Pre-season look at the NFC South- Atlanta Falcons

With tomorrow night's kickoff to the NFL season rapidly approaching, I decided that I would take a look at my two favorite divisions in the NFL, the NFC South and the AFC East for my next few blogs.  I'll start with the NFC South since that is the home to the 2009 World Champs, the New Orleans Saints.  We'll take it team by team and start with the Atlanta Falcons.

Just to recap, let's look at the final regular season records for all the teams in the division from 2009.  The Atlanta Falcons finished with a 9-7 record, the Carolina Panthers finished with a 8-8 record, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers finished with a 3-13 record and of course, the New Orleans Saints finished the season with a record of 13-3 and then going on to win the title.  Now, on to the Falcons.

Much of the problem with the Atlanta Falcons finishing at 9-7 last year, was some minor growing pains from their starting quarterback, Matt Ryan and some nagging injuries from starting running back Michael Turner seemed to bog down the Falcons who at the first of the year, I was looking at giving the Saints a run for their money in the NFC South.  Overall for the off season, the Falcons didn't do very well at improving the team except for the addition of CB Dunta Robinson.  Robinson should have a major impact on the improvement of the pass defense, which last year, ranked 28th in the league.  However, the Falcons did lose S Charlie Peprah, CB Tye Hill and CB Chris Houston but overall the pass defense should improve somewhat this year.  The addition of rookie LB Sean Weatherspoon will also help out the second tier to the defense.  He is expected to make an immediate impact with his playing time.  The problem is that the Falcons didn't add anything to strengthen their front on offense nor defense.  If they cannot pressure the opposing quarterback without having to depend on the blitz to do it...it may be a long year.  The Falcons have to face their division rival Saints twice (as with all divisional games), Pittsburgh and Green Bay.  With Rothlisberger being suspended for that game, it should help the Falcons not have to worry as much about that air attack however they really need to worry about the other two teams....the Saints and the Packers and what most folks believe are two of the top if not the top two quarterbacks in the league in Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers.  You can quote me on this...if the Falcons can have their new secondary gel before the first game with New Orleans on September 26th and keep Turner and Ryan healthy they are going to make it interesting in the NFC South and will more than likely challenge the Saints for the division.  Those three are what I see as the key to their season.  Sure, they don't have the strongest defensive line but they can still slow down the run and slow the game.  With the quick strike capabilities that they have with Ryan, WR Roddy White, TE Tony Gonzalez and WR Michael Jenkins, the Falcons are never out it.

Bottomline, I see the Falcons splitting their games with the Saints and losing their one game to the Packers and their game with the Ravens.  That will make the difference in the division.  I see the Saints taking the division but the Falcons will be good enough to pull off a Wild Card spot and make things interesting in the playoffs.