NFL Offseason Rankings: Where Do Falcons Land?
Approaching 2023, Atlanta Falcons are an up-and-coming team in an NFC conference weakened by the departure of veteran Aaron Rodgers and the retirement of their division rival Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady.
Unfortunately, a recent ESPN article doesn’t view their offseason favorably, ranking Atlanta’s improvement as the seventh-worst in the league.
“The Falcons are better on defense, but you could take issue with some of the choices they made,” ESPN writes. “Bates is a great player in the prime of his career, but can you say that about anybody else in that list above? Campbell is a legend, but he’s 36. Onyemata and Dupree are 30, and the latter missed some or all of 15 games over his two disappointing seasons in Tennessee. Elliss had played 196 defensive snaps before a seven-sack season a year ago. Hughes and Okudah are joining from Detroit, which just fielded the worst pass defense in football and decided to overhaul its secondary.”
Offense receives all of the spotlight from the media, but as the expression goes, defense wins championships. Adding Bates and improving Atlanta’s secondary should help this team more than adding a veteran like DeAndre Hopkins would.
Considering the team’s smash-mouth brand of football, reminiscent of the New England Patriots dynasty that featured stout defenses and a consistent run game, their additions could make this team a sneaky contender.
“The Falcons used their newfound cap space to address the defense. They have fielded an above-average defense by DVOA just once over the past decade, and even that was only a 14th-place finish in 2020. They’ve ranked 30th in the league in each of Arthur Smith’s first two seasons as coach, in part because of cap constraints from the decisions made by the prior regime,” ESPN said.
Atlanta isn’t the most improved team on paper. However, their attempt at improving the defense warrants hope.
Rather than view their additions pessimistically, there’s good reason to consider the glass half full. Last season, ESPN ranked the Seattle Seahawks as having the worst offseason, but they shocked the world by making the playoffs. This Falcons squad has similar potential in 2023.
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