Falcons get good news (finally) with Turner signing

Michael Turner will team up with Jerious Norwood in the backfield to give Atlanta a potent one-two punch. AP

Not much has gone to plan for the Atlanta Falcons since the final month of the 2006 season or so, but you can't fault their execution in the pursuit and acquisition of free-agent running back Michael Turner this weekend.

The Falcons long ago identified Turner as their No. 1 priority in free agency, and when the NFL's annual personnel shopping season opened Friday, Atlanta sprung into action. This time, the Falcons had much better luck than when they went after their top candidates in their recent general manager and head coaching searches.

In what might approach the league record for the longest free-agent visit ever, Turner hit town on Friday, took in a Georgia Force Arena Football League game on Saturday, and was wined and dined at one of Atlanta's best restaurants Saturday night by Falcons owner Arthur Blank and a coterie of team officials. Finally on Sunday, there was a deal to report: six years for a salary in the range of $35 million, with a hefty $15 million guaranteed.

This time, the Falcons didn't get turned down, the way Bill Parcells, Bill Cowher, Jason Garrett and Jim Caldwell had done them in December and January. This time, Atlanta didn't have to settle for its second choice.

According to a Falcons source I spoke with Sunday afternoon, Blank put the full-court press on Turner, taking him to a five-star restaurant for a Saturday night dinner that was attended by new general manager Thomas Dimitroff, new head coach Mike Smith, new offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey, and quite possibly team president Rich McKay. Their goal was clear: Turner was not to get out of town without a deal. Blank could not abide by any more near-misses.

Turner was one of the bigger prizes in this year's rather shallow pool of free agents, and while almost $6 million a year is an astounding price to pay for a career backup, sometimes the crying need to generate a bit of good news, and a little hope among your fan base really does create a special set of circumstances. Sometimes there is a good enough reason to over-spend, especially if the player has as much talent and potential as Turner.

If ever there was a team in need of a little hope these days, it's these Falcons, who have seen a drought of near Biblical proportions when it comes to news that their fans can use. In a January phone conversation I had with Blank, I mentioned how eager he must have been to turn the calendar page on 2007 and get the new year started.

"Whatever happens in 2008, it can't possibly be worse,'' Blank said. "There's no way it ever could."

Turner's signing, and the Falcons last week winning the coin flip with Oakland for the No. 3 spot in the draft, might portend that Atlanta's horrible run of luck (and in some cases, short-sighted decision making) has bottomed out. I'm high on the guy who served as LaDainian Tomlinson's understudy in San Diego, and believe he'll thrive in the power-style running game that Mularkey plans to build around him in Atlanta.

Turner's speed and explosiveness should be a great fit for the fast track of the Georgia Dome, and due to his four years of limited activity behind L.T., the Falcons are getting a 26-year-old with much less wear and tear on him than your average fifth-year NFL running back. With Turner, Atlanta might just have a shot of getting all six of his contract's years out of him, at what in time could wind up being a relative bargain salary.

Turner and speed-back Jerious Norwood have a chance to form a potent one-two punch in Atlanta's backfield, but in all likelihood Warrick Dunn's days as a Falcon have effectively come to an end. His departure by release or trade is probably just a matter of time. That'll mean that in the span of less than a year, Atlanta will have lost quarterback Michael Vick, tight end Alge Crumpler, and Dunn, its three most accomplished offensive weapons. Shocking in one sense, but not in light of what this franchise has endured in the past 10 months.

No one should get carried away and forget that the Falcons still need to solve their quarterback problems in order for the Turner signing to be anything other than a band-aid applied to their offense. But if passing help arrives via the draft, either at the No. 3 pick or in the second or third round, Atlanta fans will at least begin to see the outline of a path back to respectability.

Who knows exactly what move will be the one that sparks a Falcons turnaround? But landing Turner -- their No. 1 objective in free agency -- means that Atlanta didn't have to settle for its second choice this time.

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