The Atlanta Falcons get a brutal Week 7 assignment on Sunday afternoon, and the matchup comes with an extra layer of edge. They’ll host the unbeaten San Francisco 49ers at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and it will be Raheem Morris’ first trip back there since the Falcons fired him in January.
The Falcons are 2-4 after dropping winnable games to the Ravens and Bears over the last two weeks, and they badly need to recapture the spark they showed in Weeks 3 and 4. A statement win would go a long way toward helping the home crowd buy back in.
That’s a tall order against a 49ers team loaded with talent and led by current MVP favorite Brock Purdy. San Francisco can hurt you in plenty of ways, and the challenge for Atlanta gets bigger when you start looking beyond Purdy. Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle are already problems on their own, and the rest of the roster only adds to the pressure.
Three names, in particular, should have the Falcons on edge.
Christian McCaffrey is the obvious place to start. He’s tied for the league lead among running backs with seven rushing touchdowns after adding two more against the Commanders last week, and he’s riding a five-game touchdown streak that looks likely to stretch to six. That’s what makes him such a nightmare: he can punish a defense on the ground, through the air, or however San Francisco wants to feed him.
The 30-year-old just came off a 400-touch season in which he caught over 100 passes, piled up 1,200 rushing yards, scored 10 times on the ground and finished with 17 total touchdowns. The only reason he didn’t lead the NFL in scrimmage yards was because of Bijan Robinson. Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich didn’t dance around the challenge on Thursday, saying McCaffrey has "found the fountain of youth" as he continues to play at an elite level.
Then there’s Trent Williams, the veteran blind-side protector who still plays like a force at 38 years old. Even in Year 16, he’s been a wall for Brock Purdy.
Williams has allowed just five pressures and no sacks in 329 pass-blocking snaps this season. Pro Football Focus has him at an 86.3 grade, second among all qualified tackles, and his 87.9 pass-blocking grade leads the position.
Atlanta’s defensive front has been productive, ranking near the top of the league in pressures and pressure rate, but those numbers have come against lesser lines. Williams is a different animal.
Ulbrich made that clear when he said, "He’s going to be one of the best left tackles in the history of this game," adding, "It’s amazing at 38, I don’t feel regression. He’s a great challenge and I posed that the group.
Embrace that."
That matters even more because the Falcons typically rush four and don’t lean heavily on the blitz. If they want to disrupt Purdy this week, they’ll need more bodies getting home.
The last headache is Fred Warner, the centerpiece of a 49ers defense that is allowing the seventh-fewest rushing yards per game. San Francisco’s front deserves credit, but Warner is the piece that makes everything click, especially without Nick Bosa. He can rush the passer, make stops against the run, cover ground in space and diagnose plays with elite speed.
Warner is second in tackles behind only Jacob Rodriguez and Alex Singleton, and he leads the league in forced fumbles. That’s a bad sign for an Atlanta offense that wants to lean on Bijan Robinson and control the game on the ground. Even Bijan has called Warner the best at his position, and that kind of trust says plenty.
For a Falcons team trying to establish the run and keep Michael Penix Jr. out of too many obvious passing situations, Warner is the kind of defender who can wreck both parts of the plan.
In Other News...
Falcons Face A Familiar Problem In Raheem Morris Atlanta Return
Raheem Morris is heading back to Atlanta with a very different badge than the one he wore before. After two seasons as the Falcons' head coach, he was let go in January and quickly landed in San Francisco as the 49ers' defensive coordinator, where he has helped shape a defense that has been one of the league's better units by EPA per play. Now the Falcons get to see up close how much of Morris' touch still lingers, only this time from across the sideline.
For Atlanta, the matchup adds an extra layer to an already important week because Morris is not just another familiar face. He coached a roster that still has players who know his style, his voice and the way he wants the game played, and there is plenty of curiosity around how that translates when the 49ers defense lines up against them. The reunion may be brief, but it is the kind of return that forces a team to revisit the recent past while trying to stay focused on the present. [Read more 🡒]
Falcons Face A Trade Deadline Question At Wide Receiver
As the trade deadline creeps closer, the Falcons find themselves in the familiar position of weighing whether a receiver upgrade is worth the price. Brian Thomas Jr. has surfaced as a name to watch if Jacksonville decides to listen on offers, and that alone makes him an intriguing fit for Atlanta, where adding another pass-catching threat would immediately deepen the offense's options.
The conversation is there because the wideout picture in Atlanta is still taking shape, even with Jahan Dotson carving out a bigger role as the preferred downfield target. Dotson has topped 54 receiving yards in three straight games, which gives the Falcons something to build on, but it also sharpens the question of whether they need another move before the deadline to give the passing game more balance and another dynamic target. [Read more 🡒]
Tommy Rees Knows Whats Fueling The Falcons Early Offensive Holes
Tommy Rees has spent the week staring straight at the Falcons recent offensive slow starts, and the new offensive coordinator isnt trying to spread the blame around. Atlanta has opened too many games with stalled drives, and Rees made it clear the fix has to start with his own decisions as a play-caller as the Falcons prepare to face the San Francisco 49ers.
The next step, from Rees view, is getting the run game involved earlier so the offense can settle into a better rhythm and keep defenses from dictating the pace. Establishing that balance would give Michael Penix Jr. and the rest of the unit a cleaner path to production, but Atlanta still has to show it can turn the idea into something more consistent when the lights come on. [Read more 🡒]