Two big issues with the 2021 Atlanta Falcons schedule

The NFL announced all 2021 schedules Wednesday night and they did the reloading Atlanta Falcons no favors with this garbage schedule.

We obviously have known the Atlanta Falcons opponents for months, we just did not know the order or times in which the games would be played. Now that we know, we see how difficult this schedule will actually be for Atlanta.

New Falcons head coach Arthur Smith said a couple of weeks ago that the organization hired the wrong guy if they were not willing to win now, he didn’t come to Atlanta to rebuild. He came to Atlanta to reload as quickly as possible and win.

That is the mindset that every head coach needs to have and it is great to have that mentally in charge of the roster as the players that are here feel the same way – they expect to win. We were all hoping that the 2021 Atlanta Falcons schedule would give them an opportunity to do just that.

There are two main issues with the Atlanta Falcons schedule

The first issue is that the Atlanta Falcons will have their bye-week in week six of the season. That means that this team will have to play 12 straight weeks to finish the season. If this team is good enough to make a playoff run, they will be exhausted by the time that they get there.

Not only do they have to play 12 straight games to end the season, but they also have to end the season with two straight 2020 playoff teams – the Bills and the Saints.

Normally that would not be a big deal but when you have played for three straight months with no off week, that task becomes even more daunting.

The other issue with this schedule is having to go to Buffalo in January.

No one wants to be in Buffalo in January, let alone a team that plays its games in an indoor facility. The average temperature in Buffalo on January 2nd is 31 degrees and that is on a good day. Take a look at the Atlanta Falcons roster – it is not built to play in cold weather.

The majority of players come from the Southeast or the West Coast and having to play in those temperatures will be an unfamiliar process for most of them.

The schedule isn’t going to change at this point, so the Atlanta Falcons have just under four months to prepare themselves for what will be an insane grind in 2021. To play 17 games for the first time ever and have to play 12 of them in a row will not be an easy task for a franchise hoping to turn things around immediately.