Atlanta Falcons Offseason Grade Improves Under New Management

The Atlanta Falcons have the second-longest streak of missing the playoffs in the NFL at eight seasons. With a decade of futility comes plenty of criticism for moves that have failed to lift the team out of mediocrity.

While not every move was bad in former general manager Terry Fontenot's five-year tenure, he made some unorthodox moves, and if a team is losing, they rarely get the benefit of the doubt.

One of Fontenot's harshest critics during that time was ESPN analytics writer Seth Walder. He was particularly down on the Falcons taking running back Bijan Robinson with the No. 8 overall pick in 2023. The modern thinking is that it's too high to take a non-premium position. From that moment on, nearly every move the Falcons made was graded harshly.

While I'm not one to jump on the "media hates us" bandwagon that every fanbase for every sport in the nation feels. There was definitely a trend for Walder. Which led to the question: Was this a Falcons thing, or a Terry Fontenot thing?

We got our first real chance to find out this week with Walder's offseason grades for each team in the NFL. Last season, the Falcons came in 31st, only ahead of the Saints with a C- as Walder blasted Fontenot for the James Pearce Jr. trade.

Even with limited resources financially and in the draft, Walder was much more complimentary of new general manager Ian Cunningham's first effort with a B- that placed the Falcons tied for 16th.

The move Walder liked the best? Getting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa on the cheap.

"No matter your opinion of Tagovailoa, signing him was a bargain and a no-brainer for Atlanta, which needed a second quarterback," Walder wrote on ESPN. "Incumbent Michael Penix Jr. is coming off ACL reconstruction surgery and was inconsistent when healthy. Both players are left-handed, which should ease the transition from one to the other."

Exactly.

Tagovailoa is making less money than Easton Stick. He'll make less this season than Kirk Cousins made last year by halftime in Week 1. At worst, getting an experienced backup for $1.2 million is a phenomenal piece of business.

Contrast Walder's analysis with CBS Sports' Jordan Dajani who wrote "The Falcons made the puzzling decision to quickly sign Tua Tagovailoa."

A financially strapped team with no first-round pick in a bad quarterback draft gets a 28-year-old former All-Pro for $1.2 million, and that's puzzling?

Dajani was also critical of the Falcons' decision to extend wide receiver Drake London, while Walder thinks it was the right move to make.

"It makes him the second-highest-paid wide receiver in the league behind Jaxon Smith-Njigba, but after accounting for cap inflation and comparing to past contracts, it's not a crazy figure to pay a high-end receiver who is a tier below the true elites," Walder wrote.

London isn't ahead of the likes of Smith-Njigba, Ja'Marr Chase, or Justin Jefferson right now. Quarterback inconsistency may play a part in that, but more importantly, as Walder points out, London won't stay ahead of guys like Chase and Jefferson when they sign their next contracts.

It was London's turn.

The move Walder didn't like was extending tight end Kyle Pitts by an extra season. Pitts was due to play on the franchise tag but got two years of guaranteed money that makes him the third-highest-paid tight end in the NFL.

Falcons fans are familiar with the inconsistency from Pitts during his first five seasons in Atlanta, and questioning the move is reasonable.

In the end, the Falcons didn't have the resources, either financially or with draft picks, to grade much higher than middle of the pack when it comes to personnel moves. However, that could all change depending on how the quarterback situation plays out this fall.

Walder's analysis of the Falcons' offseason seems fair. Maybe it was a Terry Fontenot thing.

Sign up for our free Atlanta Falcons newsletter and follow us and 30,000+ Falcons fans on Facebook and X for the latest news!

Add us as a preferred source on Google