Falcons have favorable preseason schedule

The 2017 NFL preseason schedule was recently released, and the Falcons have a favorable lineup of games ahead.

The 2017 NFL preseason will begin of course with the Hall of Fame game, in which the Dallas Cowboys will face the Arizona Cardinals in Canton, Ohio on Tuesday August 3rd at 8:00 pm. However, the Atlanta Falcons will not begin their preseason until Week 1 of the NFL preseason along with the rest of the league.

Atlanta Falcons Preseason Schedule:

Preseason Week 1: @ Miami Dolphins

Preseason Week 2: @ Pittsburgh Steelers

Preseason Week 3: vs. Arizona Cardinals

Preseason Week 4: vs. Jacksonville Jaguars

Unfortunately, the Falcons will have no nationally televised preseason games, but all four preseason games will be locally broadcasted as always.

Of the four teams the Falcons play in preseason, only the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Miami Dolphins were playoff teams in 2016. Overall, Atlanta’s preseason opponents had a combined record of 31-32-1 in the 2016 regular season.

Further, the Falcons are fairly familiar with their opponents. The Falcons saw the Cardinals in the 2016 regular season, and played against the Jaguars and Dolphins in the 2016 preseason.

In the preseason matchup against the Dolphins last year, Keanu Neal suffered a knee injury that held him out of the first few weeks of the regular season. In fact, there were several unfortunate injuries across the NFL in last year’s preseason. With stars like Julio Jones that are too valuable to be sitting on the sideline in the regular season, look for the Falcons to take it easy in these games.

Preseason is always exciting because rookies and practice squad players get the chance to play on a big stage and prove their worth, and the 2017 preseason should be especially exciting for the Falcons, as it will be the first glimpse of a team trying to bounce back from a tragic Super Bowl loss.