The Atlanta Falcons didn’t completely collapse after their heartbreaking 2016 Super Bowl loss, as the team went on to win a wild-card game over the Rams in 2017.
Following two 7-9 finishes in 2018 and 2019, though, the pressure is on the Falcons to perform this season or it could be the end of head coach Dan Quinn and GM Thomas Dimitroff’s time in Atlanta.
In Nate Davis of USA TODAY’s 2020 NFL record predictions, he has the Falcons finishing 9-7 and earning a wild-card berth:
“A team that could have a first-rounder at every position when the offense goes three-wide – RB Todd Gurley, TE Hayden Hurst and WR Laquon Treadwell are recent pick-ups – quietly went 6-2 in the second half of 2019. However Atlanta can’t afford another slow start given it must hit the road to face the Chargers, Chiefs and Bucs in December, which also includes home dates with New Orleans and Tampa Bay.”
Davis predicts each game all the way up to the Super Bowl. He has Atlanta defeating the Green Bay Packers in the NFC wild-card before losing to the New Orleans Saints in the divisional round.
This would definitely be an improvement, but if the Falcons end up losing to the division-rival Saints — whom Davis has winning the Super Bowl — it would be yet another tough playoff loss for fans to get over.
