The Atlanta Falcons haven’t been to the playoffs since the 2017 season, which is tied with the Carolina Panthers for the third-longest in the NFL for a postseason drought.
After years of consistent contention (with a few down years strewn about) with quarterback Matt Ryan, the Falcons fell off the wagon after that 2017 campaign and never got back on.
Bad free agent signings, missed draft picks, troublesome cap management and regression among the franchise faces sank the end of the Ryan era, and the past two seasons in Atlanta predominantly featured a carousel of mediocre quarterbacks and fantasy football managers getting mad at Arthur Smith for his obscure personnel decisions.
The vibes have improved substantially around the franchise in 2024, with new energy building with coach Raheem Morris taking over for Smith, a new franchise quarterback in Kirk Cousins potentially breathing live into a sleeping giant on offense and a pair of star defensive talents just acquired in the past two weeks giving that side of the ball a much sharper edge.
Even if the decision to draft quarterback Michael Penix Jr. with Cousins on the roster led to plenty of head-scratching, the future can be very bright in Atlanta if everything is in its right place. If it’s not, a seventh-straight season without playing meaningful football in January isn’t out of the question.
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The Falcons’ offense can be looked at with one of two filters. On one end, you can see a potential juggernaut just waiting for the right quarterback. You see first-round picks like Bijan Robinson, Drake London and Kyle Pitts being unleashed as a lethal triple threat on the league with Cousins and new offensive coordinator Zac Robinson calling the shots, with valuable supporting players like running back Tyler Allgeier, wide receiver Darnell Mooney and tight end Charlie Woerner all playing key roles, too.
On the other end, you could see a lot of chips being pushed in on an aging Cousins coming off an Achilles injury and an unproven play caller in Robinson, combined with an assumption that Pitts just isn’t living up to the hype and Robinson and London are just too unproven to depend on, either.
The truth will likely skew a bit more positive than you might think, considering the poor returns on that side of the ball in Atlanta in recent years. Cousins was playing some of the best football of his career before he got hurt last fall, but even a Cousins at 75-percent of his best self is a massive improvement over the last couple of years for the Falcons.
His inclusion on that side of the ball really is massive, as is the implementation of a more modern Los Angeles Rams-style offense. Pitts has a real chance of getting back to his 2021 production that he had with Ryan, London has a chance to be a breakout star at the position with Cousins throwing him the ball and Robinson seems poised to thrive with more experience and in a new system where he will get more carries.
The team’s very solid offensive line remains intact from 2023, as does its architect in run game coordinator/offensive line coach Dwayne Ledford. That should help keep Cousins on track to get back to more of what we saw from him in his 2023 campaign, as long as that Achilles is healing up as planned.
The truth will probably be somewhere in the middle for this Falcons offense, but it’s hard not to like what Cousins and Robinson bring to the table. Maybe it’s the middle with a push in the right direction as the season goes on. Maybe it really will be fireworks. Or, maybe things will just stay the same.
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Two weeks ago, we would’ve told you the Falcons’ defense had a ceiling of good and a floor of just okay. Now, we’ll tell you the floor is pretty decent and the ceiling is higher than we could’ve expected.
That’s how big it was for Atlanta to add outside linebacker Matthew Judon (above) and safety Justin Simmons to this side of the ball. Judon gives the team the true A-level pass-rusher it’s lacked since the days of John Abraham, and Simmons gives the team a Swiss Army knife playmaker on the back end to pair with second-team All-Pro safety Jessie Bates and recently extended star cornerback A.J. Terrell.
Combined with strong veterans like defensive tackles Grady Jarrett and David Onyemata and linebacker Kaden Ellis and promising young players like defensive end Zach Harrison, linebacker Troy Andersen and outside linebacker Arnold Ebiketie, this defense looks much more formidable.
It’s not to say this group will rival the best defenses in the NFL, but it’s got real potential to outperform expectations this fall. There are areas of concern, like at the cornerback spot opposite Terrell and with the pass-rushing depth, but those could be better masked with Judon and Simmons on board.
Now, you just wait to see how all of these pieces collide with the defensive-minded Morris and new defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake overseeing the coaching side.
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The Falcons have real boom-or-bust potential this season. The boom potential could skyrocket this team into the class of the NFC and make it a real problem in the playoffs, and we all know how much the conference shifts around and invites new challengers in each season.
The bust potential could keep this team on the outside looking in for yet another season and potentially kick off the Penix era of Falcons football earlier than expected. Would the Falcons cut the Cousins experiment short to give their rookie the job, probably trading the veteran quarterback for a decent pick in the process? Or will Cousins and the Falcons be so good this year that Penix has to wait until 2026 at the earliest to assume the role?
Atlanta really is one of the most interesting teams going into the 2024 season, if only because they’re in such a winnable division in the NFC South and there is so much untapped potential on this roster ready to shine.
It’s just a matter of whether or not all of that potential is real and if the Falcons made the right moves this offseason to see it to fruition.
