Fixing the Falcons: Top 4 ‘Super’ Roster Needs

The Atlanta Falcons are currently riding what we have the past labeled “The Treadmill of Mediocrity.”

The 2022 team could in theory complete for the NFC South title … while at the same time not truly being very good.

There is no argument that the gap between the talent on the roster of NFC Super Bowl representative the Los Angeles Rams and the Falcons talent is a wide one.

Where to begin trying to close that chasm?

According to Pro Football Focus, Atlanta should begin by trying to fill what it bills as the club’s top four needs.

1 - interior offensive line

2 - wide receiver

3 - defensive line

4 - cornerback

Writes PFF: “Atlanta’s interior offensive line needs a lot of work. The team’s guards and centers combined to rank 29th among the league’s 32 interior offensive line groups in PFF pass-blocking grade in 2021. The Falcons’ defensive front is just as much of an issue, as no defensive line turned in a lower pass-rush grade than theirs.”

Add to those issues the bare cupboard at wide receiver with Calvin Ridley in limbo, the hole that will exist at running back if Cordarrelle Patterson and the need for an eventual QB heir to Matt Ryan, and it seems like such an avalanche of deficit that a Falcons fan might wonder what position groups don’t need major help.

The good news is that relative to the rest of the NFL, the Rams roster is an outlier, the Falcons’ more the norm. Not every team improved as much as the Falcons have been able to do in the last two seasons, and AJ Terrell and Kyle Pitts represent spectacular talents on either side of the ball that were acquired at the very top of the last two drafts.

now the Falcons simply need another Terrell and another Pitts … And another one … And another one …