Don’t laugh but the Atlanta Falcons have a shot at the Super Bowl

There is little doubt that the Atlanta Falcons have issues on their roster, however, that does not mean they cannot make the playoffs and even get to their third Super Bowl in franchise history.

The Atlanta Falcons boast superstars in Matt Ryan, Calvin Ridley, Jake Matthews, Grady Jarrett, and Deion Jones as well as rising stars in guys like Chris Lindstrom, Foyesade Oluokun, A.J. Terrell, and hopefully Kyle Pitts.

Those are guys who can win games for you, and truth be told, this upcoming season may be the teams best chance in the next few years.

There is so much uncertainty across the NFC, the Atlanta Falcons need to find a way to capitalize on that.

There is uncertainty across almost all of the NFC teams, and yes, that certainly includes the Atlanta Falcons. However, this upcoming season has so much unknowns in the conference that the Falcons need to find a way to claw their way into having a shot at the super bowl.

When thinking about the NFC’s top teams from the past few years, teams like the Green Bay Packers, Los Angeles Rams, and the dreadful New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers come to mind.

You could also make an argument for teams like the Seattle Seahawks, Washington Football Team, San Francisco 49ers and possibly even the Arizona Cardinals and Minnesota Vikings as being potential top teams.

What do they all have in common? All those teams have major uncertainty in some capacity.

Starting with the Packers, will their most important player, Aaron Rodgers, play for them ever again? That remains to be seen, and if he does not, that is a team that the Atlanta Falcons could potentially beat in a crucial game.

Then comes the Rams who have an extremely solid team, and are probably the best team in the conference, but again they have big question marks. Like if Matthew Stafford will fit right into the offense, and if their defense can remain dominant with Raheem Morris taking over for Brandon Staley.

The New Orleans Saints are probably the most likely team to take a major step back, and that is worth celebrating in itself for Atlanta Falcons fans.

Does anyone truly believe in Jameis Winston or Taysom Hill? They certainly have potential, more so in the case of Winston, but it is doubtful that they can actually drive the team to ten wins. Not to mention all the losses on defense the team has from either suspensions or free agency.

The super bowl champion, Tampa Bay Buccaneers are probably the biggest unknown, just like they were last year. They return all 22 of their starter, which most say is a great thing, but that could also be a bad thing. They don’t add any variation to their starting cast and this is also a team that got hot at the right time, and in numerous cases got extremely lucky.

Adding to it, there is the super bowl hangover that most teams run into.

The Seahawks were rolling for the first half of last season but then fell off a cliff. They are going into the season with a new offensive coordinator but history says that it will take about a year to adjust. Obviously, you can say the same thing for the Atlanta Falcons as well. Their defense was also horrendous last season, so there is not much to count on there.

Washington is an up-and-coming team, but they currently have Ryan Fitzpatrick as the starter. Not exactly the most consistent passer in the league.

The Vikings currently are in no man’s land. They have a solid, but not great, passer in Kirk Cousins. He has not proven he can make a postseason run. And they also have an up and down defense who has lost a lot of stars in the past few seasons. There is an argument for them to be great, or horrendous.

And lastly, we have the 49ers who had a relatively bad year. They are certainly a favorite to make a jump in wins, since they are getting numerous players back from injury. But again they have a quarterback dilemma and a defense who lost Richard Sherman and Robert Saleh.

None of these teams are guaranteed to be spectacular, like say the Ravens or Chiefs are in the AFC.

This opens a door for the Atlanta Falcons to potentially make some noise. If they are able to master the relatively new offense and if Dean Pees does what he has done his whole career, by masking holes in the defense and making them overachieve, the Falcons seriously have a shot at contending.

It will take a lot of things to go correctly for the Atlanta Falcons, but if they do, this could be a surprising season for the fans.