NFL Executive Suggests Falcons Treading Water

Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank made it clear to reporters at the NFL's annual league meeting that he was disappointed with how the 2024 season went. He also made it rather obvious that the 2025 season "is a crucial year" for the organization.

But one NFL executive isn't very optimistic that the Falcons are about to improve this fall.

“I don’t know that they got any better,” one executive told The Athletic's Mike Sando recently when discussing the team's offseason additions. “It boils down to Michael Penix and whether he is the guy.”

Sando added on April 3 that another NFL executive told him the Falcons' free agency moves were "swapping average for average."

Sando, though, wrote the Falcons gained one benefit.

"[Leonard] Floyd’s familiarity with Falcons coach Raheem Morris from their time together on the Rams. Floyd, now on his fourth team in four seasons, has at least 8.5 sacks in each of the past five seasons. Myles Garrett is the only other player riding a streak that long," wrote Sando.

As I've written before, how one views Atlanta's free agency additions depends on one's expectations.

The Falcons entered the offseason with some of the least amount of salary cap space. So, they were never going to make additions that moved the needle very much.

Atlanta's biggest new impact should come in the NFL Draft although the Falcons don't have a lot of draft capital either. The team enters the 2025 draft with only four selections.

But at No. 15 overall, the Falcons should be able to add a defensive prospect to supplement the additions the Falcons made on defense with Leonard Floyd and Divine Deablo. The Falcons could even add an edge rusher to pair with Floyd.

On offense, as the anonymous NFL executive said, the Falcons are counting on Michael Penix Jr. for a big improvement.

From one perspective, that's greatly disappointing. The Falcons have a quarterback on a rookie deal, which typically allows NFL teams to spend more freely in free agency. That wasn't possible for Atlanta, though, because the team signed Kirk Cousins last year.

It's disappointing but not unexpected.