After going four consecutive seasons with a losing record, optimism within the Atlanta Falcons fan base seems to be at an all-time low.
The last time we saw the Falcons in the playoffs they lost to the eventual Super Bowl-champion Philadelphia Eagles on a failed fourth-down pass attempt in the divisional round of the 2017 postseason. Four years later, Atlanta looks like a completely different team. The front office has since moved on from core players such as Matt Ryan, Julio Jones and Alex Mack.
But while expectations have been lowered for the Falcons in 2022, the players are thinking otherwise. Wide receiver Olamide Zaccheaus has a more optimistic outlook for the team this season. During an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the fourth-year wideout insisted that the Falcons can be a playoff-caliber team this season if they get off to a fast start.
“I feel like we’re a playoff team,” stated Zaccheaus. “We just (have) to put everything together. Really start fast at the beginning of the season and not get into a hole. I just feel like as a team, we can shock a lot of people.”
Getting off to a fast start is definitely a key first step, but since the Falcons’ last trip to the postseason, starting fast has not been their strong suit. In 2018, Atlanta started off 1-4 through the first five weeks and 1-7 through eight weeks in 2019. Then in 2020, the team’s 0-5 start sealed the fate of former head coach Dan Quinn and general manager Thomas Dimitroff.
| Year | Started | Finished |
| 2018 | (1-4) | (7-9) |
| 2019 | (1-7) | (7-9) |
| 2020 | (1-6) | (4-12) |
While the 2021 season was an improvement record-wise, the team lacked consistency week to week. Can Arthur Smith’s team finally end the playoff drought in 2022?
Every NFL postseason features a few surprise teams that nobody saw coming. The Cincinnati Bengals, who picked one spot after the Falcons in the 2021 draft, caught fire and made a run to the Super Bowl last season. Whether or not the Bengals contend again in 2022, the fact that they turned things around so quickly shows that no matter what you did in seasons prior, there is always a path to the postseason.
However, what’s really important is building a team that consistently contends each year. In the entirety of the Falcons’ history, they have only been to the postseason 14 times — eight of which have come since the year 2000. The best stretch of appearances the team has put forward is a five-year run early on in Matt Ryan’s career from 2008 to 2012 where they made four trips to the postseason, and ended 2009 with a winning record. But that was 10 years ago.
It’s the start of a new football era in Atlanta, we’ll just have to wait and see if the team can produce better results this time around.
