The Falcoholic
Easier said than done, but vitally important.
The Atlanta Falcons have tried to build great defensive lines and fallen short, and they’ve neglected the line in favor of building a dominant offense or trying to stock the secondary. They’ve had varying levels of success with those approaches, but the consistent lack of a pass rush and the kind of line that simply makes life hell for opponents has been glaring, and it has played a very real (and much-lamented) role in the way they’ve fallen short for years now.
The Philadelphia Eagles won for multiple reasons last night—Jalen Hurts had an impressive game, their cornerbacks made some heroic plays—but the standout story was their defensive front. A group stocked with talented draft picks and a handful of impactful imports, all brought together by a smart coaching staff, had made a habit of creating problems for opposing offenses all year. Against the Kansas City Chiefs, who had made it to their third straight Super Bowl on devil magic and guile as much as their customary talent and discipline, Philly cranked the pressure and the dominance up to 15.
They sacked Patrick Mahomes five times in the first three quarters alone and six overall, and until very late in that quarter, the defense had held him to under 100 passing yards. Jalen Carter, Zack Baun, Josh Sweat, and Milton Williams smothered Kansas City and harried Mahomes over and over again, allowing a gifted Eagles offense to run up an insurmountable lead. The value of having dominant players up front has been apparent in recent Super Bowls and certainly throughout NFL history, but this was an extreme example of what happens when you build the kind of defensive line and larger defensive front that can discombobulate even stellar offenses run by a legendary coach and quarterback.
The Falcons have a lot to digest and learn this offseason, from their obvious need to improve their clock management to the need to overhaul the defense at basically every level. But the team should have watched the Eagles dominate the Chiefs and understand the urgency of upgrading a defensive front that has rarely been dominant over the past two decades, given the degree to which it makes life easier for your secondary and your offense, even when one or both of those groups might be faltering. The fact that the Eagles have gotten to where they primarily by identifying and drafting elite talents should not be lost on the Falcons, who made investments that may well pay off in recent years (Ruke Orhorhoro, Brandon Dorlus, Zach Harrison), but very clearly need to sink more draft capital and likely dollars into a group that was moribund or mediocre for over half of the 2024 season.
This is much easier said than done, and I don’t mean to suggest that the Falcons can do it in one offseason. I do think the team’s insistence on adding to their offense via early draft picks has helped them build an...
