The life of an Atlanta Falcons fan has never been easy for an organization with an established culture of losing. It is what made the Matt Ryan era so fundamentally important for Atlanta. It appeared to be a page turn for a team that was consistently competing in meaningful games for the first time in decades. Yes, there were outliers, but the struggles were consistent for a team that has still never won a single Super Bowl.
Atlanta's struggles have recently been illustrated by the dysfunction at quarterback and basically anything that happened during former head coach Arthur Smith's tenure. It is something that hasn't gone unnoticed, with NFL Pundit Mina Kimes recently chiming in on the team's struggles. Typically a voice of reason in a hot take landscape the reaction is more than fair considering the string of missteps being pointed out in the initial tweet.
Atlanta remains the bumbling franchise that simply can never get out of their own way
Whether it was being punished for illegally pumping crowd noise into the stadium due to an underwhelming attendance or, most recently, Jeff Ulbrich's son's prank call to Shedeur Sanders during the 2025 NFL Draft, the one consistent story is Atlanta getting in their own way. No offseason has been a better example of this than how 2025 has gone thus far. In a year that is supposed to be about Michael Penix Jr. and what the quarterback could become, all pundits can talk about is the future of Kirk Cousins. The veteran quarterback dominated Atlanta's headlines leading up to the draft.
This would lead into a strong draft where the Falcons would get great value and make a surprise blockbuster trade to land a potential franchise pass rusher. Despite this, all the league and fans can talk about now is the decision of Ulbrich's son to steal information and use it in a cruel prank against the quarterback with the highest profile in the 2025 NFL Draft. It is something that seemingly only happens to Atlanta.
Atlanta never getting out of their own way and inventing dumb distractions has been a franchise trait fans know all too well. It is something that Raheem Morris and Penix were supposed to leave behind in a supposed page turn. Hardly an encouraging start to what will be a defining 2025 season for a team that is clearly making moves to attempt to win now.