Chris Lindstrom’s ascension to one of many best possible offensive linemen within the NFL has been a obvious brilliant spot for a group that has largely been out of the highlight for a lot of his profession. The 26-year-old has grow to be the kind of elite anchor groups can construct an offensive line round, so let’s take a more in-depth take a look at what makes Lindstrom so necessary for the Atlanta Falcons.

The very first thing that jumps out is his impression on the run sport, which is le plat principal in Arthur Smith’s offense. It’s honest to notice that Smith’s offense does make life just a little simpler on the offensive line, however Lindstrom is the kind of participant who rewards the help from his coach by making the whole unit higher.

Contact stability is one thing we regularly use when discussing ball carriers, but it surely’s a vital trait for an offensive lineman as nicely. And no person on Atlanta’s line performs with higher contact stability than Lindstrom. He routinely makes performs out in area that require him to stymie a full-speed defender and place himself for the right block whereas operating at full pace.

Take the play above for instance. Backed up in opposition to their very own purpose line for the group’s opening drive in opposition to the Cleveland Browns, the Falcons couldn’t afford to have a unfavourable play on first down. Lindstrom delivers a superb preliminary punch on his double group with Kaleb McGary, which then permits him to slip to the second stage and create just a little lane for Cordarrelle Patterson to seek out.

Patterson in the end picks up 6 yards, and the Falcons get sufficient room for a big-play strike to Kyle Pitts on second down. With out Lindstrom there to remain upright and combat to seal that lane, Patterson might by no means have discovered the daylight he wanted for the constructive play.

For a move-based run sport that used outdoors zone at a excessive clip, Lindstrom’s athleticism is essential.

It additionally permits Smith to faucet into one thing that’s grow to be just a little bit extra of a pattern in latest seasons: utilizing pulling facilities and guards to create a numbers benefit on the level of assault. Pulling an offensive lineman isn’t a novel thought by any means, however we’ve seen a resurgence in it, and that’s due to gamers like Lindstrom who’ve uncommon motion abilities.

Atlanta’s offense in 2022 saved defenses guessing with quite a lot of pre- and post-snap motion. It’s straightforward to establish what kind of motion occurs earlier than the ball is snapped, however as soon as the play begins, that’s when it’s Lindstrom’s flip to maintain defenders on their toes.

Think about this play in opposition to the Pittsburgh Steelers late within the season. With everybody transferring to the correct of the play, Lindstrom hustles to the again facet and serves because the lead blocker for Patterson. It requires confidence and competence to corral a participant like Myles Jack in area, however Lindstrom matched him step for step and held out lengthy sufficient for Patterson to create one other constructive play.

Lindstrom isn’t overreaching, and he retains his toes below him as he climbs to the following stage. Typically, the additional a lineman will get away from the road of scrimmage, the extra uncomfortable he seems. That’s not the case with Lindstrom, who continued to point out in the identical sport how his pace can alter the maths on the play facet even when he begins on the bottom.

For all of his highlights as a run blocker, and there are quite a lot of them, he’s additionally developed into a reasonably good move protector as nicely. He completed simply behind Jake Matthews because the group’s high move blocker, in line with Professional Soccer Focus, and he performs a key function in actually promoting Atlanta’s play-action passing sport.

Play motion is a main means wherein Smith helps out his offensive line. By staying in advantageous down-and-distance conditions and avoiding pure drop-back play calls, the Falcons actually preserve their playing cards near the chest till the ball is snapped. As soon as that pigskin is picked up, nevertheless, it falls on the gamers to execute.

Watch how rapidly Lindstrom fires out of his stance within the play above. If I’m a defender, I imagine that is an out of doors run play to the correct 10 occasions out of 10. It makes the move blocking that a lot simpler if the move rusher isn’t actually attempting to get upfield to start with. That’s the fantastic thing about Atlanta’s play-action sport: How the offensive line sells out to drag as many defenders as doable into that false vortex—and it begins with Lindstrom.

In every of his 4 seasons with the Falcons, Lindstrom has improved. Final season wasn’t an outlier a lot because it was the following step within the continuous progress we’ve seen. As PFF identified in naming Lindstrom their high guard of the 2022 season, there’s motive to imagine he’ll sustain this stage of play.

“Importantly, this doesn’t appear like a flash-in-the-pan season for him. Lindstrom’s grade ranks in features of offensive line play which can be typically steady yr to yr are excellent. He completed above the 96th percentile in pass-blocking grade, true pass-blocking grade, pass-blocking grade with out play motion, pass-blocking grade on five- and seven-step ideas, run-blocking grade on zone runs and positively graded run performs.”

All indicators level in the direction of the Falcons as soon as once more counting on their run sport to a excessive diploma this fall. It’s straightforward to attribute that to the three-headed monster at operating again or the inexperience that Desmond Ridder presents at quarterback. However Lindstrom seemingly performs as a lot of a job in one of many NFL’s greatest speeding assaults as anybody within the constructing.

If he retains up this tempo, Lindstrom might rapidly stand up the checklist of most esteemed linemen in franchise historical past.