A position group with one standout and a lot of needs.

Aside from one brilliant game from Troy Andersen, the story of the inside linebacker room in 2024 was the story of Kaden Elliss. He had a bit of a slow start to the year and then was arguably the team’s most impactful defender over the final stretch of games, and everyone else was either hurt (Andersen), hurt and a rookie (JD Bertrand), or struggling through a rough season (Nate Landman).

Elliss is a fun chess piece and a key player for the Falcons in 2025, but this past season...

The Falcons still have some work to do to get under the increased cap for 2025.

The good news is that the salary cap is increasing going into the 2025 year. The bad news is that the Atlanta Falcons are still over the cap with the projected range ($277.5M to $281.5M).

Sites like OverTheCap were already operating under the assumption of a 272.5M salary cap, so today's news isn't a big surprise, and it doesn’t mean the Falcons are now in a vastly different situation than the one described yesterday in my offseason asset value breakdown.

While Atlanta is still...

The Falcons have a busy 2025 offseason ahead of them with a number of significant needs to address. We discuss the biggest priorities for Atlanta in free agency and the NFL draft and attempt to rank them from most to least important.

The Atlanta Falcons have a busy 2025 offseason ahead of them with a number of significant needs to address. Kevin Knight and Adnan Ikic discuss the biggest priorities for Atlanta in free agency and the NFL draft and attempt to rank them from most to least important. Fellow Falcoholics, welcome to episode 317 of The Falcoholic Live!

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Could a reunion with Jeff Ulbrich be in the cards?

The Atlanta Falcons enter the offseason looking for potential upgrades at the linebacker position, and ESPN has tabbed pending free agent Jamien Sherwood as ‘a best fit’ for the team.

Forced into a first-time starting role as a result of C.J. Moseley’s injury-marred season, Sherwood was impressive — and likely parlayed his performance into a lucrative long-term deal. The converted safety tallied 158 combined tackles in 2024, and led the league in solo tackles with 98.

The former 2021 fifth-round pick out of Auburn is of course no stranger to...

The Philadelphia Eagles are riding high off their victory in Super Bowl 59, and everyone else is hoping on next year. Right now, who has the best odds, and where do the Falcons rank amongst the crowd?

Power rankings! No matter whether it’s preseason, Week 9, after the draft, or in our case right after the Super Bowl, online discourse putting together a list of the strongest to the weakest teams in the NFL never fails to be a worthwhile topic of discussion. We love to rank things.

As the Philadelphia Eagles and their fans continue to celebrate their remarkable...

The Falcons are currently 28th in salary cap space heading into 2025, but their situation isn’t quite as dire as it appears. Kevin Knight and Tre’Shon Diaz discuss Atlanta’s financials heading into the new league year.

The Atlanta Falcons are currently 28th in salary cap space heading into 2025, but their situation isn’t quite as dire as it appears. Kevin Knight and Tre’Shon Diaz discuss Atlanta’s financials heading into the new league year, including options for creating cap space via cuts, trades, restructures, and extensions. Fellow Falcoholics, welcome to another episode of the Dirty Birds and Brews podcast!

You can...

What do you think about this one, Georgia fans?

This one is for you, Dawgs fans.

Daniel Jeremiah has done the unthinkable: mocked a pass rusher who played down the road in Athens to the Falcons. Keep dreaming, Mr. Jeremiah.

University of Georgia EDGE Mykel Williams has been selected as the Dawg who will break a vicious, targeted, and downright despicable agenda against Georgia fans (even though Fontenot has drafted more players from Georgia than any other school).

Why Williams? For starters, he’s got that made-in-a-lab build, checking in at 6’5 and 265 pounds, paired with go-go gadget arms, and...

The Falcons will have to walk a tightrope to contend in 2025 without imperiling their future.

Draft season is in full swing, and teams are formulating their next course of action and prioritizing how to maximize their assets. Few teams are working with thinner margins than the Atlanta Falcons.

By the numbers

PFF has calculated the relative value of teams’ cap situations (effective cap space + restructure potential) and draft capital (pick value is based on the PFF WAR a player drafted at that pick generates on average during his first four years in the league). The numbers do...

It’s justified.

Your Atlanta Falcons did some good things in 2024, but I think you’d be hard pressed to argue that tackling was one of them. The number of times missed tackles were impactful was not a small number, and those errors were insanely costly against the Commanders in particular.

That impression is backed up by the eye test—we all watched those games!—and the team’s missed tackle number, which ranked 24th in the NFL. The Next Gen team at NFL.com took a more advanced look at the team’s tackling metrics and ranked them...24th in the NFL. Not good!

Here’s the...

Three picks in the Top 120. How many of these top prospects will don the red and black in April?

After using an aggressive amount of resources to optimize the 2024 season, the 2025 off-season doesn’t start great for the Atlanta Falcons. According to OverTheCap.com, they start over $11 million over the projected $272.5 salary cap, buoyed by the exorbitant $40 million cap number from now-projected backup quarterback Kirk Cousins.

On top of that, Atlanta only has five picks in next year’s draft, with only two in the top 100 and the third right on the outskirts at pick 117....

Can the Falcons trade Kirk Cousins? We break down the logistics of a potential Cousins trade, including the salary cap, draft compensation, and trade partners.

Can the Falcons trade Kirk Cousins? Kevin Knight breaks down the logistics of a potential Cousins trade, including the salary cap, draft compensation, and trade partners. Are the New York Jets rumors true, or could Cousins reunite with a former coach on the Cleveland Browns? What about the wild card of the Las Vegas Raiders? Fellow Falcoholics, welcome to another episode of the Dirty Birds and Brews podcast!

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Arnold Ebiketie rolled after a slow start, and everyone else...did not.

The Atlanta Falcons threw a lot of bodies at their EDGE group—or outside linebacker group, depending on whether you prefer the team’s depth chart parlance or not—with results that were underwhelming much of the year.

The players the Falcons trotted out there were, with one notable exception, either lightly used, hurt, ineffective, or some combination of the three. The team’s defense cratered for long stretches for a variety of reasons, but we should not overlook that this group being a liability was certainly one of them.

The good news...