Less than a month away from the start of the NFL regular season, ESPN just dropped its power rankings ahead of Week 1, which included a bold prediction for each team.
The Falcons coming in at 27th isn’t all that surprising given the concerns surrounding the quarterback position, but their bold prediction didn’t focus solely on this season. ESPN predicts it will be another three years before Atlanta is even thinking about the playoffs again.
“The Falcons will not make the playoffs from 2027 to 2029,” Seth Walder writes. “Atlanta needs a quarterback, but the current team isn’t bad enough to land a top-two pick. The Falcons could draft one next year, but they might have to give up some serious capital to trade up. And though there are building blocks on this team, I fear the Falcons could be caught in the middle — even in the NFC South.”
If Walder’s prediction comes true, that would be 12 straight seasons without a single playoff appearance. An absolute nightmare, but it’s a more than fair projection if you don’t believe Tua Tagovailoa or Michael Penix Jr. is the franchise quarterback of the future.
There’s a strong possibility the Falcons are in the market for a quarterback come March, and I’d tend to agree this team is going to find a way to win enough games to keep it outside the top five picks in next year’s draft. One of Tua or Penix should provide adequate enough quarterback play for the Falcons’ stars at the skill positions to shine on enough Sundays to claw their way to seven or eight wins.
Will they have enough to squeeze out nine or ten and really push for the NFC South crown? It’s possible, but there’s a reason Vegas gives them the worst odds of any team in the division.
This is an extraordinarily flawed football team on both sides of the ball, especially after the season-ending injury to Jalon Walker and the subsequent eight-game suspension handed down to James Pearce Jr. The pass rush was the strength of the defense a season ago, and on paper, it’s taken several considerable steps back. Jeff Ulbrich will have to drum up some magic if Atlanta wants to finish anywhere near the top half of the league in sacks after ranking second last year.
To add insult to injury, this isn’t a schedule that lines up to be very forgiving early on. In the first ten weeks, the Falcons play the Chiefs, Bengals, Packers, Ravens, 49ers, Bears, and Steelers outside of the division. That’s a brutal stretch that also includes three games against divisional foes. Things could get ugly quickly if the Falcons can’t figure out who the best option is under center.
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(Photo by Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire)