The NFL announced on Monday that Direct TV's Sunday Ticket feature will be branching out from satellite and be available to all NFL fan's whether they are Direct TV subscribers or not. This service will apparently be available to fans 2012 at the latest. In addition, the NFL announced their new channel dubbed the "Red Zone Channel." This new channel will show live cut ins of games from 1pm all the way through the end of the 4pm games and will be available in a number of different arenas including cable and internet. NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell said that "this new content enhances our tradition of being the most pro-consumer, widely available sport on television." With great news like this for NFL fans and not just Direct TV subscribers, it's hard to disagree with him.

Scout.com is reporting that Atlanta has shown interest in Georgetown defensive end, Ataefiok Etukeren, and flown him into Flowery Branch for a private workout. Not much more is known at this time, but Falcons fans can be sure that this is good news. This shows just how thorough the Falcons have become as an organization. Etukeren will most like end up an UDFA and the prospect of the Falcons taking the time to scout UDFAs as well as players in the draft is very exciting. It just shows that the Falcons are leaving no stone unturned to look for the best fit for the team and reinforces that last years great draft was not a freak "capturing lighting in a bottle" scenario.

While the NFL owners meeting was recently being held, Atlanta Falcons' head coach Mike Smith candidly spoke on a few topics, one of which being the drafting of Matt Ryan last year and the preparation that the organization took before making the decision as per the AJC. The other, was Smith's affection towards the linebackers from USC available in this years draft. One of the 'backers projected to be available at the Falcons' number 24 pick is Clay Matthews, who is projected to be drafted by the Falcons by various mock drafts and has time scheduled with Atlanta. Smith had positive things to say about the other LBs as well, saying "They are very impressive...There are four guys that are definitely going to have an opportunity to play in the NFL. It’s been well documented that there are going to be some guys that get drafted very early.” Smith also added that "there is one common theme that these guys have and that’s they enjoy playing the game of football...That’s very obvious when you watch those guys on tape. They play with a lot of intensity. They play with a lot of passion. They have different sizes. They run differently, but the one thing that they do is that they play, very, very hard.” The stars seem to be aligning for Clay Matthews to become a Falcon, though whoever Smith and the rest of the organization take with the first pick, you can be sure that they did their homework to pick the best fit for the team.

The "Profile" feature is a feature we will be doing here on The Birds' Nest Blog to give the Falcons fans a little bit more insight into the backgrounds of the people responsible for making our franchise what it is. It will cover people in our front office and on the field and help analyze the moves the franchise is making.

Today we will cover Falcons GM, Thomas Dimitroff. "TD" was the breath of fresh air the Falcon's organization needed after the fallout of the 2007 season. He came to Atlanta with high praise from the New England Patriots where he was the Director of College Scouting. As many of you are aware, the Patriots were notorious for drafting well (Tom Brady was a sixth round pick), and never made a lot of noise in the free agency. It was all about acquiring players that were "value picks," or players that were overlooked by other teams, but had the ability to play at a higher level than their peers in a particular scheme. You can view the Pats draft history here, and their free agent history here. Now what does this have to do with the Atlanta Falcons? Well, if you look closely, there are obvious similarities between the franchises. Some fans have been screaming this off season about our lack of activity in the free agent market, but if you read between the lines, you can catch a glimpse of what TD is trying to do. The Falcons are still technically in a rebuilding phase, even though they had a terrific season last year. Dimitroff is trying to build a successful franchise that will be successful for a while to come, a dynasty if you will. Sound familiar? This is following the model that Dimitroff helped create in Foxborough which is why the Pats were able to reach so many superbowls without drastic changes to their roster. His basic strategy for the Falcons is to find young, capable players in the draft that can come in right away and contribute to the team. Just take a look at last year's draft. In 2008, the Falcons had at least half of their draft picks come in and make an immediate impact on the team. Some of the notable mentions include Matt Ryan, Sam Baker, Curtis Lofton, Chevis Jackson, and Harry Douglas. By building through the draft TD is sticking to his strengths, but let's not rule out what he is doing with the free agency either. As some of you may know, the Falcons are in position to receive compensatory picks in the 2010 draft for the free agents we lost this year depending on a number of different factors, but that is a very different and very long article all together. The point is that Dimitroff is setting up the Falcons to continue to build through the draft for the next few years at least with the ultimate result to be a great young franchise that has the opportunity to be better each year with the younger players continuing to build on the previous years' successes as they develop and progress. This is most definitely a good strategy or a good "process" (as coach Smith calls it). The thoroughness of Dimitroff and the rest of the organization is certainly refreshing and appears to be the model for how to build/rebuild a franchise. So, with all of this in mind, let's just sit back and see what Dimitroff does this offseason. He has yet to show us that he is anything other than brilliant and that his is a strategy that works. If after reading this article you are still unsatisfied with how quiet the Falcons appear to this offseason, then maybe you should consider being a fan of a team where the organization plays fantasy football with real players (see: Redskins, Cowboys).

It seems that select jerseys and apparel are 50% off at the Falcons 365 store at this time. This comes from emails that have been circulating to subscribers of the weekly Falcons 365 newsletter. For those of you still rocking the Mike Vick jerseys (and you know who you are), it might be time to move on and invest in some new gear. With items 50% off, there is no better time than now to do so. You can find the link from said emails here.

It's no secret that these mock drafts are all over the place, with each one having us taking a variety of different players with the number 24 pick. There is, however, a trend developing among these mocks and that is that the Falcons are expected to go defense with the first pick. This latest mock by Orlando Ledbetter of the AJC has us taking Northern Illinois DE/OLB Larry English with our first pick. Between this pick and Kirwan's earlier pick of Clay Matthews, it seems that the Falcons have a lot of viable options with their first pick.

Ah yes, draft time is just around the corner and the mock drafts are sprouting up all over the place. In his latest mock (4.0 for those that are counting), Pat Kirwan has the Atlanta Falcons taking USC linebacker Clay Matthews with the number 24 pick. Matthews seems to be popular in a number of different mocks, and is a natural fit for the Atlanta Falcons. With the recent signing of Mike Peterson, who is expected to play inside, Matthews could fill the Falcons hole at outside linebacker. You can view Matthews' highlights from the combine here.