The Atlanta Falcons Story (2024)

The Atlanta Falcons have been one of the most frustrating teams of the 2020’s so far. The mantra of the Falcons in recent years has been “wasted talent.”

The Falcons have repeatedly drafted extremely promising, high upside young players, but can never seem to fit competent pieces around that talent to create anything productive.

Let’s start with Kyle Pitts. The 6’6 tight end was drafted with the 4th overall pick in 2021, and was being called the most talented tight end prospect we may have ever seen. Coming off 12 touchdowns in just 8 games in his last season as a Florida Gator, every Fantasy Football coach in America was dying to get Pitts on their Roster.

In 3 seasons, he has scored 6 touchdowns. SIX. 44 games played, 6 touchdowns.

On the surface, this would make it sound like he was a bust, a player who just didn’t pan out. But when you watch the tape, that’s not exactly what you find.

Then you’ve got Drake London. 6’4 Wide Receiver from USC, drafted 8th overall in 2022. Upon entering the league, some NFL scouts compared him to superstar receiver Mike Evans out of Tampa Bay.

6 touchdowns in 2 seasons. Well hey, he’s a whole season ahead of Pitts.

And finally, perhaps the most promising young piece on the Falcons’ roster, Bijan Robinson, running back from Texas, also drafted 8th overall, who just put up 8 touchdowns and over 1,400 yards rushing & receiving in his rookie campaign.

So what do you get when you combine a unicorn tight end talent, a 6’4 top wide receiver taken in his draft, and the best running back prospect in at least 6 years, all fully healthy and under the age of 23? The 17th best offense in the NFL, and a 7-10 record.

This seems like a pretty simple thing to not mess up, so let’s talk about the ones responsible for messing it up.

Firstly, there’s head coach Arthur Smith, who’d been head coach of the team since 2021, after the firing of Dan Quinn. Smith was fired directly after Atlanta’s final game of last season, a 31 point blowout loss to a middle-of-the-road New Orleans saints team.

Smith was ridiculed endlessly during his 3 seasons as head coach of the Falcons for his apparent lack of interest in getting the ball to his high-potential young weapons, despite Smith being at one time considered one of the better offensive-minded coaches in the league. An uninspired offensive scheme aside, the blame can’t all be put on Arthur Smith however, because in his tenure in Atlanta the team could not get a decent quarterback for the life of them.

It’s called the most important position in sports for a reason, you can have all the electrifying weapons you want, but if you can’t put the ball in their hands, it won’t matter how much talent they have.

Since 2021, which was Arthur Smith’s first season as head coach of the Falcons and Kyle Pitts’s rookie year, the starting Quarterbacks for Atlanta have been: a 36 year old Matt Ryan who in football years was long overdue for a check in at his local nursing home, Marcus Mariota (insert 360 clip), Desmond Ridder, and Taylor Heinicke.

Needless to say, it’s hard to succeed when each season you’re working with a bottom 5 starting quarterback in the league.

But that, my dear Falcons fans, is where the story changes for your franchise.

You see this off-season, the Atlanta Falcons have acquired not one, but perhaps two competent quarterbacks to lead this offense. Yeah, stay with me as this all comes together.

One of the biggest signings of the offseason, the Falcons signed quarterback Kirk Cousins to a massive, 4-year, $180million contract. $45mil/year, $100million guaranteed. Ho. Ly. Moly.

Cousins was coming off of easily the most impressive season of his career in 2022, in which he threw for over 4,500 yards and 29 touchdowns to 14 interceptions in a stellar 13-4 season for the Minnesota Vikings, before a heartbreaking wildcard loss to the New York Giants.

Coming into 2023 with confidence and a hot hand, Cousins’ on-pace numbers last season may have ended up winning him MVP of the entire league, throwing for 2,300 yards and 18 touchdowns in just 7 and a half games. Until in Week 8, when Kirk would suffer a demoralizing non-contact Achilles tear in a win against the Green Bay Packers.

Kirk and the Vikings then parted ways early in the offseason, before he would sign with the Falcons. This signing has huge upside, but is a bit of a nerve-racking gamble.

Then there’s the controversial first round draft pick of Quarterback Michael Penix Jr, from the University of Washington. With the signing of Kirk Cousins, the NFL public ridiculed this draft pick, as it seemed to be either a waste of a pick, or to communicate that signing Cousins to such a massive deal may have been a mistake, or too big of a risk.

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