I am looking into the Falcons. They’ve got the new offensive coordinator this year. Kyle Shanahan is in, and Dirk Koetter is out. And I think they’ll be just fine under Shanahan.

Normally with Shanahans, we tend to think of running backs gone wild. Mike Shanahan had all those good running backs in Denver, and Alfred Morris put up some big numbers for Younger Shanny in Washington. Cleveland last year with a better team rushing than passing.

But as I look at Kyle Shanahan’s overall body of work, I think he’s more of a pass guy than a run guy. That is, give him a quarterback and he’s fine. You can’t really fault him for not putting up big passing numbers when he was working with RG3 in Washington and Hoyer/Manziel in Cleveland. (RG3 had the one big season under Shanahan, but he was a rookie and the success was built off the zone read).

Go back to Houston in 2008 and 2009 (when Shanahan was the offensive coordinator), with a functional Matt Schaub at quarterback and Andre Johnson at wide receiver, and that offense was just fine.

Shanahan has been an offensive coordinator seven times, and three of those offenses had 100-catch receivers, with Andre Johnson going over 1,500 yards twice. And Santana Moss had a big season, with 93 receptions for 1,115 yards in 2010.

To me, with Matt Ryan being better than any quarterback Shanahan has coached, that combo with Julio Jones looks really strong. Jones is an Andre Johnson type of receiver (not the same style of receiver, but similar in talent level), and I think he’ll be huge in that offense.

Jones, I think, is on the short list of wide receivers who could catch 110-plus passes this year.

KYLE SHANAHAN'S WIDE RECEIVERS
YearTmPlayerNoYardsAvgTD
2008Hou.Andre Johnson115157513.78
2009Hou.Andre Johnson101156915.59
2010Wash.Santana Moss93111512.06
2011Wash.Jabar Gaffney6894713.95
2012Wash.Pierre Garcon4463314.44
2013Wash.Pierre Garcon113134611.95
2014Clev.Andrew Hawkins6382413.12

—Ian Allan