Falcons Offense to Benefit from Coordinator Zac Robinson's 'Poise in the Noise'

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins and head coach Raheem Morris believe in offensive coordinator Zac Robinson.

Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator Zac Robinson is entering his first game as an NFL play caller. / Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator Zac Robinson will be the team's eyes in the sky during Sunday's season opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers, as Robinson plans on calling plays from a booth upstairs in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

But in sticking with the rhyming theme, Robinson will also be Atlanta's "poise in the noise," starting quarterback Kirk Cousins said Wednesday.

"His calm will always stand out to me," Cousins said. "I think that's a good balance for me, to have somebody who's pretty steady and doesn't ride a roller coaster. I think that'll be a demeanor that will help our offense."

Robinson spent the past five years as an offensive assistant on the Los Angeles Rams' coaching staff. He was the Rams' quarterbacks coach each of the past two years, working on the same staff as first-year Falcons head coach Raheem Morris.

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When the Falcons hired Morris, previously Los Angeles' defensive coordinator, this January, Morris wanted to bring Robinson with him. Offensive coordinator was a crucial hire for Morris, who inherited a team filled with offensive weapons but quarterback questions and a cloud of unfulfilled potential from the year prior.

Robinson interviewed for other openings, including the Steelers, but ultimately followed Morris to Atlanta. While highly sought after, the 37-year-old Robinson has an element of unknown -- after all, his play-calling experience consists only of preseason games, both from this year and last with the Rams.

However, Morris saw Robinson work behind the scenes in Los Angeles and has seen the same successful process carry over to the Falcons' meeting rooms. As such, Morris is confident Robinson is ready.

"He's been preparing for it his whole life," Morris said Wednesday. "From when he was a quarterbacks coach, when he was a quality control coach, when he worked at PFF, whatever the case may be. I think he's been preparing for these settings.

"The constant communication allows for me to be able to breathe and accept that he's going to be ready to go out there."

Perhaps nobody is more important to Robinson's success than Cousins, a four-time Pro Bowl passer who played in a similar system with the Minnesota Vikings under head coach Kevin O'Connell, whose lineage also traces back to the Rams.

The 36-year-old Cousins said it's still too early to fully evaluate Robinson, and the offense as an entity hasn't yet faced any adversity, which will be a critical time to judge the group's cohesion.

But for Cousins, the first six months of working with Robinson have been littered with positive indicators.

"I think he's got a great football mind," Cousins said. "I think he's learned from great people. I think he does a good job of innovating. I think he also does a good job of having an identity and not just pulling plays from out of nowhere, but actually having a system and an identity while also being creative, which is an interesting balance to find, but the great play callers find it."

In a similar vein, Robinson has worked to find rhythm as a play-caller. He noted Wednesday the Falcons have over 5,000 banked practice reps dating back to the spring, with over 2,000 coming in training camp.

The preseason proved invaluable for Robinson, who found a rhythm calling plays in the booth across exhibition games with the Miami Dolphins, Baltimore Ravens and Jacksonville Jaguars.

Robinson was always on the field in his various roles with the Rams. Atlanta's Week 1 contest against the Steelers will be the first time he's spent gameday in the box sections.

While new, Robinson has enjoyed the perspective gained from overlooking the field. He said he feels as if he's a thousand miles away but doesn't need binoculars to help spot defensive personnel due to the communication between he and the rest of the coaching staff.

Mercedes-Benz Stadium has a good setup and view, Robinson said, and he's excited to continue calling plays from the booth Sunday in Atlanta.

"You get to see everything up there," Robinson said. "You've got everything out in front of you if you want. Just organizationally, it's pretty clean. You do miss being on the field with the guys, feeling the flow of what that feels like in practice and when to go tempo sometimes, so you miss out on some of that.

"But the organization you have up there and the steadiness the booth brings, I thought was a pretty good deal."

Being able to see the whole field is ultimately what sold Robinson on choosing the booth over the sidelines. Another contributing factor, he said, is the trust that exists in the line of communication between the on-field coaches and those up top.

The process has been clean, Robinson said, and he's filled with excitement entering his first game as a play-caller at any level. Now, he just has to execute.

"There's been great collaboration with all the coaches and players to lead up to this point," Robinson said. "So, we'll just continue to trust the process that we've had this whole time and be ready to roll on Sunday."

The Falcons and Steelers will kick off at 1 p.m. Sunday inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium.