Former general manager Terry Fontenot spent five seasons trying to get the Atlanta Falcons over the hump, and the results never turned into a winning record or a playoff berth. But if you’re looking at PFF’s latest penalty data, the Falcons still managed to stand out - just not in the way most teams want to.
Atlanta finished as the NFL’s second-least penalized team over the last five seasons with 520 penalties, trailing only the Cincinnati Bengals, who had 516. The Colts were next at 533, followed by the Rams at 535, while the New England Patriots came in fifth with 569.
At the other end of the spectrum, the Cowboys topped the league with 756 penalties. The Tennessee Titans were second with 677, and there was just a 10-penalty gap between the Titans and the Chiefs, who were fifth at 667. The Texans and Bills were in between.
The Falcons also led the NFL in lowest defensive penalty rate at 3.0%. The Bengals were next at 3.1%, followed by the Patriots, Vikings and Rams at 3.2% or 3.3%.
Still, PFF’s Bradley Locker pointed out that fewer flags do not automatically translate to more wins. As he wrote, "The Falcons and Colts rank 20th or worse in winning percentage over the last five seasons, failing to make the playoffs at all in that span," while "the Rams and Bengals have been far more fruitful overall, and each also ranked in the top three for fewest penalties last season."
Atlanta’s 2023 season offered a perfect example of how costly mistakes can feel even when the overall penalty totals stay low. Desmond Ridder threw 12 interceptions and lost 12 fumbles in 15 games, and the miscues seemed to come at the worst possible moments, often in or around the red zone.
Eli Wilkinson’s season told a similar story. He was supposed to be a backup guard, but injuries to Kaleb McGary and Storm Norton pushed him into the right tackle spot.
He held up reasonably well - except for the flags. His nine false starts tied for the most in the NFL, and they made up most of his 12 total penalties.
The Falcons were also the league’s least penalized defense on third and fourth down, with 178 such penalties. The Colts, Jaguars, Cardinals and Rams followed, all landing between 195 and 200.
The Cowboys were the most penalized team on third and fourth down with 272, and the Eagles, Chiefs, Bills and Giants rounded out the top five. New York had 253.
When PFF compared those penalty numbers with winning percentage, the pattern was hard to ignore: among the least penalized defensive teams, only the Rams finished above 20th in winning percentage. Among the most penalized teams, only the Giants failed to land in the top seven.
The broader lesson, at least from this data, is that more aggressive teams tend to draw more flags - but they also tend to create more big plays and win more often. The Falcons, for much of the last five seasons, were not that kind of team. Jeff Ulbrich changed the defense’s mentality last year and the result was a team-record 57 sacks, while Zac Robinson’s offense leaned heavily into a dink-and-dunk, low-risk approach.
And while coaches may tolerate physical fouls, there’s still little patience for the pre-snap stuff - false starts, offsides, illegal formations, delay of game and the rest.
In Other News...
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For Falcons fans, the uneasy part is how quickly the runway has shortened. Penixs future in Atlanta is no longer being discussed as a simple wait-and-see project, and the early read from analysts is that Tagovailoas accuracy and extra preparation time could matter a great deal in Stefanskis system. If that holds, the Falcons may be headed toward a quarterback decision that leaves plenty of questions about where Penix fits next. [Read more 🡒]
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Falcons May Be Counting On Brandon Dorlus For Something Much Bigger
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ESPN analyst Ben Solak pointed to that rise as something Atlanta can build on, noting that the development should keep moving in a straight line after a season that showed the team a version of Dorlus it had been waiting to see. With the Falcons already seeing how effective he can be in pass-rush situations, the bigger question now is how far his role can grow as the front continues to evolve around him. [Read more 🡒]