieces on the table.

Aug 16, 2012; Atlanta, GA, USA; Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green (18) scores a touchdown while being dragged to the ground by Atlanta Falcons cornerback Asante Samuel (22) during the second quarter at the Georgia Dome. Mandatory Credit: Josh D. Weiss-US PRESSWIRE

Second-year pro A.J. Green looked like the top-ten WR that I believe he is. His ability to separate almost at will was on display, and his incredible hands, strength, and body control were all shown off on a 50-yard TD strike down the right sideline from supposedly candy-armed QB Andy Dalton as Green pushed, twisted and turned his way across the goal line before falling out of bounds on the good side of the pylon.

The play also showed that Andy Dalton has plenty of arm to get things done in the NFL, if he hadn’t proven it last year. Rookie WR Mohamed Sanu added a 12 yard touchdown reception from Bruce Gradkowski in the second half.

Injuries have already bitten the Bengals, which makes their strong showing even more promising. Former Panther and starting Bengals’ left guard Travelle Wharton was lost for the season in last week’s game against the New York Jets, while rookie Kevin Zeitler is starting at the right guard spot. TE Jermaine Gresham had a nice catch and run, but apparently got his foot caught in the turf on the tackle and awkwardly fell to the ground. He did not return, but the injury doesn’t appear to be serious.

Defensive lineman Carlos Dunlap will miss the entire preseason with a sprained knee and his status for the game one opener is questionable. First-round pick Dre Kirkpatrick, a CB from Alabama, is in a similar situation.

The good news is that everyone but Wharton should be ready by either the opener or week two, depending on how things go.

As for the Falcons, Matt Ryan hit on 18 of 21 attempts for 174 yards and a TD. He spread the ball around and Julio Jones reminded us that A.J. Green wasn’t the only promising young WR on the field with several nice catches of his own.

The Browns’ victory over the Packers shouldn’t concern Green Bay fans as the Packers have their offense in order and are protecting AR-12 (QB Aaron Rodgers) as much as possible during the preseason. For the Packers, the 2012 preseason is about settling their starters on defense and generating a pass rush.

Cleveland Browns rookie QB Brandon Weeden has been named the starter for a few weeks now and went 12 of 20 for 118 yards, but had a would-be interception dropped by Packer LB A.J. Hawk and another dropped by Casey Hayward. Weeden was lucky last night and clearly has work to do. Colt McCoy, now the second-string QB, went 4 of 6 for 58 yards on a long touchdown drive and actually looked better than Weeden. Interesting.

This is more a case of Green Bay’s backup QB, Graham Harrell, playing poorly than anything else. He completed only 12 of 24 passes for a measly 100 yards and 2 interceptions. That’s 4 yards per ATTEMPT and throwing short passes shouldn’t generate interceptions like that. He wasn’t so “lucky” as Weeden and also had an intentional grounding penalty.

The Packers appear to be in trouble if Aaron Rodgers were to ever get injured. No Matt Flynn this year; he’s wearing a different shade of green.

Dec, 11, 2011; Charlotte, NC, USA; Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones (11) scores a touchdown as Carolina Panthers cornerback Darius Butler (27) and free safety Sherrod Martin (23) defend in the fourth quarter. The Falcons defeated the panthers 31-23 at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-US PRESSWIRE

After starting this particular series looking at the Arizona Cardinals, next in the Alphabet Soup is probably the Panthers’ biggest rival: the Atlanta Falcons. How have they changed since last season?

First of all, looking at their draft, it appears they really wanted to shore up the offensive line and help the ground game. Lacking a first-round pick due to the Julio Jones trade (the Cleveland Browns took QB Brandon Weeden with the Falcons’ would-be 2012 first-round selection) last year, they spent their 2nd, 3rd, and 5th round picks on a guard, a tackle, and a fullback (lead-blocker).

With a young Field General in Matt Ryan and two of the top 30 or so WRs in the league, they have a good nucleus of talent at the skill positions on offense. Tony Gonzalez is turning 57 or so this summer but still manages to produce and was even signed to another offseason contract. WR Harry Douglas helps round out the 3rd WR spot, giving them a top-ten WR trio.

The Falcons organization tends to take care of their own better than most, and this does two things: It helps to keep things coherent from one season to the next and instills a sense of loyalty in their players – both of which are good for the franchise. The Powers That Be have been somewhat rewarded with consecutive playoff appearances, only to be trounced and booted out in their first game.

Clearly, Matt Ryan needs to lead the team to a playoff win in order for him to even be thought about in the same conversation with “elite” quarterbacks, but he’s better than most and should be entrenched for years to come. But what else have they done?

First, they let their MLB from 2011, Curtis Lofton go in Free Agency. But I just SAID “they take care of their own!” Yes, within reason they do. Retaining him would have been rather expensive and he’s not a 3- or 4-down MLB. In the pass-happy NFL, you really need an MLB that can cover as well as tackle. Lofton’s a solid and durable player, but with limited upside after 4 years in the NFL. LB Sean Weatherspoon, the Falcons’ top pick in 2010, should step in as their captain and they signed former Pro-bowler Lofa Tatupu to replace him. Upgrade.

They also let some special teams players go, but that shouldn’t hurt them. The guys they did let go are replaceable. The special teamers they kept, Michael Palmer and Antoine Smith, were the cornerstone players up for contracts and got them. They also re-signed the President, guard Andrew Jackson, for depth and to keep some of that cohesiveness on offense. Expect Wisconsin rookie Peter Konz to take over at one guard spot pretty quickly. A few others, like backup QB Chris Redman, signed for the veteran minimum to stay in Atlanta.

THAT is what loyalty can do as well – help you stay cap-friendly. Harry Douglas most likely could have gotten more money in Free Agency as well.

Others they re-signed include C Todd “Mad Duck” McClure, DT Vance Walker, and DE John Abraham – keeping that continuity theme going on both lines. Again, Abraham could have gone elsewhere for more, but signed a 3-year contract making about $5 million per season.

Whew! The Falcons had twenty players – a third of their roster – up for free agency or new contracts and the brass kept those they felt they had to or did so for depth purposes.

This is the main reason why Atlanta will once again be at or near the top of the standings in the NFC South in 2012. Keep an eye on them as they go through their mini camp next week. Pay special attention to the offensive line, running game, and how the mixture of rookies and veteran signees mesh.

As of now, I don’t see any fall-off at all in the Falcons’ level of talent. In fact, they’ve gotten a little better and that’s a scary thought.

Overall, I’d rate them one step forward.

Next up: the Baltimore Ravens

Nov 12, 2011; Manhattan, KS, USA; Texas A

Top players have always gone at the top of their respective drafts and that hasn’t changed with the new CBA and rookie wage scale. The rookie wage scale is overall a good thing for the league for a number of reasons.

The days of drawn-out contract talks are gone. You’re drafted at X, you make Y money. It’s that simple. What that means is the veterans who have EARNED respect and a roster spot through their play actually get paid fair value now instead of seeing some cocky rookie come into camp with $50 million in guaranteed money not having ever played a single down.

The Law of Unintended Consequences means that this “redistribution of income” gives teams a freer hand in the draft and the ability to slide up and down the board more as they see fit. There have been previous seasons where a team might really want the #2 or #3 pick for a particular player but didn’t make the move up because the cost was too high in both money and draft picks. Sure, you can still waste a draft pick on risk/reward guy but that hasn’t changed.

What has changed is the financial commitment to these guys – it’s been cut by more than half from 2 years ago.

The other more unintended result is that teams are more willing than ever to part with draft choices because the double-whammy of a bad decision is now gone.

The result is another good thing for both the league and the fans. If RG3 winds up an unlikely bust, Washington will still be out a number of first-round draft picks, but the financial hit won’t be nearly as smackdownish. RG3 should get a contract similar to Cam Newton’s last year, a 4-yr $22 million deal with a $14.5 million signing bonus.

As a second-derivative consequence, the skins will have a lot more cap room over the next 2-3 years BECAUSE of that lack of high picks. The result of THAT means they’ll be even more heavily involved in Free Agency, with the cash and cap room to actually do it, than most others will be. They won’t be servicing even the reduced salaries of highly-touted rookies.

Certainly not chump change, but these days if you want a $60+ million dollar guaranteed contract, you better be an established superstar (Mario Williams, Peyton Manning, Megatron) who is in his prime (or in Manning’s case, hopefully not far removed from it) with an incredible body of work behind you.

And that’s who SHOULD be making the big money.

We fans had known this for decades, and the NFL and NFLPA finally fixed it. You want a pick, money’s now not an issue. You go get him if you have the trade bait to deal, whether it’s draft picks, veteran players, or some combination of the two.

The other result is much more activity and uncertainty on draft day itself. We’ve had one completed draft with the second of the new era nearly upon us, and there have already been two blockbuster trades involving the first round. Last year, it was Atlanta trading up with Cleveland to get Julio Jones, a #2 WR to Roddy White that the Falcons thought would be the final piece that would allow them to overtake stubborn division rival New Orleans.

We all know about Washington’s trade. BTW off the subject a little here, but am I the only one who sees the total irony that it was Washington that completely overpaid to move up 4 spots? I guess art imitates life in this respect with the budget shenanigans the politicians in Washington have been up to for a long time. I just thought it was was funny that it HAD to be Washington that profusely overpaid!

Now that this trade has been done, it doesn’t mean the wheeling and dealing is over.

Ryan Tannehill is a second-round talent at best who could wind up going in the top 10 because of the premium on the QB position. The NFL has been headed for more of a 7-on-7 style passing league with the run as somewhat an afterthought these days and we see that in how teams draft.

RBs and MLBs slide down the board as opposed to previous years while QBs, pass rushers and CBs are moving upward. It wasn’t that long ago that Ronnie Brown, Cedric Benson, and Cadillac Williams went 2-, 4-, and 5- in the draft. These days it’s rare for 3 RBs to go in ALL of round one and I don’t see 3 going in the top 5 again under current rules. Ever.

It’s the QBs that are now filling the void. Because the prices got cheaper in 2011 (for rookie arms), teams are much, much more willing to roll the dice, expose some future draft choices, and trade up to grab that player that they feel could put them into playoff contention. In a QB-driven league, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what position that usually is.

We will know how much and how desperate a certain team is depending on where Tannehill is drafted. My money is on either the Dolphins at 8, or the Browns at 7, using their pick from last year’s Atlanta/Jones deal to package with a 2nd rounder and possibly next year’s first to pry the 7th overall from Jacksonville, one of the NFL’s neediest teams.

In the past 10 days or so, the talk is now that a team will have to trade with the Vikings at #3 to be certain of getting Tannehill. If you look at RG3 and Andrew Luck vs. Ryan Tannehill, in NO WAY, SHAPE OR FORM is Tannehill even close to the level of the likely top two young arms in the draft. He shouldn’t normally even go in the first round, but again, we saw Gabbert and Ponder go 10th and 12th last season and the pressure in Miami is very high and fans are really focusing their anger on owner Stephen Ross and GM Jeff Ireland. It’s now almost expected they’ll move up to #3 and nab Tannehill or risk being literally run out of town. Amazing that (Miami Marlin manager) Ozzie Guillen isn’t even the most hated sports figure in his own city!

Teams are still punished on the field for poor drafting; they just aren’t paying out the cash for poor play which emboldens them to take chances.

The point to all this is simply that, with the rookie wage scale and QBs being as sought after as ever, we have a recipe for a lot of unexpected movement up through draft day along with QBs being overdrafted by an entire round or more simply due to the combination of need and relatively cheap price (in dollars) they can be had for…and it also makes stockpiling of picks (you listening, New England?) even that much more of a smart thing to do.

This leads to another effect we’ve yet to witness. Teams like the Pats who love to stockpile picks now don’t have such a barrier to actually move UP and draft someone they like. The better teams generally have fewer weaknesses (thus the Atlanta/Jones deal last season) so if the Patriots see someone sitting at, say, 14 or 15 that they “gotta have,” they might be smart to spend those 2 first-rounders to jump up and grab a sliding Quentin Coples or a Fletcher Cox, or perhaps they stay put in hopes a Dontari Poe slides down to them. We’ll know by the end of the month!