Falcons are team worth watching as NFC contenders

Don’t sleep on the Atlanta Falcons.

Last year, Atlanta was all but dead on arrival. In Week 1, the first game of the regular season, the Falcons lost a pair of star defenders in linebacker Deion Jones and safety Keanu Neal. At 0-1, it already felt like the Falcons were looking at an insurmountable task.

Coming out of the offseason, Atlanta should be feeling much better. While the loss of running back Tevin Coleman in free agency matters, the offense should be improved. General manager Thomas Dimitroff did a nice job of adding a pair of offensive linemen in the first round of April’s draft, helping the front grow bigger and more athletic. With Julio Jones, Devonta Freeman, Mohamed Sanu and Calvin Ridley as weapons around Matt Ryan, there’s no reason Atlanta should struggle to put up points on a consistent basis.

With Neal and Jones back on the field, the defense should be significantly upgraded. There are still questions the front seven, especially surrounding Vic Beasley. The former first-round pick led the league in sacks during Atlanta’s Super Bowl. run in 2016, but he’s been disappointing otherwise. If Beasley or Takk McKinley can’t become a force off the edge, the defense will struggle to generate much of a pass rush.

Ultimately, though, the Falcons have one of the best rosters in the NFC. It’s one deep on the offensive side and solid enough defensively to give the New Orleans Saints a serious challenge in the NFC South. With Ryan still in the. prime of his career, there’s little reason to think Atlanta is suddenly going to be a perennial loser. In fact, before the injury-plagued season of 2018, the Falcons reached the Super Bowl and came within inches of an NFC Championship Game appearance in 2017.

All told, the Falcons have a former MVP under center, a Hall of Fame receiver and a head coach who has been to the Super Bowl both in his current position and as a defensive coordinator. Is that enough to topple the Saints or get past the Los Angeles Rams? Maybe, maybe not, but it certainly puts Atlanta in the conversation as a team that should be dangerous in the coming autumn.