Optimism Can Change On A Dime In Atlanta
What to make of the stunning Vibes Shift inside the Atlanta Falcons fanbase of late.
The Atlanta Falcons have yet to host a playoff game inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium, a building they opened in 2017. Since NFC South rival Carolina won the division this year and punched their ticket to the postseason, the Falcons now have the longest playoff drought in the NFC. Only the New York Jets have missed the postseason for a longer stretch of time. Not to mention the Falcons lost their franchise quarterback, Michael Penix Jr., to a partially torn ACL in November. The Falcons also fired their head coach and general manager. That is, unquestionably, a lot of Yikes.
It has also been the theme for the organization for the last seven years.
But then Blank hired an organizational legend in former NFL MVP & team Ring of Honor member Matt Ryan to be Atlanta’s President of Football.
After three seasons as an analyst of the NFL at CBS, the greatest quarterback in franchise history has elected to take the reins of a franchise that was in desperate need of an Optimism Boost. Ryan has instantly provided that necessary jolt for the Falcons. He hasn’t even hired his first general manager or head coach yet, but the addition of Ryan to the top of the organization feels like a positive step in the right direction.
Good feelings are needed, particularly after yet another disappointing season. Nine months is a long time, and the addition of Ryan to the Big Chair in Atlanta will help make the offseason fly by.
Personally, I haven’t been this energized about the future of the Atlanta Falcons than I have over the last month in a very long time. Sure, the Falcons finished the 2025 regular season 8-9 for what feels like the nineteenth season in a row. However, the Falcons did finish the season on a four-game winning streak that included a victory over Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams on primetime. Kyle Pitts did have his best season yet as a Falcon. Atlanta’s star tailback Bijan Robinson does get Barry Sanders and Marshall Faulk comparisons. Wideout Drake London was the fifth-highest graded player at his position this season, per PFF.
It wasn’t just the skill-position guys on offense that performed well in 2025. The Falcons’ pass rush was returned with a vengeance as they earned the fourth-highest sack percentage in the NFL, per SumerSports. That side of the ball is loaded with young talent like James Pearce Jr., Jalon Walker, Xavier Watts, Billy Bowman Jr., from the 2025 NFL Draft alone, and so many other guys that I may write about more on another day. (Four more years of Jessie Bates III, please!)
Speaking of Pearce Jr. and Walker, yes, the general manager, Terry Fontenot, who traded back into the first round to take the former, is no longer employed by the Atlanta Falcons. Yes, the Falcons paid a big-time price to load up on the defensive line, but the Falcons look to have nailed both selections. The former Tennessee star LEO led rookies in splash plays this season, with Walker in the top-5, too, with the former also coming in 13th in the NFL in sacks at 11 among edge rushers who qualified, per PFF. Atlanta has been trying to fix the defensive line for what has felt like my entire adult life, and for the first time in a long time, it, well, finally looked fixed. Atlanta was at the very bottom of the NFL in sack percentage this time a year ago, and now they have one of the most vaunted defensive lines in the sport because of Terry Fontenot’s bold-but-wise move.
Then you look at who the Falcons are rumored to be interested in and who the Falcons have interviewed for their key front-office and head-coaching vacancies. You see the Chicago Bears’ Ian Cunningham, and you see San Francisco’s Josh Williams, two guys with two teams that are still in the playoffs as of this writing, in the mix for the general manager role. You see Seattle Seahawks’ offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, former Cleveland Browns head football coach Kevin Stefanski, former Baltimore Ravens head football coach John Harbaugh – before the New York Giants hire, obviously – and you see a couple of other intriguing names like former New York Jets head football coach Robert Saleh and former Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel.
On the surface, this is exactly the kind of names you want to see paired with Ryan. Cunningham and Williams are two guys with the backgrounds that should excite fans. Kubiak has been an elite offensive mind in back-to-back stops in New Orleans and Seattle with journeyman quarterbacks in both instances. You have Stefanski, who was an Associated Press Coach of the Year winner on two different occasions, an award a Browns head coach had not won since 1980 with Sam Rutigliano. McDaniel made the postseason twice in his four seasons in Miami, something the Falcons haven’t done in nearly a decade now. Saleh, paired with an offensive coordinator from the Shanahan coaching tree, would also make a lot of sense.
The list of those aforementioned names, paired with Ryan at the top of the organizational chart, has the look and feel of the start of something great in Atlanta. It certainly has the potential. It wasn’t all that long ago that the Falcons were getting embarrassed at home and on the road by the Dolphins and Jets, respectively.
Now? Never better.
That’s because there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic about the Atlanta Falcons in 2026 and beyond. Ryan is both a feel-good story and a worthy gamble – what do you have to lose as a franchise taking a chance on an all-time great to lead your team that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2017? The Falcons have an elite pass rush again and a secondary loaded with both young and veteran talent alike. Atlanta could retain two key coaches in defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich and offensive line coach Dwayne Ledford, depending on who gets tabbed as the next head coach. All of this optimism, and none of us have the slightest clue who is going to be the starting quarterback to open next season for the Falcons.
How wild is that?
It’s hard to feel this good and this energized about a team with the kind of quarterback concerns the Falcons currently face, but that’s a testament to how quickly things change in sports and, thus, why we love them. Mac Jones could be under center for the Dirty Birds in Week 1 this fall, and I’d be just as excited about starting this next chapter. In the NFL, you can always find a way to right the ship, and that’s what it feels like in Atlanta right now. Let’s enjoy it.