FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. – Every season Austin Hooper has been in the league his workload has increased and with Dirk Koetter running the Falcons' offense, you can expect to see even more balls thrown Hooper's way.
The Pro Bowl tight end is coming off a year in which he caught 71 passes for 660 yards and four touchdowns.
RELATED CONTENT
Based off the short period of time they've worked together, Hooper has already seen differences in Koetter's offense and how it will directly impact his role.
"I really enjoy it," Hooper said of Koetter's offense. "There's a lot of cool up-tempo style plays that are a higher percentage chance for me to find some success and find the football. From a tight end room perspective, I think I can speak for our whole group when we say we really enjoy the new offensive style."
Koetter brings a wealth of experience to the Falcons' offense. The 13-year veteran coach has led some of the league's top passing offenses through the years.
In 2018 when Koetter was the head coach of the Buccaneers, Tampa had the No. 1-ranked passing offense. In his first stint with the Falcons as offensive coordinator from 2012-14, Koetter's offenses ranked in the top-10 each season.
Koetter knows how to utilize his weapons and the Falcons certainly have a lot of them.
Anytime a new coordinator is hired schemes will be tweaked. The Falcons will continue to run the wide-zone scheme they've used for the past four seasons under Koetter.
And although the scheme will stay the same, Koetter has added new wrinkles.
Falcons head coach Dan Quinn provided further context on what to expect from Atlanta's offense with those wrinkles:
"In Dirk's system, we're going to be at the line quite a bit," Quinn said. "It's not always no-huddle fast but having the ability to be at the line and go attack when you want to, there's some mental pressure that can go with that. It takes extra time and extra learning for the offensive guys because not only do they have to know the play, but also a code word that can match with it. It takes extra time, but it's time well spent. It's worth the sacrifice to spend the extra time."
The new style will affect all of the players in the Falcons' offense and for Hooper specifically, it means he can expect to be put in more positions to receive the ball.
"In our up-tempo offense, there's more high percentage throws available for the wide position," Hooper said. "When we go two minute, up-tempo, so it helps based off coverage, leverage, things like that."
