Falcons hoping history will repeat itself in week 1 matchup vs. Saints

The changes that the Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints have been through over the past few years have been drastic. Both teams have new head coaches and both were forced to move on from their longtime franchise quarterbacks.

Weirdly, both those changes have happened opposite of each other — the Saints started a new QB in 2021 and hired a new coach this offseason, while the Falcons hired a new coach in 2021 and will be starting 2022 with a new quarterback. Anyways, Atlanta is just hoping to keep a certain trend alive to start out the season.

The Atlanta Falcons are hoping the Marcus Mariota vs. Jameis Winston matchup will continue its tradition

The Saints’ new quarterback was drafted by the Buccaneers first overall in the 2015 NFL Draft, while the Falcons’ new quarterback was drafted by the Titans second overall in the same draft.

Obviously, that will immediately link the career of the two players — much like Peyton Manning-Ryan Leaf or Andrew Luck-Robert Griffin III — but even before the draft, there was a history between these two remarkable collegiate quarterbacks.

It happened just a few months before these two were drafted, in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game.

Mariota’s Oregon Ducks took on Winston’s Florida State Seminoles and it was not a close game at all. Mariota pounded the Seminoles by a final score of 59-20. Mariota finished with 338 passing yards, 62 rushing yards, and three total touchdowns.

Then fast forward past the draft and to the first week of the 2015 NFL season. Marcus Mariota and Jameis Winston’s first game in the NFL was against each other.

And, well, Marcus Mariota once again took it to Winston as the Titans defeated the Buccaneers 42-14. In this game, he finished 13/15 with 209 passing yards and four passing touchdowns.

This means that in the history of Marcus Mariota vs. Jameis Winston, Mariota is 2-0 and has outscored Winston by 67 points.

That is the definition of domination, even if it is a small sample size.

The Falcons can only hope that the trend will continue going forward. It seems like these two quarterbacks will face each other at least two more times, starting in the first week of the season.

It would be amazing if Mariota takes it to Winston like he did in 2015, and would be the perfect start to an unpredictable season of Falcons football.