re: 2019 was a dud. Let's look towards 2020

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Falcons: The brotherhood has 4 games left. We get to look forward to a new coaching regime (most importantly, a new offensive coordinator), and a bushel of high draft picks. Looking forward to continuing to build our front-lines, getting rid of a lot of roster dead-weight, and getting back into the thick of things in the NFC. So long as we have a QB, we are never more than a year away. It's the NFL.

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This roster is going to look significantly different in 2020.

I believe the following players will be gone for sure: Beasley (FA), Freeman (cut), Bailey (cut), Sambrailo (cut), Carpenter (cut), Campbell (FA).

I think these players have a decent chance of being cap casualties: Trufant, Mack, Allen (although his restructuring makes this far less likely).

Keanu Neal is going to pose an extremely difficult decision for the next regime. He's incredibly talented, but severe injuries have mounted over the last few years and the team can save almost $6.5M by cutting him.

I think the team really wants to keep Hooper but he will be a highly coveted FA and Jayden Graham has flashed enough for the Falcons to possibly let Hooper walk. I don't want to see this happen at all though.

Dimitroff not trading Freeman to the Lions at the deadline was football malpractice, and giving a 30 year old Julio a nearly fully guaranteed contract was unbelievably stupid for a team who needs upgrades in so many other places. The draft will be really interesting. Trading down should be explored heavily if they can't draft Chase Young. This team needs as much cheap talent as possible right now with the bloated contracts on the roster.

I still really, really like Matt Ryan but he is not getting any younger and it looks like he has lost a bit of arm strength. I think he may be playing through an unknown injury this year considering how often he has been hit and how he hasn't looked like himself at times.

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Braves It looks like we care about the bullpen again! Baseball is all about getting hot at the right time. Hopefully, we can bring back Josh, reclaim the division, and get streaky in October. Unfortunately, Snitker is still our manager - so, we still may only pitch our ace 1 time in a 5 game series. But the talent is still there to overcome that, and go deep into October.

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The Braves look like they're about to up the payroll significantly. I think we'll see at least one of Wright, Anderson, Pache, and Waters traded this offseason to try and upgrade the rotation.

That said, I'm concerned that someone like the Rangers will come in and offer Donaldson a 4 year deal worth $85-$90M knowing that he can DH at the end of the deal if his play in the field declines. I know the Braves want to bring him back but there is concern.

I also think Swanson and/or Inciarte could be moved as part of a deal to improve the rotation. Inciarte is much more likely than Swanson, but I think it's possible.

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Hawks When Trae, Collins, Huerter, and Hunter are all available, this team plays with anyone. The downside to this season is, that has quite literally been only 6 games. If JC suspension/injuries push us into the lottery, we may be fortunate enough to land another stud to our already incredible young core. People forget - the year before the Warriors dynasty took off, they lost Steph for a bulk of their season and it derailed their 8-seed aspirtation, but yielded them... Harrison Barnes. The core was complete. We may have to endure one final playoff-less season, but, with the core and cap space we have, it's only a matter of time before the W's come piling in.

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I'm not an NBA fan so I can't make an informed comment on the Hawks, but I really, really liked DeAndre Hunter coming out of Virginia and think he can be a good secondary core piece to go with Trae Young. Hunter was probably the best 3 and D player in the draft last year and he put UVA on his back in the second half of the title game against TT last year and UVA needed every bit of what he was providing.