In the Nest is an editorial series diving into the people who help the organization's gears turn smoothly off the gridiron. This installment is a look at how the Falcons' operations and equipment staff handled the 2024 preseason, which included perhaps the biggest road trip of the season.
Story by Amna Subhan
Preseason football may feel like a warmup period for the season ahead, but a deeper look reveals a different truth for NFL operations teams: Months and months of planning by those behind the scenes to ensure the travel and logistics run without a hitch.
Brandon Ruth, Falcons senior director of operations, learned the importance of planning ahead in his first year handling travel for the team as the logistics manager in 2016. It was Week 10 of the season when the idea of Super Bowl preparation was first brought to his attention by vice president of operations Spencer Treadwell.
The Matt Ryan-led Falcons were 6-4 at the time, and Ruth thought, "We're just trying to make the playoffs. What are you talking about?"
And yet, Treadwell's instincts proved correct. His group started to make preparations just as the Falcons caught fire, winning five of their last six regular season games to finish with an 11-5 record and win the NFC South for the first time since 2012. Ryan won the first MVP award in franchise history while leading one of the top offenses in league history all the way to the Super Bowl.
When comparing his experience in 2016, Ruth referenced dragons from the "Game of Thrones" universe. There are full-grown dragons — the Super Bowl, for example; and there are baby dragons like preseason and joint practices. The preseason trips, which require more bandwidth than the regular season, are "not ready to kill you and burn you yet" but they can still cause some damage if you're not prepared.
"If I can handle that, I can handle anything," Ruth said of his experience in 2016. "It just takes advanced planning, it takes good communication, it takes really good relationships. If I can do all those things correctly, then we're gonna go down and back and everybody's gonna have a great time."
When the 2024 schedule was released in May, planning commenced immediately. The Falcons had two road preseason games against the Miami Dolphins and Baltimore Ravens, including joint practices against the former, that would require a detailed travel outline.
The biggest hurdle, Ruth said, is the number of bodies that need to travel. Unlike a regular-season road trip with the 53-man roster, training camp rosters feature 90 players. It takes extra everything: time, equipment, personnel, and — again — planning.
The Falcons chartered two planes back to Atlanta after the first preseason game against the Dolphins, a first for this operations staff and based on previous lessons to accommodate the greater numbers. The team's first trip of the year will be the longest of the season and featured the largest travel party (barring a Super Bowl run). It's something Ruth pitched as soon as the season ended to ensure every player of the 90-man roster had room to spread out. It also allowed them to bring more staff without having to fly commercially, which could have experienced weather delays, especially during hurricane season in Florida.
Falcons head of equipment operations Joey Galioto compared the team's travel efficiency to a military operation. In partnership with Ruth's team, the equipment staff moves thousands of pounds of helmets, jerseys, pads, cleats, training tables, recovery gear, camera equipment, tubs for ice baths, 65-inch televisions for viewing tape at halftime and much more.
"We don't take it lightly. A lot of times (preseason is) where the rookie class or UDFAs are putting on their uniforms for the first time," Galioto said. "We want to make sure that coaches and staff are comfortable, the players are comfortable to suit up and play a game. Whether it counts or not on the schedule doesn't change for us."
The essentials needed to play in the Falcons' first preseason game went on the team plane. Everything else shipped on a truck. That way, in the event of a worst-case scenario such as the tractor-trailer catching fire, they still had everything to compete in the preseason game. In all, the staff took about 60 extra helmets, 85 guardian caps and some 300 pairs of cleats for the week in Miami.
Advanced planning means shoring up any blind spots or anticipating the unexpected, including last-minute player acquisitions or every kind of inclement weather. On the truck, the team packs excess items like rain gear, footballs and multiple sizes of jerseys with numbers that aren't already assigned.
Both the Miami and Baltimore trips involved possible rainy conditions. Galioto noted the challenge is keeping everything dry. Cleats are especially important for player safety because the grass or turf could be slippery due to rain and humidity. They prepare by bringing detachable cleats to adjust to the weather. The worse the conditions, the longer the studs used in the cleats.
"It's my job — it's our job — to make sure that everybody has everything they need, and they can go out and be the best version of themselves," Galioto said. "... There's a lot of people dependent on us."
For the five days in Miami, they shipped 13 wooden pallets of equipment in the trailer truck. An advance crew from Galioto's team was deployed months ahead to check out the locker room and collaborate with the Dolphins' staff on what need to be brought. For example, they were able to use the Dolphins' laundry facilities. So, after the Falcons practiced the morning before their flight down south, Galioto and his team packed up the dirty practice attire, washed it after they landed and had it fresh and ready to go for practice the following morning.
Ruth also sends people a couple of days early to meet the truck when it arrives at the hotel. They unload everything and prepare it for the players' arrival. The goal is to make thing as seemless as possible for players, for it to feel no different than at training facility or Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
It's a constant process, but it's these little things that make all cylinders go. And the relationships Ruth and Galioto develop with players and coaches keep things running smoothly. Galioto knows how many cleats each player wants to pack. Some players just need one pair, some others want as many as five different variations. Galioto makes sure to communicate with starters like Kirk Cousins, Jessie Bates III and Grady Jarrett about what they require while watching preseason games from the sideline. Items could range from a headset to listen in on the play calls or a certain pair of sneakers.
Ruth knows which players would prefer a bathtub instead of a shower in their hotel rooms and which ones would want their families to join them on the trip. He coordinates all of that and more. Those relationships are where he'll start if Treadwell pops into his office late in the year to broach the topic of a Super Bowl trip. If the Falcons are on an upward trajectory, Ruth will meet first with head coach Raheem Morris to get his needs and begin the planning from there.
With two successful preseason road trips in the books, the baby dragons have been slayed. The experience of planning ahead for those trips will help everyone from operations to player and coaching personnel prepare for the big dragon they hope to meet at season's end.
"Hopefully, by the time we get to Week 10, Week 11, Week 12 we're rolling enough that I can start to picture things in my mind," Ruth said. "At least get some ducks in a row. That way, if we do make the playoffs, if we do progress the questions will start rolling in — and I already have the answers."
