Some people are fans of the Atlanta Falcons. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Atlanta Falcons. This 2026 Defector NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the previews so far here.

Your team: Atlanta Falcons

Your 2025 record: 8-9, which is less of a win-loss record than it is a manifestation of the spirit of mediocrity that inhabits this franchise. It's been almost 10 years since 28-3 happened, and the Falcons have gone a combined 65-84 with zero playoff appearances since. This team's never good enough to care about or bad enough to pity, and therefore it is something much worse: a team that might as well not even exist.

Even when the Falcons try to shake things up, they can't emerge from the haze that prevents the rest of us from having to acknowledge them. After three straight 7-10 seasons, Atlanta signed Kirk Cousins in free agency in the 2024 offseason and drafted Michael Penix Jr. in the first round of that year's draft. Oooohhh, quarterback controversy. That's exciting, right? Not when it involves these two drips. Cousins got the starting gig in 2024, mostly played like shit for 14 games before getting benched for Penix, and the Falcons finished 8-9. The 2025 season was the same thing in reverse: Penix got the starting job out of camp, mostly played like shit for nine games before tearing his ACL, and then Cousins mopped up the rest of the season. Another 8-9 record. Rinse, lather, repeat.

At least Cousins is gone now. Your face is going to look like you just stepped in cat puke when you find out who they replaced him with.

Your coach: Kevin Stefanski, who really doesn't get enough credit for being one of the more despicable figures in the NFL. He's coming to Atlanta after spending six seasons as head coach of the Browns, where he won Coach Of The Year twice and was often held up as a tragic figure caught up in the ongoing desecration of that team.

The sad story goes that Stefanski was on the verge of changing the culture in Cleveland, while building a young and exciting team, when his own front office undermined the project by trading for world-historic creep Deshaun Watson and then handing him a franchise-breaking guaranteed contract. In this version of events, Stefanski is just a fall guy who spent the last few seasons doing the best he could under the team-building restrictions his front office put on him, and we should see his 45-56 record as inspiring rather than pathetic.

That's the story Steanski would love for you to believe, which is why the day before the Browns fired him this past offseason, he or someone in his camp convinced honeybaked NFL insider Pete Prisco to go out there and insist that Stefanski was never on board with the Watson trade. Wow, when you really think about it, Stefanski is just as much a victim as Watson's actual victims!

Of course that's all bullshit. Stefanski was on that dais with Andrew Berry and Dee Haslam defending the Watson trade when it happened, and he couldn't wait to sell Baker Mayfield down the river in order to hand his offense over to the third Tate brother. Remember this ESPN story from 2023, in which it's revealed that Stefanski was part of the recruiting team that met with Watson in his lawyer's office in 2022 and sold him on the idea of becoming the Browns' next quarterback?

While the Haslams spoke to Watson's lawyers in an office, Stefanski talked football with Watson in the conference room. The two hit it off immediately watching film clips together. Watson ultimately chose the Browns. Cleveland sent the Texans three first-round picks to complete the trade and signed Watson to a five-year deal worth a record $230 million fully guaranteed. The blockbuster move, in many ways, tied Watson's fate to Stefanski; and, in every way, tethered Stefanski's to Watson.

Note: If you ever find yourself trying to convince a football player to join your team while sitting in a conference room in his attorney's office, you are definitely making a bad life decision.

And what did Stefanski get for selling his soul? Bupkis! Nada! Jack shit! Nobody's ever made a deal with the devil that yielded so little. At least Robert Johnson learned to play the guitar. How is Stefanski supposed to impress his new buddies in hell when he finally gets there? Brag about his .446 career winning percentage and explain how inside zone works?

Your quarterback: Hold on, I need to check which one is currently alive.

Having finally gotten themselves out of the self-imposed quarterback controversy of the Cousins/Penix. era, the Falcons decided to run it back by signing Tua Tagovailoa in the offseason. Tagovailoa is now officially bad enough to start the second phase of his career as a permanent backup, but the Falcons are one of the few teams in the league on which he could expect to be the regular starter. This makes him the perfect guy to sign if your goal is confuse everyone, the players included, about what direction the franchise is supposed to be going in.

I suppose you could interpret Tagovailoa's signing as injury insurance for Penix, who almost certainly won't be ready to play in Week 1 after tearing his ACL last November. If you think that's a sound strategy, you're probably also a big believer in the "good guy with a gun" theory of reducing gun violence.

Shall we run through the injury history for these two, who at this point are more suited for work as consultants on The Pitt than they are for playing quarterback? Tagovailoa finished his college career by getting concussed and dislocating his hip on the same play, and he's now been concussed at least four times since entering the NFL. Nobody's been this likely to die in a football game since the boys at Yale and Harvard were playing without helmets and tackling each other into the exposed boulders that dotted their dirt fields.

Penix's laundry list of injuries may be less likely to produce a grim headline in 2035, but it's just as damaging to his chances at staying on the field. Dating back to college, he has suffered five season-ending injuries in his last eight seasons as a quarterback. Between tearing his ACL twice in his right knee and once in his left, he's managed to sprinkle in a fractured clavicle and a sprained AC joint. At this point Penix's surgeons don't even need to use scalpels, they just go at him with a pair of forks like they're getting ready to serve pulled pork.

So I suppose the plan is to play Tagovailoa for as many games as the cloudy spots on his brain will allow, and then chuck him into the incinerator just in time for Penix to get back out there and tear a ligament nobody's ever heard of before. If you wheeled either of these guys into Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory he'd be like, "Stop bringing me duds. I want fresh cadavers only."

What’s new that sucks: If you're the kind of person who gets fired up by your team spending the offseason signing mediocre players to cheap, one-year deals, then you should become a Falcons fan. The list of scrap that's been tossed onto this roster is long and includes TE Austin Hooper, DE Cameron Thomas, DT Da'Shawn Hand, LB Channing Tindall, LB Azeez Ojulari, C Corey Levin, and DE Samson Ebukam. The closest the Falcons came to splashing big money this offseason was signing WR Jahan Dotson to a three-year deal and giving multi-year deals to P Jake Bailey and 41-year-old K Nick Folk.

The Falcons' defense is supposed to be built around the ferocious pass-rushing abilities of their two 2025 first-round picks, edge-rushers James Pearce Jr. and Jalon Walker. Well, Walker is now out for the season after tearing his ACL in training camp, and Pearce Jr. is probably going to get suspended for allegedly trying to kill Rickea Jackson with his car.

What has always sucked: Oh my god, Kyle Pitts is still here? Falcons fans lived through four seasons of this guy making them feel like absolute morons for ever believing that a 6-foot-6 top-five pick who runs faster than most wide receivers could be good at tight end, and then in his fifth year with the team they were forced to convince themselves that 928 receiving yards and five touchdowns was him coming good.

You would think after five seasons of getting teased by this guy the Falcons' front office would have been eager to move on after his contract ran down at the end of last season, but instead they signed Pitts to a new three-year deal with $36 million in guarantees. When Pitts puts the finishing touches on a 600-yard, three-touchdown season, you fools will have nobody to blame but yourselves.

Atlanta officially surrendered its status as a worthwhile city when it allowed Luke Kornet to bully the Hawks out of having Magic City night.

Killer Mike has reached the "riffing with RFK Jr. and pitching him ideas about child support" stage of his career. It's downhill from here.

There's nothing worse than a white guy from Atlanta. He's either a racist who only roots for the Braves and plays golf four times a week, or a guy who can't go five minutes without reminding everyone that he is familiar with the Dungeon Family. Both of you need to give it a rest.

What might not suck: RB Bijan Robinson is genuinely great, and Stefanski can scheme up a potent running attack when he has the right personnel. Robinson will run for 2,000 yards and the team will still finish with eight wins.

HEAR IT FROM FALCONS FANS!

William:

The best Falcons move ever made in the off season was when Lisa Left Eye Lopes burned down Andre Rison’s mansion. It was breaking news in Atlanta, and honestly the most exciting Falcons memory from my childhood. If I’d like to be nostalgic for that childhood, I can buy a Falcons throwback jersey. There’s only two to ever choose from: Deion Sanders and Michael Vick.

Aeden:

If we played every game on Monday night we might've won the super bowl. It reminds me how much I hate this team. We actually had a pass rush for the first time in forever and it turns out JPJ loves practicing at home on his girlfriend.

Thank god those ugly ass jerseys died with that regime. But all this offseason has just been Matt Ryan propaganda to cover up how shitty it's been. Wow what an upgrade at QB, Tua got hit so hard the holier than thou man threw up gang signs (although I'm sure people in our fanbase thinks Penix does).

Last month I had a friend from high school call me out of the blue who I haven't heard from in 5 years. First thing out of his mouth was "28-3". It never feels any better. There are kids in sweatshops who think being a falcons fan is the worst thing possible.

Andrew:

Ah, my beloved Failcons. This team is always somewhere between average-as-grits, and completely and utterly fucking moribund. Will THIS be the year we break the seemingly insurmountable NINE-WHOLE-ASS-WIN barrier? Of course not. The roster is still a dumpster fire thanks to the previous regime, (why NOT sign Kirk Cousins to a cap-crippling contract only to turn around and draft a fragile 37 year old QB who's knees shred if you look at them sideways?), we gave away this years 1st round draft pick to a guy with some SERIOUS anger management issues, and our prized draft pick from this year is an undersized slot receiver who will get ground into the turf by week 7.

Much as I love Arthur Blank for being one of the few seemingly decent owners in sports, he needs to have less patience with his incompetent hires. At least our stadium experience doesn't suck OR cost a fucking fortune (LOOKING AT YOU, JURRAH!).

Doug:

Even though it’s been almost a decade since the Super Bowl LI catastrophe, I know this installment of WYTS is still going to be peppered with “28–3” jokes. That used to bug me, until I realized: What else is there to say about us? The Falcons are, and historically have been, such a nondescript mediocrity that there’s literally nothing else for anyone to associate the franchise with. The consensus most embarrassing collapse in NFL history and it’s probably the only thing keeping us from being the team everyone always forgets in Sporcle’s “Can You Name All the National Football League Teams?” quiz.

The worst part, though?

28–3 was our high point!By any objective measure, those were the Falcons’ golden days! What I wouldn’tgiveto watch this team blow a game with actual stakes again! Instead we’re choking away regular-season snoozers to teams like the Saints and Panthers, games with zero significance beyond determining who finishes DFL in the worst division in the league. Winning the busted-ass NFC South is like having the biggest dick in kindergarten, and we can’t even manage that.Fuck me, fuck Tom Brady (still), triple-fuck Terry Fontenot, and fuck Kirk Cousins with a vaccination needle the girth of a Delta widebody. All that said, Drew, fuck your pissing and moaning about Atlanta, too. Oh, boo-hoo, we served you your sandwich 15 seconds later than your high-strung Yankee ass would’ve preferred? Stay mad about it. And bless your heart.

Kyle:

Last year, I bought tickets to see the Falcons as they were playing the Jets in town. On my birthday, I had the privilege and opportunity of taking my girlfriend to see the team now led by Kirk Cousins once again. As the guy they drafted with a history of knee injuries surprisingly suffered another knee injury, what did they do? They absolutely pissed themselves versus Tyrod Taylor in the freezing rain, with even Jets fans giving me looks of pity.

After the Jets kicked the game-winning field goal, all I could say to my lovely girlfriend, who sat through this, was, “Well, at least it’s not the worst loss this year.”

Fuck Arthur Blank and the Home Depot he crawled out of.

Brent:

Any time a team blows a huge lead -- the San Antonio Spurs in Game 4 of the NBA Finals, Egypt vs. Argentina in the World Cup -- someone always mentions the Atlanta Falcons. And it could even be an even bigger margin -- the Spurs were up by 30 points! Egypt was up 2-0 and lost, HERE IN ATLANTA -- yet someone will always go "28-3!"

Holly:

The 28-3 game is the only time this team has been relevant in the last 30 years. That game made my dad cry. I don't know why i still watch them.

Travis:

Ten year anniversary of 28-3 approaches. It will be the only source of joy Saints fans get this season. We will have no joy at all and I'm already exhausted. Fuck this team and fuck me especially for wanting to still care. Idiot.

David:

Bijan is the coolest player we’ve had since Vick fought dogs. Of course he’s a Jesus freak that makes Russell Wilson blush and he wants to be an actor after football. With his Texas ties I can picture his Yellowstone spinoff already. Now that he’s got the bag, I wish we’d trade him just so he can enjoy some success before his body is half-broken and he’s stuck reading Taylor Sheridan lines in nowhere Montana.

Fuck Arthur Smith with Kyle Shanahan’s wrecked Tesla.

David:

This QB room is such a disaster that Stetson Bennett would be a legit upgrade.

Jason:

The Falcons caught strays on social media immediately following the Spurs blowing a 29-point lead against the Knicks in this year’s NBA Finals, which is more attention than they garner during NFL season, and frankly more than they deserve at any time. The only times the Falcons generate an iota of interest are:

· When some other hapless team blows the kind of lead that makes win probability charts look like the stock market in 1929, drawing the inevitable comparisons to 28-3

· The first round of the NFL draft, when the team is on the clock and everyone else huddles around like the Simpsons meme with Homer at the console, gleefully anticipating the funniest and stupidest shit you’ve ever seen from an NFL front office

· These annual WYTS previews themselves, when Drew and the Defector commentariat set aside their legal briefs and drug habits just long enough to half-heartedly dunk on them and then go about their business

No other Falcons fan will EVER admit this, but the painful truth is that, as much as we despise the Saints and their fans (and we do, FTS), the Saints being the higher profile and more successful franchise elevates

ourprofile and gives the Falcons the slightest bit more cachet just by virtue of the rivalry. Our hated rivals are better for our brand than anything the team manages to “achieve” on its own.The Cincinnati Bearcats have more postseason appearances in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium than the Falcons do. The stadium has been home to the Falcons since 2017.The Atlanta Falcons: aspire to mediocrity, settle for notoriety.

Joshua:

I became a Falcons fan because I grew up about 4 hours north of the city. That was my closest team, and I just blindly thought I should be their fan since I might have a chance to go watch them in the stadium one day. As a little boy, I can remember the incessant 4-12 seasons. How we dreamed of an elusive fifth win!

Anyway, the very first time I was able to go see them in person, my parents took me to their 1986 game against the 0-13 Colts. 0-13! Atlanta led the entire game until a blocked punt was returned for a touchdown in the dying minutes.That is Falcons fandom in a nutshell. Don't talk to me about the Super Bowl meltdown. I totally saw it coming.

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