The 2021 regular season has ended, and the Falcons finished 7-10 under the first-year regime of Terry Fontenot and Arthur Smith. Depending on who you ask, the Falcons season was both a success and a failure.
Atlanta won three more games than last year with similarly lousy talent, but there were obvious growing pains. Seven victories with personnel deficiencies is impressive, but how the Falcons looked against good teams is indicative of how far they really are from competing in the playoffs. It depends if you want to be a pessimist or an optimist.
Still, there were indeed bright spots. Chris Lindstrom looks to be a cornerstone of the offensive line for years to come. Kyle Pitts flashed the Hall-of-Fame potential he garnered coming out of Florida. Cordarrelle Patterson showed the league a 31-year-old return man could be much more in today’s offense. However, biggest story of the Falcons season has to be A.J. Terrell. After being snubbed from the Pro Bowl, Terrell’s only chance of league awards or honors is the AP All-Pro teams.
Pro Football Focus believes he should be included as a first-team selection. They also included Patterson as a second-team flex selection.
https://twitter.com/PFF/status/1480584328891535361?s=20
“Terrell allowed just 200 receiving yards all season. There were single games in which a cornerback allowed more than 200 yards this year. And Terrell wasn’t just avoided in coverage in his second season — he was thrown at 66 times, allowing just 29 receptions for a 43.9% catch rate, the lowest in the league. Passes thrown into Terrell’s coverage generated a 47.5 passer rating, also the best mark at the position. He was, by any measure outside of interceptions, a superstar at cornerback this season.”
Terrell will, at the very least, be selected as a member of the second team, but he’s been the best or second-best corner in the league this season. Hopefully, the Associated Press gets this one right because nobody is more deserving than the second-year corner.
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