Reporters’ notebook: Easy (schedule) path to playoff for Falcons

Quarterback Desmond Ridder started the final four games of the 2022 season, and has been given the starting job for the Falcons heading into the 2023 season. (Miguel Martinez /miguel.martinezjimenez@ajc.com)

Credit: Miguel Martinez

Credit: Miguel Martinez

Quarterback Desmond Ridder started the final four games of the 2022 season, and has been given the starting job for the Falcons heading into the 2023 season. (Miguel Martinez /miguel.martinezjimenez@ajc.com)

The following, a new weekly feature of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, allows our reporters to open their notebooks and provide even more information from our local teams that we cover daily. We think you’ll find in informative, insightful and fun.

Falcons have easiest path to 2023 playoffs

Who knew that when Eagles defensive back Jalen Mills defended Julio Jones in the end zone on a fourth-down play Jan. 13, 2018, it would be the end of an era as Super Bowl contenders for the Falcons.

The Eagles prevailed in a 15-10 upset and went on to win the Super Bowl.

The Falcons, under coach Dan Quinn’s rule, nosedived into the pack of mediocrity that is the parity-driven NFL. Things are set up for each team to go 8-8, or now 8.5-8.5 with the 17-game schedule.

The Falcons have not been over .500 since that fitful day. It never should have come down to the prayer pass to Jones. Safety Keanu Neal’s botched interception before halftime was a killer.

However, things maybe in place for a return to the playoffs in 2023.

The Falcons’ new regime has had three drafts and one year of free-agency spending. Compare today’s depth chart with the first one in January 2021, and there has been a near-complete overhaul.

Now, the bonus for the Falcons is that they get the NFL’s easiest strength of schedule in 2023 (based on final records in the 2022 season).

It will be hard for the Falcons to make excuses if they don’t make the playoffs.

The Falcons’ 2023 opponents had a combined 119-167-3 record last season (.417).

The Saints have the second easiest schedule, 122-164-3 (.427). The Panthers have the sixth easiest schedule, 130-147-2 (.453), and the Bucs have the 11th easiest schedule 138-148-2 (.483).

There is a problem with putting too much stock in the 2022 records. Also, rosters will continue to change over the offseason and there will be injuries, which always change things drastically.

Also, the Falcons are ready to hand the ball over to a second-year quarterback in Desmond Ridder, who has four games under his belt.

Last season, the Rams looked like a formidable opponent coming off the Super Bowl. No one projected them to sink to 5-12.

In 2018, the Falcons went 7-9. After a 4-4 start, a five-game losing streak doomed the Falcons. After another 7-9 campaign in 2019, Quinn and general manager Thomas Dimitroff were fired five games into the 2020 season.

The Falcons have four games next season against 2022 playoffs teams, in the Jaguars in London, Bucs (twice) and Vikings.

Over the past seven years, at least one team with one of the two easiest schedules has made the playoffs. If that trend holds, the Falcons or Saints are headed to the playoffs – and maybe both.

Not sure if the Falcons are talented enough to became a championship-level team in 2023, but a return to the playoffs would mean they are moving in the right direction.

Another reason for easy schedule

The Falcons have one of the easier on-paper schedules for the 2023 season. One reason why: They’ll likely face a bevy of young quarterbacks. They’ll potentially face Jordan Love (Green Bay), Justin Fields (Chicago), C.J. Stroud (Houston), Anthony Richardson (Indianapolis), Bryce Young (Carolina) twice and Sam Howell (Washington), among others. If they aren’t facing a youngster, it would be a place-holder veteran instead. The most accomplished quarterback in their division is Derek Carr, who hasn’t won a playoff game. Tampa Bay’s Baker Mayfield is the only quarterback competing for a starting job in the NFC South who has won a playoff start.

Additionally, the Falcons will face only one team – the Jaguars – that won a playoff game last season. Trevor Lawrence (Jacksonville) and Aaron Rodgers (New York Jets) are the most imposing names of the opposing quarterbacks on their slate, though a lot can change.

The opposing quarterbacks scheduled to play in Atlanta this season (barring injury): Love, Kirk Cousins, Stroud or Davis Mills, Richardson or Gardner Minshew, Young or Andy Dalton, Carr, Mayfield or Kyle Trask, and Howell or Jacoby Brissett. Not a great list for ticket sales, but it could be good for the win column.

Doing AI before it was cool

With his football career over, former Georgia Tech offensive lineman Ryan Johnson happily shed the pounds he carried during his playing days for the Yellow Jackets. Johnson said that he had lost 80 pounds (he was listed at 307 during his final season at Tech, 2021), taking up running and dropping his intake from five daily meals to four. Johnson’s weight loss is not an unusual transition for offensive linemen, who often have to maintain a high-calorie diet to keep their weight up.

“I’m going for abs,” said Johnson, who spoke recently to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for a story about Tech’s new strength-and-conditioning coach A.J. Artis. (Johnson and Artis were together at Tennessee.)

Johnson started for two seasons for the Jackets after transferring from Tennessee, using his time to earn a master’s degree in analytics following his completion of two engineering degrees at Tennessee. After making a run at the NFL, Johnson is the director of engineering for Advanced Technologies and Services, a telecom consulting company.

Said Johnson, “We were doing AI before it was cool.”

A familiar face

There were plenty of interesting moments during last week’s MLS match between Atlanta United and Miami in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

It was the first time that Josef Martinez, who led the Five Stripes to the MLS Cup in 2018 while also winning MVP, faced his former team.

Before the pregame warmups, a group of Atlanta United players and Martinez gathered near midfield and exchanged hugs and laughs.

After the game, won 2-1 by Miami because Martinez scored twice, a few more players and Martinez exchanged small talk. Martinez’s baby boy was there, too. Ronald Hernandez lifted him high overhead as the baby smiled.

Valuable acquisition

Braves outfielder Kevin Pillar, an 11-year veteran, has proved a valuable acquisition. He hit the game-winning homer against the Orioles last week as he continues to look like another shrewd addition by president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos.

“Coming into this season, the conversations with Alex over the offseason about what I wanted to get out of the last couple years of my career, I told them that I’m ready for this role, I’m ready to embrace it,” Pillar said. “I say those things, I still want to play every day. But I’m also in a position, maturity wise, to understand that I have a role, that there are players on this team that are every-day players. I play when they ask me to play. I prepare myself for opportunities.

“But I’m at peace with where I’m at in my career. If it ended today with 100 (career homers), I’d be happy. But I still feel like I have a lot to offer. I feel like I’ve learned a lot about myself through struggles in this game, and I think for the first time in a couple years, I’m not concerned about statistics, the end goal. I’m just at peace with where I’m at. I think that’s why I’m playing well. I play every day, as cliché as it is, like it could be my last. … I’m not getting any younger, and this is just an unbelievable environment to come to work. We’re all about winning here, and I just want to be a piece of it, whatever they ask me to do.”

A mature rookie

The Braves recently promoted infield prospect Braden Shewmake, 25, whom they drafted No. 21 overall in 2019. Shewmake impressed continually with his maturity and level demeanor during his opportunities in spring training. Sometimes it surprises even his father, Shane.

“He surprises me at times,” Shane told the AJC. “I’ll hear him talk, hear interviews, and I’m like, ‘OK, where did that come from?’ Because I’ve known him all his life. He’s always been in leadership roles throughout his athletic career, and he’s just taken to that. He is always able to say the right things at the right time. And I’m always amazed when I hear, too, because I would be like, ‘I don’t know if I would have said stuff like that.’ And I’m 53 years old. He amazes me sometimes, as well.”

-Reporters Doug Roberson, Ken Sugiura, Gabriel Burns and D. Orlando Ledbetter contributed to this article.

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