Atlanta Falcons fans don’t have to squint too hard to see why the mood has turned sour after a 27-7 preseason loss to the Broncos. The noise online has been loud, and the expectations have been even louder: plenty of fans believe this team should be fighting for a playoff spot.
That reaction makes sense on the surface. The Falcons were one game away last season, and the roster still has names that jump off the page, including Bijan Robinson, Drake London, and Jessie Bates III. But that kind of optimism only tells part of the story.
The more realistic question is what this team is actually built to do right now. Around the league, first-year head coaches usually aren’t handed playoff-or-bust expectations.
When a team has also blown up its entire front office, the bar tends to sit even lower. Atlanta, though, is being judged differently because of the talent on the roster and the weakness of the division.
Even so, the new regime hasn’t acted like a group trying to force immediate contention. The front office and coaching staff have avoided the kind of panic moves that suggest desperation. Instead, they’ve spent the offseason trying to clean up the structural problems that have held this team back.
The biggest issue is obvious: quarterback. The Falcons are in a rough spot there, with Tua Tagovailoa having been waived by the Miami Dolphins after they absorbed an NFL record $100 million dead cap hit, and Michael Penix Jr. still an inexperienced, unproven option while recovering from his third ACL injury.
That’s not a setup that inspires much confidence at the most important position in sports. Atlanta hasn’t had a clean answer there since the end of Matt Ryan’s career, and without a first-round pick or many appealing free-agent options, the front office settled on another year for Penix and brought in Tagovailoa on a veteran minimum of $1.3 million.
The rest of the offseason followed the same cautious pattern. New general manager Ian Cunningham stayed in wait-and-see mode, and the move list reflected that.
Jahan Dotson was the priciest free-agent addition at just $7 million, most of the signings were one-year deals, and the bigger emphasis was on locking in pieces of the future through contract extensions. The message was pretty clear: build the foundation now, figure out the quarterback later.
That approach is a sharp contrast from the last regime. When Raheem Morris arrived for the 2024 season, he and Terry Fontenot knew they had to win quickly to keep things moving. That urgency led to a roster full of quick fixes, enough top-end talent to look dangerous, but not enough insulation when the injuries started piling up.
Atlanta felt that problem last year when Divine Deablo went down. With Deablo on the field, the defense ranked seventh in points allowed.
Without him, that number dropped to 26th. It was a clean example of what the roster lacked all along: depth.
And that wasn’t a one-time hiccup. The way the team had been built left it vulnerable every time injuries hit, and injuries hit often.
Cunningham and new head coach Kevin Stefanski have talked early and often about the importance of depth, and the offseason has backed that up to some degree. Through the draft and a string of one-year contracts, the Falcons have started patching holes at positions of need. There’s still more work to do, but the plan looks more coherent than what came before.
There’s also a bigger-picture reason the front office may be willing to take its time. According to Spotrac, Atlanta has the second-most available cap space in the NFL, which leaves the organization positioned for a rebuild in 2027 if that’s what the future requires.
For this season, though, the outlook is murkier. Unless Penix gets healthy soon and returns looking like a different quarterback, wins could be hard to come by against a difficult schedule. Vegas Insider has the consensus win total at 7.5, while DraftKings lists it at 4.5.
That doesn’t mean the year is meaningless. It just means the right measuring stick probably isn’t the playoff race. Falcons fans should be watching to see whether young players are developing, whether the new coaching staff is getting real production from the roster, and how the team holds up when injuries inevitably show up again.
That’s the real test. Not whether the Falcons sneak into the postseason.
Super Bowls aren’t won overnight, and dynasties aren’t built in a day.
In Other News...
Falcons Fans Just Got Another Reason To Revisit The Darnell Mooney Move
The Falcons moved on from Darnell Mooney earlier this offseason, then pivoted by bringing in Jahan Dotson to fill the WR2 spot, a swap that made Atlantas receiver reshuffle one of the more notable roster decisions of the summer. Mooney, meanwhile, landed a one-year deal with the New York Giants, a fresh start that was supposed to give him a chance to re-establish his value in a new offense.
Instead, his standing in New York has already become part of the conversation, with Mooney sitting behind other receivers on the depth chart and the Giants reportedly weighing trade options. For Falcons fans, it is another little reminder that the teams choice to move on was not just about making room for Dotson, but about betting the receiving room could look different very quickly if the market and the roster both keep shifting. [Read more 🡒]
Michael Penix Jrs Recovery Just Raised The Stakes In Atlantas QB Race
Michael Penix Jr. is moving through the next phase of his recovery from a knee injury, and the timing matters more now because Atlanta still has not settled its quarterback decision for the season. He has been working in 7-on-7 drills, but full participation is still waiting on a doctors clearance, leaving the Falcons in a holding pattern as they sort through the competition under center.
Tua Tagovailoa is currently leading the race, but Penix remains very much in the mix if he gets the green light soon enough to get back into 11-on-11 work. For Atlanta, the appeal is obvious: the longer Penix stays in position to push, the more pressure there is on the staff to weigh not just health, but timing, readiness and how much practice time he can still bank before the season arrives. [Read more 🡒]
Former Falcons Star Kroy Biermann Faces A Painful Family Spotlight
A troubling family development has pushed former Falcons linebacker Kroy Biermann back into the spotlight, this time for reasons far removed from football. His son, Kroy Biermann Jr., was arrested and is being held without bond after facing aggravated sodomy and aggravated sexual battery charges, according to the available facts. The alleged incident is said to have taken place on April 23, 2026, in a Lifetime Fitness changing room, adding another difficult chapter for a family that has long lived in public view.
Biermann Jr. was arraigned on Aug. 17, 2026, with attorney Jason Sheffield listed as his representative. For Falcons fans who remember Kroy Biermann as a steady defensive presence during his Atlanta years, the case is a stark and painful reminder of how quickly an athletes post-career life can be overshadowed by personal turmoil around him. [Read more 🡒]