The Atlanta Falcons are approaching their first week of NFL action this coming Sunday as they welcome the Carolina Panthers to Mercedes-Benz Stadium. After opting not to play his starters throughout the preseason, head coach Arthur Smith is expecting that his guys will be ready to go right out of the gate.
And starting fast is imperative. Using a three-game sample size, NFL operations put playoff odds on teams based off of their win-loss record after Week 3. Teams that start 3-0 see their postseason odds climb to 76 percent while losing one drops you to 55 percent and losing two drops to 32 percent. Teams that start 0-3 make the playoffs just 14 percent of the time.
With the Falcons expecting to make the leap into playoff contention, winning early is of the utmost importance. So, will the Falcons be ready? John Fricke gave his thoughts on the matter.
"If you're going to go to the playoffs, you've got to win your division games," Fricke said. "You probably have to go 5-1, you might get away with 4-2, but you can't lose at home to Carolina. Then it's [two] conference games and you need those for tiebreakers if you're thinking about the playoffs down the road."
The Falcons will get started with Bryce Young and the Panthers, Jordan Love and the Green Bay Packers, and then Jared Goff and the Detroit Lions. Those are all winnable games.
But after going out and making splashes in free agency over the offseason, John sees this as a monumental year for Smith.
"This is [Arthur Smith's] first real team," Fricke continued. "And if you're buying in like I am that Arthur Smith is a hell of coach, well you've got to prove that this year. You've got to be a lot better than 7-10."
We now enter the season having seen the starting offense for one, 17-play drive that ended in a red zone interception. That's much of a sample size to go off of, but perhaps the coaching staff saw all it needed to in its joint practices with the Miami Dolphins and in that first quarter against the Bengals.
Let's hope so, because now these games count and the Falcons will be looking to avoid their sixth-straight season that opened with a loss.