The Falcoholic
The Atlanta Falcons swept the New Orleans Saints, ending the season on a four-game win streak after a midseason collapse that cost them a chance at the playoffs. The Falcons are technically tied for 1st place in the division, but after doing the math, they fall to 3rd in the playoff tiebreaker order.
Here’s the Week 18 snap reactions.
James Pearce Jr. is the first Falcon with double-digit sacks since Vic Beasley in 2016. The team’s second first-round pick of 2025 was the face of the Falcons’ revamped pass rush. The pressure to perform was on Pearce from the start, and he did not disappoint. Pearce produced the most sacks by a rookie since Micah Parsons, and he showed continued improvement week to week instead of being a flash in the pan.
The conversation about whether he was worth the trade won’t be over for a few years, but there is no doubt that Pearce won the first battle.
Cousins has been fine, operating in the mid-average range, but he hasn’t been worth the money, and that’s not going to change with a third year on the team. He makes life more challenging for the offensive line, and in a season where he played only half the games, his arm looked ready to fall off in this final bout.
You don’t pay $30M to watch a guy skip rocks and dump it off to Bijan; even Gardner Minshew can do that. Even if Cousins were willing to negotiate his deal, he shouldn’t be prioritized. It’s time for the Falcons to save themselves $22M and move on.
This is a losing team; they are losers. There is no erasing the seven losses in eight weeks that followed the team’s 3-2 start, and there’s no excusing it. Raheem Morris has said the standard since his arrival is to win and make the playoffs; his team has catastrophically failed to seize the moment when it has presented itself. Players aren’t even happy after they score touchdowns. Drake London had to be held back as he made a beeline for WR Coach TJ Yates, ignoring Raheem Morris in the process.
8-9 is the perfect representation of who they are: a team that knows how to win but finds a way to lose.
New Orleans, you suck and got swept by Raheem Morris. Boom, roasted.
A lot of focus has been on this coaching staff, but there is going to be significant roster turnover this year, and the team has multiple holes they’ll have to fill at WR, OT, DB, QB, LB, IDL, and they need half those signings at minimum to be viable on special teams. This necessary overhaul could be the reason why we’re hearing that Fontenot is more likely to be canned than Morris at this point.
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