The Falcons players who had been participating in the unofficial offseason practices closed up shop on Wednesday.
Since May 10, several Falcons had been been a part of the 7-on-7 drills held in lieu of the team-wide minicamps that would have been normally held around this time. The teams had one of the better attendances in the league, with a core group of around 30 players typically showing up at each practice.
Earlier this week in an interview with D. Orlando Ledbetter of the AJC, Ryan talked about how he felt the Falcons got what they wanted out of the workouts:
"I think obviously with the lockout and the situation that we were in, it was not a great situation in order to get prepared for next season. But with that said, I think we got a lot done. We had consistent turnouts week-in and week-out for about six or seven weeks, which is a long time. I think we did a great job."
Although not the ideal settings for NFL practices, the workouts seemed to have served their purpose, especially given the circumstances. Ordinarily, the idea behind NFL mini-camps is simply to get the rookies and new players acclimated to their team and playbooks.
As far as the Falcons rookies go, LB Akeem Dent made it out to a few practices and WR Julio Jones established himself as a regular participator. It has already been reported that Ryan and Jones have been building a good relationship with one another. Ryan has basically taken Jones under his wings and put him in a position to succeed in 2011. That alone is enough to call these workouts a success.