With an extra playoff berth in the mix, the Falcons will attempt to climb back to respectability in the NFC after missing the postseason for the past two seasons.
There is an added wild-card team in each conference, bringing the total playoff berths to seven in the NFC and AFC. The Falcons will need to surpass their Las Vegas over/under win projection of seven games to get into the playoff mix.
The Falcons are set to face the Seahawks at 1 p.m. Sunday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, playing in front of no fans because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Here are five keys to success this season for the Falcons:
1. Offensive line improvement
The Falcons are set to open the season with the same lineup that started in the opener against the Vikings in 2019.
All former first-round picks, left tackle Jake Matthews, left guard James Carpenter, center Alex Mack, right guard Chris Lindstrom and right tackle Kaleb McGary are back for another season.
Carpenter, who’s set to enter his 10th season, held off a charge by rookie Matt Hennessy, who suffered a knee injury late in training camp.
Things started to unravel quickly for the Falcons last season as Lindstrom suffered a broken foot in the opener at Minnesota and missed the next 11 games. His injury, followed by injuries to Carpenter and Jamon Brown, touched off a chain of events that led to the Falcons starting eight combinations at the guard positions.
Also, McGary, who’s missed most of training camp after a heart ablation procedure, received a great deal of on-the-job training. He expectedly struggled at times, especially against athletic speed rushers.
The Falcons must stay healthy, Carpenter and McGary need to step up their level of play. Hennessy, a promising third-round pick from Temple, doesn’t have a long-term injury.
“I think as a group, the offensive line, we’ve grown so much,” Matthews said. “Just coming that far and feeling more together and comfortable with each other, it feels good.”
2. Pass-rush production
The Falcons struggled to get to the opposition’s quarterback last season. They finished with 28 sacks, which was tied for 29th in the NFL.
The team’s leading sacker, Vic Beasley with eight, was allowed to leave in free agency.
The Falcons replaced Beasley by signing Dante Fowler in free agency. Fowler had a breakout season with the Rams in 2019, when he had 11.5 sacks. He felt he could have had at least four more.
The Falcons have not had a double-digit sacker since Beasley amassed 15.5 in 2016 season under former defensive line coach Bryan Cox.
The Falcons brought in Tosh Lupoi to help with the pass rush. Lupoi, who coached one of the league’s top pass rushers in Cleveland’s Myles Garrett last season, will work with defensive tackle coach Jess Simpson to help get the pass rush moving.
In addition to Fowler, the Falcons hope to get a better push up the middle in passing situations from Grady Jarrett, Marlon Davidson and John Cominsky.
Allen Bailey, Steven Means and Tyeler Davison are stout run-stuffers.
The Falcons hope to get a boost from defensive ends Takk McKinley and Charles Harris. McKinley is highly motivated after having his $10.3 million fifth-year option declined by the team.
“Takk has been getting better every year,” Jarrett said. “He’s been trying to add new moves to his game to where he can become a better and more productive pass rusher. It’s good to be working with guys who are hungry across the board."
Harris, a former first-round pick, is looking to jump-start his career with the Falcons after three unproductive campaigns in Miami, where he netted 3.5 sacks over 41 games and eight starts.
“The coaches have been putting us in good positions to where we can have advantages,” Jarrett said. “Find some advantages where we can have some success. I believe this is our time where we want to get our numbers up, get our production up across the whole line as far as the pass rush.”
3. Big nickel
In the NFL now, teams like to use a lot of three wide receiver formations. They also feature dangerous tight ends and running backs in the passing game.
Defensive coordinator Raheem Morris said the Falcons plan to put the best players on the field, and they released a “big nickel” depth chart this week, with three safeties – Keanu Neal, Damontae Kazee and Ricardo Allen – starting.
The flexibility will allow the Falcons to match up with running backs and tight ends better and still be stout against the run.
Neal is trying to make it back after he missed most of last season with a ruptured Achilles.
If Neal can return to form, the Falcons will have their enforcer back on defense.
Also, when the Falcons play a traditional nickel, one of the safeties will come off and Darqueze Dennard will play nickel back.
In the current NFL, defenses are in some form of nickel defense for nearly 70 percent of the snaps.
Allen, who is like a quarterback on the defense, will be the wild card. He said the team will try to use him much like the Chiefs used Tyrann Mathieu in the defense.
4. Win on special teams
Overall, the special-teams units ranked 30th in the league last season and need improvement across the board.
The Falcons elected to move on from returner Kenjon Barner, who returned a punt for a touchdown last season.
Olamide Zaccheaus will handle the kickoff returns and Brandon Powell the punt returns.
The Falcons believe they fixed their punting problems by drafting Sterling Hofrichter in the seventh round of the draft. He’s been impressive during training camp with high punts and great hang time that will allow for the gunners to get down the field.
He’s also punted directionally well.
The special-teams unit must eliminate penalties. The Falcons ranked 30th in punting and net punting and 31st in special-teams penalties last season.
The Falcons ranked first in takeaways with five and second in points scored with 12.
Hofrichter averaged more than 43 yards a punt over his career at Syracuse.
The Falcons also picked up linebacker Mykal Walker (119th overall) and safety Jaylinn Hawkins (134th) in the fourth round of the draft. They are counting on them, who have speed and good tackling reputations, to help on special teams.
Kicker Youghhoe Koo made 23 of 26 field-goal attempts, including a long of 50 yards last season. He made 15 of 16 extra-point tries.
Koo also handled the kickoffs. On his 50 kickoffs, 27 went for touchbacks.
5. Improved rushing attack
The Falcons averaged 85.1 yards rushing, which ranked 30th in the 32-team NFL last season.
The Falcons are hoping that Todd Gurley is an upgrade over Devonta Freeman in the backfield.
The committee of Brian Hill, Ito Smith and Qadree Ollison will back him up.
“Brian Hill is an emerging player that continues to get better,” offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter said. “He has a very hard, aggressive running style and is faster than you think. Ito is a little more of the scatback, cut-back type runner.”
Hill was the talk of training camp.
“He’s earned that playing time just by the camp that he had, the details that he had,” Quinn said. “He really came in in fantastic shape. … This was a guy on a mission to prove he was ready to take a step up, and he certainly has. We’re very encouraged by the work that Brian put in.”
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