5 Former Atlanta Falcons to watch closely this season

Over the last three years, Atlanta Falcons fans have sat and watched as the team has lost the majority of its impact players in free agency or through trades. The team slowly committed to the idea of a rebuild making it all the more painful to watch as fan favorites slowly filtered out of Atlanta as the new Falcons front office has brought in their own players and put their stamp on this roster.

It was a needed change considering Atlanta was already losing players and cap space before Arthur Blank decided it was time for a change. The Falcons had far too many misses in the draft and poor decisions in free agency to keep their core together.

There seemed to be little reason to keep the team together as well considering it has been nearly five years since Atlanta was considered a real playoff contender.  The Falcons needed to turn the page and allow their star players to have a chance to find real success elsewhere.

However, that doesn’t make it easy to watch fan favorites suit up for other teams especially when some former Falcons have chosen to join a rival organization. Something that will have some Atlanta fans split when watching their former stars this season.