the fact that Thibs was actually unemployed last year is a joke. holy shit this dude is incredible. obviously the players put in the work, but major credit to Thibs for establishing this culture along with Kenny Payne and Woodie.
the growth of Randle, Barrett and even Payton have been tremendous. Fizdale should be banned from ever even talking about basketball again.
He’s funny, he’s not old as shit, and being a former player in this era, he provides a lot of good insight. Probably my second favorite national announcer apart from Breen
He scored 17 of Bucks final 22 points. And had 36/14/5/4/1 for the game including some big defensive plays. Distributing really well early on and took over down the stretch including some big defensive plays (blocks on Zubac and Kawhi)
After Leonard put the Clippers up 4 with 4:01 to play, here are their possessions:
George Missed 3
George Missed 3
Beverley Turnover
Leonard Fadeaway Blocked (leading to shot-clock violation)
George Missed Layup
Leonard Missed 3
George Missed 3
Leonard Missed 3
George Missed 3
Clippers were in bubble form this afternoon
Team: Atlanta Falcons
Division: NFC South
Record: 4-12 (1-5 Division) (4th in NFC South)
Introduction
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Falcons' 32 Teams/32 Days post. I'm u/Pink_Skink on Reddit and ForeignFalcon23 on the NFL Draft's Discord channel; I'm pretty sure I'm also the first Colombian, French, and possibly German writer of a 32/32 post. I've been following the Falcons for over 20 years now, and I'm finally starting to be more active when it comes to season analysis, draft preparations, etc. In fact, I'm actively helping our Falcons GM in the r/NFL_Draft sim of off-season activities.
I understand most 32/32 posts talk about the past season in-depth, but given that we have a new regime starting in Atlanta, and also considering how disappointing our 2020 season was, I decided to focus in what's to come, rather than what has been.
With all that said, let's get to the actual Falcons review.
2020 Season Statistics
| Category | League Rank |
|---|---|
| Total Points Scored | 16th |
| Total Points Allowed | 19th |
| Overall PFF Grade | 18th |
| Offensive PFF Grade | 17th |
| Defensive PFF Grade | 22nd |
| Special Teams PFF Grade | 24th |
If you're not a Falcons fan, you may be surprised to see the team ranking pretty much around the average in most categories; especially considering we finished with the 3rd worst record in the league. This helps show that the Falcons were actually a better team than their record suggests, though they still were a very disappointing and underachieving team all year long.
First, let me say that I don't think it's fair to be mad at Mr. Blank (team owner) for being patient with Quinn and the, at best, questionable coaching staff he insisted on keeping year after year, but it seemed very obvious to anyone paying attention that nothing was going to change coach-wise in 2020. It may not be a popular opinion among Falcons fans, but I honestly think we've only had 3 decent coordinators during Matt Ryan's career: Kyle Shanahan (OC), Jeff Ulbrich (DC) and Keith Armstrong (ST). This lack of capable coaches has led to a lot of promising draft picks never reaching their full potential and strategic mismatches in a lot of games. Because of the horrible coaches our franchise has had in the past 10+ years, the Falcons as a team have relied on elite performances by a small amount of players in order to achieve success. Not only was 2020 not different in this regard, but it also was one of the most obvious examples of the lack of coaching we've endured for a while now.
From the get-go, Dirk Koetter was unimpressive and unimaginative. As in many years before, the offense had to rely on fantastic performances by players like Matt Ryan, Julio Jones and Calvin Ridley in order to score points. However, differently to other years in the past, Ryan and Co. had to do it all with no running game, inconsistent O-line play and possibly the worst Falcons defense in the past 15 years; and that's saying a lot! This, plus the classic DQ time- and timeout-management mishaps, led the team to begin the season 0-5. Finally, after so much underachievement, so much bad coaching, so much patience by Mr. Blank, Dan Quinn was fired. Personally, this was the highlight of the year; since I had wanted DQ gone since 2017. However, this meant that Raheem Morris, the Interim Coach, would push the roster to the limit, trying to prove he was worthy of being considered the next HC, which also meant the team would probably start winning meaningless games, falling further down in the draft order with each win.
Luckily for us though, not even this could keep the team from finishing with the 4th overall pick, a brand-new regime that includes a new GM and new coaches. So, even if it was an, as of late, typically disappointing season for the Falcons, this year it came with positive changes and actual hope for better results in the future.
Speaking of those changes, let's talk about the new regime.
Falcons New Staff
Terry Fontenot, General Manager
Fontenot joins the Falcons after spending 17 years in different positions within the New Orleans Saints organization. In 2013, Fontenot was promoted to director of pro scouting. In 2020, Fontenot was once again promoted to assistant general manager and vice president of pro personnel. Since this is his first time as a GM, it's very hard to speculate as to what his general strategy will be to get us under the salary cap, as well as what his drafting strategy will be. He's been very careful with the answers he's giving to the media so far, but he also has made a couple of statements that hint towards some interesting decisions in the coming months:
What I take away from this very general comments is that both him and our new HC want to build the best team possible through competition. He also doesn't think there are untouchable players in the roster, and he's open to all possibilities with our 4th overall pick; even mentioning the possibility of trading up to get the right guy.
Arthur Smith, Head Coach
Most famous in the media for being FedEx CEO's son and the coach who revived the careers of Ryan Tannehill and Derrick Henry, Arthur Smith joins our team after being the Titans OC for the past 2 years. Smith joined the Titans in 2011 and has experience coaching the O-line, TEs and the offense overall, while surviving multiple HC changes. More than anything, he brings a breath of fresh air and some actual playbook strategy to a team that has had as much creativity as the current Simpsons writing staff. He, too, has been rather discrete with his comments so far, but there are a couple of things we can highlight from what he's said:
If we look at what's been said so far, we can expect Smith and his staff to build a strong, tough team through competition. He'll also implement an offense that plays to its strengths.
Dean Pees, Defensive Coordinator
Pees became our DC after un-retiring for the second time in 3 years. He's a coach that makes a lot of sense for a couple of reasons:
Pees has been more vocal and direct with the media when it comes to talking about his vision for the future. We can expect of him to build a defense capable of blitzing often and from everywhere, use a lot of disguise on coverage and be multiple up front and simple on the back-end. This identity makes sense when you look at the things he did in Tennessee and Baltimore.
On top of these 3 main additions, Smith has also hired other interesting coaches who should bring creativity and (hopefully) better results in the years to come. Some of these coaches are:
Now that we've talked about the new regime, let's take a look at what the roster looks like right now.
Falcons Current Roster
List of all current players:
Quarterbacks
Running backs
Wide receivers
Tight ends
Offensive linemen
Defensive linemen
Linebackers
Defensive backs
Special teams
Reserve lists
Unrestricted FAs
Restricted FAs
Exclusive-Rights FAs
Something that might be easy to notice after giving this list a look, is the lack of depth at a lot of positions. For example, we currently have only 1 TE under contract, only 5 O-linemen and only 4 DBs. This is even more worrisome when you realize the team is expected to be around $20 million over the cap. So, not only do we not have enough players on our roster, but we also have very little ways of acquiring any new ones. With that being said, let's take a look at our salary cap situation next.
Falcons Salary Cap
As of this morning, the Falcons are $20,283,889 over the expected salary cap. This means that Terry Fontenot's going to have to work very hard in the next few months in order to clean up the mess left behind by Thomas Dimitroff. The somewhat good news is that, after going through our roster, I've found reliable ways that can help us get to a place where, not only can we sign the rookies we draft this year, but we can also add one or two extra pieces via Free Agency to help our roster's depth.
Here are the moves I'd make in order to get the Falcons to a healthier cap situation:
Cuts
This is pretty much as far as the team can go. In fact, it's possible even Fowler doesn't get cut. There needs to be a balance between salary cap and roster depth, which is why I think we won't be seeing any other cuts.
Restructures
With the cuts mentioned above, the team would still be $3,725,764 over the cap, which means there's still work to be done. Restructuring contracts is a dangerous game, since you're only pushing the problem to future years. With that being said, this strategy is what mickey Loomis has employed in New Orleans for a while, and while they are in literally the worst situation now, they managed to stay competitive for a number of years thanks to this.
In my opinion, our 5 most expensive players (Ryan, Julio, Grady, Deion and Matthews) are all candidates for a restructure. That being said, if you consider what Fontenot has said so far, he will not cripple our future just so we can be in a better situation now. Therefore, I believe only Grady Jarrett, Deion Jones and Jake Matthews should get a restructure; since I can see them being a big part of our team in ears to come. I will not go into detail regarding each contract, but this moves should aliveate an extra $15-$20 million in cap space. Enough to sign our rookies and the necessary veterans to get us to a 53-man roster.
RFAs and ERFAs
Restricted Free Agents and Exclusive Rights Free Agents are another interesting piece of the puzzle. I expect us to be smart with these, since we can make some good moves that add depth at very fair prices:
RFAs
ERFAs
Free Agent Signings
So, hopefully, by this point you've seen a way in which the Falcons can handle their cap situation. Under this scenario, we will indeed have enough space to sign a couple of interesting guys, without being able to make any splashes. Here are some of the free agents I'd love to see us sign:
Again, I don't expect the Falcons to be very active in FA, and I doubt we'll be able to sign this many players, but this are just some potential signings expecting we sign 2 or 3 "cheaper" players.
Now, let's move to the last, and best, part of the off-season: the draft.
2021 NFL Draft
Falcons picks
| Round | Pick |
|---|---|
| 1 | 4 |
| 2 | 35 |
| 3 | 68 |
| 4 | 99 |
| 5 | 132 |
| 6 | 163 |
So, without compensatory picks, the Falcons currently have 6 picks. Not a lot, considering we need to fill our roster. However, having such a disappointing year finally pays off, since we have high picks in every early round. Knowing this, and having gone through the rest of the off-season process, here's a list of moves I'd like us to do with the 4th overall pick, followed by a 7 (6) round mock draft for the Falcons:
My favorite moves with the 4th overall pick:
7 Round Mock Draft (without trades):
| Pick | Player, Position | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| 1.04 | Penei Sewell, T | Yes, we already have 2 tackles, but McGary has not been the player we hoped he'd be. He still can develop, especially with a new staff, so bringing competition, blue chip talent, and depth makes sense. The coaches will figure out how to set our top 5 players for the year. |
| 2.35 | Carlos Basham Jr., EDGE | There's a number of players who'll probably be available here. In any case, here's where the Falcons should start focusing on defense. Basham had 2 great years before having a down year in 2020. If Pees and co. manage to develop him, he'd be a monster in our multiple front defense. |
| 3.68 | Thomas Graham Jr., CB | Another defensive pick that makes a lot of sense. Graham sat out in 2020 but showed during the Senior Bowl week that he hasn't lost a step. While not physically gifted, he's capable of covering all kinds of receivers and routes. |
| 4.99 | Tyree Gillespie, S | One of my favorite prospects, Gillespie is an amazing value here who can replace Neal at safety. A hard hitter that excels in the box while showing that he's more than capable of covering TEs. |
| 5.132 | Trey Sermon, RB | Yes, we have a huge need at RB. But I just can't justify picking one before day 3. Sermon gives our offense a versatile weapon capable of creating plays by himself. |
| 6.163 | Malik Herring, EDGE | Another talented lineman to add depth to our defensive line. He's shown flashes of being productive but needs to put it all together. |
While obviously very hard to do, this 7 round mock at least shows that the Falcons can finish the 3-day event with 5 starters at key positions. Positions I see us adding as UDFAs are: RB, LB, CB and WR. So now that we've gone through the off-season activities, let's move into the 2021 season.
Falcons 2021 Season Opponents
| HOME | AWAY |
|---|---|
| Philadelphia Eagles | New York Giants |
| Washington Football Team | Dallas Cowboys |
| New England Patriots | Miami Dolphins |
| New York Jets | Buffalo Bills |
| Detroit Lions | San Francisco 49ers |
| Carolina Panthers | Carolina Panthers |
| Tampa Bay Buccaneers | Tampa Bay Buccaneers |
| New Orleans Saints | New Orleans Saints |
*The 17th opponent is TBD
Falcons 2021 Top 5 Players
2021 Season Results: 9-8 (4-2 Division) 2nd in NFC South
Final Thoughts
To tie everything together now, I think the 2021 season will (somewhat obviously) mark a new beginning for our franchise. The Falcons will finally go back to being a competitive team that can win any given Sunday, thanks mostly to an efficient and productive offense and an aggressive and opportunistic defense. That being said, with all the positive changes coming our way, there are still a lot of issues to resolve, and that takes more than one season. Expect the Falcons to continue to add talent at all positions in 2022, with the possibility of Julio retiring. If things go well, we may have another window in 2022/2023 to win our first Super Bowl with Matt Ryan, the best player in franchise history, under center.
Thanks to u/ehhhhhhhhhhmacarena for the opportunity to write this post, and I'll try to be as connected as possible in order to answer any questions you may have.
Belichick helped lead a virtual breakout session for aspiring coaches, along with Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel. Oberlin College (Ohio) cornerbacks coach and director of football operations Alex Hanna, who shared her experience in an interview with ESPN.com.
How would you describe the breakout session?
"It was extremely personable. [Belichick] was super down-to-earth. You can tell, he just wants to teach. And he just wants to bring people up. That was something he harped on, giving so much credit to everyone else around him. The amount of times he spoke about Coach Vrabel vs. speaking on his [own] decorated résumé, it was just incredible. You could tell servant leadership is one of his No. 1 characteristics. That's what we need as women, somebody who reaches their hands down and wants to pull us up."
What did you hear that might be able to help you in your career?
"My question was focused on X's and O's, and the advice he gave in terms of coverages, the game-planning and the teaching progression that he talked about was super applicable to what I do on a day-to-day basis. It will make me a better coach. He came from a NESCAC [school in Wesleyan], and I'm currently at a college that is similar, and so I think he understands the value of coaching at this level. One of the main things he mentioned is to always look for a better way. A better way of teaching. A better way of training. It resonates to me that he's a constant learner. He's everything we want to be, but he's coming out and saying 'I'm looking for new ways to learn and improve.' That's inspiring."
How surprised were you when both coaches shared their contact information?
"The air gets taken out of the room, and everything is so surreal. But at the same time, we're all coaches just having a conversation, learning from one another. They both mentioned they didn't feel like they were above anyone, but they ... said 'Hey, how can we help? You want to chat about Cover 5 and Cover 7? Shoot me an email. Send me your PowerPoint, and we can go into how I would coach up your position in that situation.'"
Team: Atlanta Falcons
Division: NFC South
Record: 4-12 (1-5 Division) (4th in NFC South)
Introduction
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Falcons' 32 Teams/32 Days post. I'm u/Pink_Skink on Reddit and ForeignFalcon23 on the NFL Draft's Discord channel; I'm pretty sure I'm also the first Colombian, French, and possibly German writer of a 32/32 post. I've been following the Falcons for over 20 years now, and I'm finally starting to be more active when it comes to season analysis, draft preparations, etc. In fact, I'm actively helping our Falcons GM in the r/NFL_Draft sim of off-season activities.
I understand most 32/32 posts talk about the past season in-depth, but given that we have a new regime starting in Atlanta, and also considering how disappointing our 2020 season was, I decided to in what's to come, rather than what has been.
With all that said, let's get to the actual Falcons review.
2020 Season Statistics
| Category | League Rank |
|---|---|
| Total Points Scored | 16th |
| Total Points Allowed | 19th |
| Overall PFF Grade | 18th |
| Offensive PFF Grade | 17th |
| Defensive PFF Grade | 22nd |
| Special Teams PFF Grade | 24th |
If you're not a Falcons fan, you may be surprised to see the team ranking pretty much around the average in most categories; especially considering we finished with the 3rd worst record in the league. This helps show that the Falcons were actually a better team than their record suggests, though they still were a very disappointing and underachieving team all year long.
First, let me say that I don't think it's fair to be mad at Mr. Blank (team owner) for being patient with Quinn and the, at best, questionable coaching staff he insisted on keeping year after year, but it seemed very obvious to anyone paying attention that nothing was going to change coach-wise in 2020. It may not be a popular opinion among Falcons fans, but I honestly think we've only had 3 decent coordinators during Matt Ryan's career: Kyle Shanahan (OC), Jeff Ulbrich (DC) and Keith Armstrong (ST). This lack of capable coaches has led to a lot of promising draft picks never reaching their full potential and strategic mismatches in a lot of games. Because of the horrible coaches our franchise has had in the past 10+ years, the Falcons as a team have relied on elite performances by a small amount of players in order to achieve success. Not only was 2020 not different in this regard, but it also was one of the most obvious examples of the lack of coaching we've endured for a while now.
From the get-go, Dirk Koetter was unimpressive and unimaginative. As in many years before, the offense had to rely on fantastic performances by players like Matt Ryan, Julio Jones and Calvin Ridley in order to score points. However, differently to other years in the past, Ryan and Co. had to do it all with no running game, inconsistent O-line play and possibly the worst Falcons defense in the past 15 years; and that's saying a lot! This, plus the classic DQ time- and timeout-management mishaps, led the team to begin the season 0-5. Finally, after so much underachievement, so much bad coaching, so much patience by Mr. Blank, Dan Quinn was fired. Personally, this was the highlight of the year; since I had wanted DQ gone since 2017. However, this meant that Raheem Morris, the Interim Coach, would push the roster to the limit, trying to prove he was worthy of being considered the next HC, which also meant the team would probably start winning meaningless games, falling further down in the draft order with each win.
Luckily for us though, not even this could keep the team from finishing with the 4th overall pick, a brand-new regime that includes a new GM and new coaches. So, even if it was an, as of late, typically disappointing season for the Falcons, this year it came with positive changes and actual hope for better results in the future.
Speaking of those changes, let's talk about the new regime.
Falcons New Staff
Terry Fontenot, General Manager
Fontenot joins the Falcons after spending 17 years in different positions within the New Orleans Saints organization. In 2013, Fontenot was promoted to director of pro scouting. In 2020, Fontenot was once again promoted to assistant general manager and vice president of pro personnel. Since this is his first time as a GM, it's very hard to speculate as to what his general strategy will be to get us under the salary cap, as well as what his drafting strategy will be. He's been very careful with the answers he's giving to the media so far, but he also has made a couple of statements that hint towards some interesting decisions in the coming months:
What I take away from this very general comments is that both him and our new HC want to build the best team possible through competition. He also doesn't think there are untouchable players in the roster, and he's open to all possibilities with our 4th overall pick; even mentioning the possibility of trading up to get the right guy.
Arthur Smith, Head Coach
Most famous in the media for being FedEx CEO's son and the coach who revived the careers of Ryan Tannehill and Derrick Henry, Arthur Smith joins our team after being the Titans OC for the past 2 years. Smith joined the Titans in 2011 and has experience coaching the O-line, TEs and the offense overall, while surviving multiple HC changes. More than anything, he brings a breath of fresh air and some actual playbook strategy to a team that has had as much creativity as the current Simpsons writing staff. He, too, has been rather discrete with his comments so far, but there are a couple of things we can highlight from what he's said:
If we look at what's been said so far, we can expect Smith and his staff to build a strong, tough team through competition. He'll also implement an offense that plays to its strengths.
Dean Pees, Defensive Coordinator
Pees became our DC after un-retiring for the second time in 3 years. He's a coach that makes a lot of sense for a couple of reasons:
Pees has been more vocal and direct with the media when it comes to talking about his vision for the future. We can expect of him to build a defense capable of blitzing often and from everywhere, use a lot of disguise on coverage and be multiple up front and simple on the back-end. This identity makes sense when you look at the things he did in Tennessee and Baltimore.
On top of these 3 main additions, Smith has also hired other interesting coaches who should bring creativity and (hopefully) better results in the years to come. Some of these coaches are:
Now that we've talked about the new regime, let's take a look at what the roster looks like right now.
Falcons Current Roster
List of all current players:
Quarterbacks
Running backs
Wide receivers
Tight ends
Offensive linemen
Defensive linemen
Linebackers
Defensive backs
Special teams
Reserve lists
Unrestricted FAs
Restricted FAs
Exclusive-Rights FAs
Something that might be easy to notice after giving this list a look, is the lack of depth at a lot of positions. For example, we currently have only 1 TE under contract, only 5 O-linemen and only 4 DBs. This is even more worrisome when you realize the team is expected to be around $20 million over the cap. So, not only do we not have enough players on our roster, but we also have very little ways of acquiring any new ones. With that being said, let's take a look at our salary cap situation next.
Falcons Salary Cap
As of this morning, the Falcons are $20,283,889 over the expected salary cap. This means that Terry Fontenot's going to have to work very hard in the next few months in order to clean up the mess left behind by Thomas Dimitroff. The somewhat good news is that, after going through our roster, I've found reliable ways that can help us get to a place where, not only can we sign the rookies we draft this year, but we can also add one or two extra pieces via Free Agency to help our roster's depth.
Here are the moves I'd make in order to get the Falcons to a healthier cap situation:
Cuts
This is pretty much as far as the team can go. In fact, it's possible even Fowler doesn't get cut. There needs to be a balance between salary cap and roster depth, which is why I think we won't be seeing any other cuts.
Restructures
With the cuts mentioned above, the team would still be $3,725,764 over the cap, which means there's still work to be done. Restructuring contracts is a dangerous game, since you're only pushing the problem to future years. With that being said, this strategy is what mickey Loomis has employed in New Orleans for a while, and while they are in literally the worst situation now, they managed to stay competitive for a number of years thanks to this.
In my opinion, our 5 most expensive players (Ryan, Julio, Grady, Deion and Matthews) are all candidates for a restructure. That being said, if you consider what Fontenot has said so far, he will not cripple our future just so we can be in a better situation now. Therefore, I believe only Grady Jarrett, Deion Jones and Jake Matthews should get a restructure; since I can see them being a big part of our team in ears to come. I will not go into detail regarding each contract, but this moves should aliveate an extra $15-$20 million in cap space. Enough to sign our rookies and the necessary veterans to get us to a 53-man roster.
RFAs and ERFAs
Restricted Free Agents and Exclusive Rights Free Agents are another interesting piece of the puzzle. I expect us to be smart with these, since we can make some good moves that add depth at very fair prices:
RFAs
ERFAs
Free Agent Signings
So, hopefully, by this point you've seen a way in which the Falcons can handle their cap situation. Under this scenario, we will indeed have enough space to sign a couple of interesting guys, without being able to make any splashes. Here are some of the free agents I'd love to see us sign:
Again, I don't expect the Falcons to be very active in FA, and I doubt we'll be able to sign this many players, but this are just some potential signings expecting we sign 2 or 3 "cheaper" players.
Now, let's move to the last, and best, part of the off-season: the draft.
2021 NFL Draft
Falcons picks
| Round | Pick |
|---|---|
| 1 | 4 |
| 2 | 35 |
| 3 | 68 |
| 4 | 99 |
| 5 | 132 |
| 6 | 163 |
So, without compensatory picks, the Falcons currently have 6 picks. Not a lot, considering we need to fill our roster. However, having such a disappointing year finally pays off, since we have high picks in every early round. Knowing this, and having gone through the rest of the off-season process, here's a list of moves I'd like us to do with the 4th overall pick, followed by a 7 (6) round mock draft for the Falcons:
My favorite moves with the 4th overall pick:
7 Round Mock Draft (without trades):
| Pick | Player, Position | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| 1.04 | Penei Sewell, T | Yes, we already have 2 tackles, but McGary has not been the player we hoped he'd be. He still can develop, especially with a new staff, so bringing competition, blue chip talent, and depth makes sense. The coaches will figure out how to set our top 5 players for the year. |
| 2.35 | Carlos Basham Jr., EDGE | There's a number of players who'll probably be available here. In any case, here's where the Falcons should start focusing on defense. Basham had 2 great years before having a down year in 2020. If Pees and co. manage to develop him, he'd be a monster in our multiple front defense. |
| 3.68 | Thomas Graham Jr., CB | Another defensive pick that makes a lot of sense. Graham sat out in 2020 but showed during the Senior Bowl week that he hasn't lost a step. While not physically gifted, he's capable of covering all kinds of receivers and routes. |
| 4.99 | Tyree Gillespie, S | One of my favorite prospects, Gillespie is an amazing value here who can replace Neal at safety. A hard hitter that excels in the box while showing that he's more than capable of covering TEs. |
| 5.132 | Trey Sermon, RB | Yes, we have a huge need at RB. But I just can't justify picking one before day 3. Sermon gives our offense a versatile weapon capable of creating plays by himself. |
| 6.163 | Malik Herring, EDGE | Another talented lineman to add depth to our defensive line. He's shown flashes of being productive but needs to put it all together. |
While obviously very hard to do, this 7 round mock at least shows that the Falcons can finish the 3-day event with 5 starters at key positions. Positions I see us adding as UDFAs are: RB, LB, CB and WR. So now that we've gone through the off-season activities, let's move into the 2021 season.
Falcons 2021 Season Opponents
| HOME | AWAY |
|---|---|
| Philadelphia Eagles | New York Giants |
| Washington Football Team | Dallas Cowboys |
| New England Patriots | Miami Dolphins |
| New York Jets | Buffalo Bills |
| Detroit Lions | San Francisco 49ers |
| Carolina Panthers | Carolina Panthers |
| Tampa Bay Buccaneers | Tampa Bay Buccaneers |
| New Orleans Saints | New Orleans Saints |
*The 17th opponent is TBD
Falcons 2021 Top 5 Players
2021 Season Results: 9-8 (4-2 Division) 2nd in NFC South
Final Thoughts
To tie everything together now, I think the 2021 season will (somewhat obviously) mark a new beginning for our franchise. The Falcons will finally go back to being a competitive team that can win any given Sunday, thanks mostly to an efficient and productive offense and an aggressive and opportunistic defense. That being said, with all the positive changes coming our way, there are still a lot of issues to resolve, and that takes more than one season. Expect the Falcons to continue to add talent at all positions in 2022, with the possibility of Julio retiring. If things go well, we may have another window in 2022/2023 to win our first Super Bowl with Matt Ryan, the best player in franchise history, under center.
Thanks to u/ehhhhhhhhhhmacarena for the opportunity to write this post, and I'll try to be as connected as possible in order to answer any questions you may have. Have a good day and FTS!
But when a team has a safety (since 2000) they go 224-109 (.672)
When a team has at least one touchdown (since 2000) they go 5284-4649-20 (.532)
I don’t know what any of this means. I was inspired to dig into the data because of this post. This doesn’t really answer that specific question, but it touches on the topic.
Edit with some more thoughts:
A few people have made the comment that the good winning percentage for teams with a safety is the result of the fact that good teams get safeties. Therefore, the impact of the safety on the winning percentage is not as causal as the quality of the team getting the safety. I do believe this is a good point and is part of it, how much it factors in, I don’t know. But this made me dig a little bit deeper into the teams that had a safety. I’m just using 2020 data because I don’t have a good way to extract this data for many years.
Those comments seemed to be right, that it is generally good teams that get safeties. In 2020, excluding the games in which they had the safety, NFL teams had a .590 winning percentage. So, yes…safeties are usually from good teams. Comparing that .590 record to games in which teams have a safety (.672 winning percentage), you still see a positive gap between the two (+.082). All else being equal and assuming the WP is due 100% to the quality of the team, you would expect a .590 WP in games they have a safety. But there is a lift of .082 when comparing their overall record and their record in games with a safety. So, I think about half of the success rate in these games is due to the quality of the team that got the safety and about half of it is from the act of getting the safety and the impact it had on the game. Just my thoughts for what it's worth.
Welcome to today's open thread, where /r/nfl users can discuss anything they wish not related directly to the NFL.
Want to talk about personal life? Cool things about your fandom? Whatever happens to be dominating today's news cycle? Do you have something to talk about that didn't warrant its own thread? This is the place for it!
Remember, that there are other subreddits that may be a good fit for what you want to post - every day all day!
| Tip-off | GDT | Away | Score | Home | PGT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3:30 PM ET | Los Angeles Clippers | PRE-GAME | Milwaukee Bucks | ||
| 7:00 PM ET | Chicago Bulls | PRE-GAME | Toronto Raptors | ||
| 7:00 PM ET | Washington Wizards | PRE-GAME | Boston Celtics | ||
| 8:00 PM ET | New York Knicks | PRE-GAME | Detroit Pistons | ||
| 8:00 PM ET | Atlanta Hawks | PRE-GAME | Miami Heat | ||
| 8:00 PM ET | Memphis Grizzlies | PRE-GAME | Houston Rockets | ||
| 8:00 PM ET | Golden State Warriors | PRE-GAME | Los Angeles Lakers | ||
| 9:00 PM ET | Phoenix Suns | PRE-GAME | Minnesota Timberwolves | ||
| 10:00 PM ET | Charlotte Hornets | PRE-GAME | Sacramento Kings |
Here is a place to have in depth, x's and o's, discussions on yesterday's games. Post-game discussions are linked in the table, keep your memes and reactions there.
Please keep your discussion of a particular game in the respective comment thread. All direct replies to this post will be removed.
| Away | Home | Score | GT | PGT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cleveland Cavaliers | Philadelphia 76ers | 112 - 109 | Link | Link |
| Minnesota Timberwolves | Washington Wizards | 112 - 128 | Link | Link |
| New Orleans Pelicans | San Antonio Spurs | 114 - 117 | Link | Link |
| Indiana Pacers | New York Knicks | 107 - 110 | Link | Link |
| Utah Jazz | Orlando Magic | 124 - 109 | Link | Link |
| Denver Nuggets | Oklahoma City Thunder | 126 - 96 | Link | Link |
| Dallas Mavericks | Brooklyn Nets | 115 - 98 | Link | Link |
Off the top of my head, I really can’t think of anyone in the NBA who has a rounder face. Does anyone beat him in having the roundest face in the league?
9-21 against everyone else.
The Cavaliers truly run the East, undefeated against the top 2 teams in the Eastern Conference.
OT games against both teams.
Welcome to today's open thread, where /r/nfl users can discuss anything they wish not related directly to the NFL.
Want to talk about personal life? Cool things about your fandom? Whatever happens to be dominating today's news cycle? Do you have something to talk about that didn't warrant its own thread? This is the place for it!
Remember, that there are other subreddits that may be a good fit for what you want to post - every day all day!
| Tip-off | GDT | Away | Score | Home | PGT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7:00 PM ET | Cleveland Cavaliers | PRE-GAME | Philadelphia 76ers | ||
| 7:00 PM ET | Minnesota Timberwolves | PRE-GAME | Washington Wizards | ||
| 8:00 PM ET | New Orleans Pelicans | PRE-GAME | San Antonio Spurs | ||
| 8:00 PM ET | Indiana Pacers | PRE-GAME | New York Knicks | ||
| 8:00 PM ET | Utah Jazz | PRE-GAME | Orlando Magic | ||
| 8:00 PM ET | Denver Nuggets | PRE-GAME | Oklahoma City Thunder | ||
| 8:30 PM ET | Dallas Mavericks | PRE-GAME | Brooklyn Nets |
Here is a place to have in depth, x's and o's, discussions on yesterday's games. Post-game discussions are linked in the table, keep your memes and reactions there.
Please keep your discussion of a particular game in the respective comment thread. All direct replies to this post will be removed.
| Away | Home | Score | GT | PGT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indiana Pacers | Boston Celtics | 112 - 118 | Link | Link |
| Houston Rockets | Toronto Raptors | 111 - 122 | Link | Link |
| Sacramento Kings | Detroit Pistons | 110 - 107 | Link | Link |
| Utah Jazz | Miami Heat | 116 - 124 | Link | Link |
| Phoenix Suns | Chicago Bulls | 106 - 97 | Link | Link |
| Los Angeles Clippers | Memphis Grizzlies | 119 - 99 | Link | Link |
| Atlanta Hawks | Oklahoma City Thunder | 109 - 118 | Link | Link |
| Charlotte Hornets | Golden State Warriors | 121 - 130 | Link | Link |
| Portland Trail Blazers | Los Angeles Lakers | 93 - 102 | Link | Link |
| 121 - 130 |
| Box Scores: NBA & Yahoo |
| GAME SUMMARY |
| Location: Chase Center(0), Clock: |
| Officials: Zach Zarba, Scott Twardoski and Justin Van Duyne |
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charlotte Hornets | 28 | 23 | 33 | 37 | 121 |
| Golden State Warriors | 36 | 30 | 37 | 27 | 130 |
| TEAM STATS |
| Team | PTS | FG | FG% | 3P | 3P% | FT | FT% | OREB | TREB | AST | PF | STL | TO | BLK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charlotte Hornets | 121 | 41-89 | 46.1% | 17-41 | 41.5% | 22-32 | 68.8% | 13 | 38 | 27 | 23 | 11 | 20 | 1 |
| Golden State Warriors | 130 | 48-79 | 60.8% | 11-24 | 45.8% | 23-25 | 92.0% | 4 | 37 | 38 | 19 | 10 | 23 | 3 |
| PLAYER STATS |
| rnbapgtgenerator by /u/f1uk3r |
