Dan Quinn must lead the Atlanta Falcons to early season success
By Ross Terrell
The Atlanta Falcons 2019 season kicks off in less than two months. Training camp starts tomorrow, and the Falcons get the pleasure of playing in the second most meaningless game of the season, the Hall of Fame game, to kick off the preseason. Second only to the Pro Bowl.
There have been plenty of Atlanta Falcons signings, new contracts, cuts, trades and a draft but let’s focus on Dan Quinn for a second.
Coach Quinn’s seat is inherently warm. I mean, which coach’s isn’t, save for Bill Bellichick. But the leader of the Falcons squad has to be successful.
Not just this year, but in the first month of the season. The Falcons open up the season on the road and alternate between home and road games through September. How they start the year will dictate how they finish.
Fans love to point out in 2016, when the team made it to Super Bowl 51, they actually lost the first game of the season. But that year isn’t this one.
The start to this season is much more than a record.
It’s about confidence. It’s about knowing they can compete with NFC powerhouses. The Falcons play the Vikings and Eagles to get things started, and you want that tiebreaker. Both teams have made deep playoff runs the past two seasons and Atlanta has lost their most recent match ups against both teams.
Coach Quinn has the talent, he has experienced coordinators and he has the support of ownership. What he needs is early season winning. After week four, games get real and the pretenders start to separate from the contenders.
The Falcons will see the Rams, Seahawks, Saints twice and Panthers twice in an eight week span. That is where this teams’ Brotherhood and mettle will be tested. And that’s a hard stretch to try to build confidence if you go into it below .500.
Next. Grady Jarrett bet on himself and won big. dark
So, Dan Quinn, if you want to keep that seat comfortable and avoid calls for your dismissal, get started on the right foot.