If your time is limited and you can only head to Flowery Branch for a couple of days, you might want to hold off and head up tomorrow when the Falcons will get out of the shells and really lay into each other. According to Jay Adams of the organization, Mike Smith's plan is to make the weekend the first time for full contact.
Coach Smith said after practice today that the Falcons will first get into full pads during the weekend. A good time to visit camp.
If you haven't been to camp before it's a pretty pedestrian affair in shells. You'll see a lot of stretching, walk throughs, and position drills, but nothing to really write home about. You wont really get a sense for how the players look until they go into the full contact drills. Most of the time it's a total crap-shoot whether or not you'll get to see the team at 100%, so getting an early tip is huge if you want to see the team at their most exciting.
What will be especially of note when the Falcons get into pads is seeing Akeem Dent. This camp is his first opportunity to work with the first team, and it will be fascinating to see if he's able to shed blocks, dissect plays, and get to Michael Turner; all of which will be critical if he hopes to make an impact in 2012. While Mike Peterson may have returned, ultimately the Falcons aren't hoping he'll be relied on as a 16 gamer starter. It's their hope that Dent can take the step needed to become their long term starter, an ability he showed flashes of in 2011.
It all starts now. This is a figurative start of the season, and the groundwork that is laid in camp will carry through to February (hopefully).
For more on the Falcons please visit 'The Falcoholic'