Not to be Capt. Obvious, but the Falcons really do need to win the Super Bowl. They’ve done everything else. They’ve forged a strong roster. They’ve stamped themselves as one of the smartest organizations going. They’ve averaged 11 wins over the past five seasons, and they finally won a playoff game. There’s only one thing left.
Speaking at his retirement ceremony Monday, the outgoing center Todd McClure – very good player, very good guy – said of the team he’s leaving: “Looking at the moves they’ve made, I think this is the year.” It could well be. But last year nearly was, and 2010 might have been, and at this point the only rebuttal to those can’t-win-the-big-one barbs is to win the biggest one there is.
Yet again, the Falcons are enjoying what seems a productive offseason. They’ve landed running back Steven Jackson as a free agent. They’re wooing pass rusher Osi Umenyiora, who would bring two Super Bowl rings with him. They cut big names John Abraham, Michael Turner and Dunta Robinson to clear cap space and have put it to use.
In addition to being clever, they also got lucky. Tony Gonzalez decided not to retire, and the reaction in-house wasn’t so much one of relief but of out-and-out glee. It was as if they’d traded for the Hall of Fame tight end all over again.
“I’m excited we’ve been able to keep our players,” general manager Thomas Dimitroff said Monday, speaking of the contract extensions accepted by tackle Sam Baker and strong safety William Moore, “and also add from the outside.” He should be. This is a team that was 10 yards from the Super Bowl, and these latest transactions haven’t broadened the gap.
There’s reason to wonder about the defense, which broke down in the second halves of both playoff games. But Abraham, who’d been hurt in the final regular-season game, did nothing in postseason, and at his age – he’ll turn 35 in May – he might not have much left. At 31, Umenyiora’s best days are behind him, too, but he can still be productive. And an organization thirsting for a championship can never add too many guys who know what it is to have won one (or two).
Apart from the health of the big brass – owner Arthur Blank just underwent neck surgery, and Dimitroff had a shoulder repaired – this is a high time for the Falcons. They’re going to get their new stadium, and they haven’t had to bully anyone to do it. (Cajole, yes. Bully, no.) Their appearance in the NFC title game lent them even more credibility, and the feeling around the league is that the Falcons, who’ve been good since 2008, aren’t going away anytime soon. But the one caveat remains.
If the Falcons don’t win the Super Bowl soon, they’ll get lumped with the Houston Oilers of Bum Phillips and the Buffalo Bills of Marv Levy and whatever team Marty Schottenheimer happened to be coaching as an assemblage that could get so far but no further. Nothing the Falcons can do short of claiming the Lombardi Trophy will change that perception. All that’s left is to do it.
Asked how he’d been spending the winter, coach Mike Smith said, “Recalibrating.” It was an apt answer: The Falcons’ method of constuction has been sound enough to keep putting them in position, which is really all anyone can ask. Championships aren’t easily taken. The New England Patriots, considered the best organization in the business, haven’t won a Super Bowl in nearly a decade. The Philadelphia Eagles went from assembling a dream team to canning their coach.
Stronger and faster defenders wouldn’t hurt, and the majority of the Falcons’ 11 picks in the April draft figure to be allocated accordingly. But the Falcons might be reigning champions even with the league’s 24th-ranked defense had a final drive not fallen 10 yards short, the same sort of drive the 2012 team had made a habit of finishing.
Even when you’re this close, you’re never sure when, or if, the breakthrough will come. The Braves of the ’90s needed three excruciating postseason failures before they claimed their crown, and later Bobby Cox would concede that his team had played better in three of the World Series it lost than in the one it won.
The Falcons almost got there last time, and they’ll have another chance this season. They’ve done their due diligence. They’ve built the right way. They just need to finish this drill and render their retiring center a prophet. They need to make this the year.
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