The Atlanta Falcons enter the 2025 season in familiar territory; not among the league’s worst, but still a few steps away from being a true contender.
Ahead of the 2025 NFL season, Pro Football Focus’ Max Chadwick and Dalton Wasserman ranked all 32 teams while also naming their strengths and weaknesses.
The Falcons landed right in the middle, ranking as the NFL’s 16th best team.
Based on the rankings, the Falcons' biggest strength heading into this season is their offensive line, which has proven to be among the league's best over the past few years.
“For the second time in the past three seasons, the Falcons were the owners of the NFL’s highest-graded offensive line. Per usual, the star of the group was right guard Chris Lindstrom, who led all guards with a 93.5 PFF overall grade. They lost star center Drew Dalman in free agency but return four other starters who all graded above 70.0 in 2024,” they wrote.
Besides Lindstrom, the Falcons also return two accomplished veteran offensive linemen Jake Matthews and Kaleb McGary. Last season, Matthews finished with his highest offensive grade (79.8) since 2019. Last month, the former Pro Bowler earned a spot on PFF’s “Top 30 players over 30” team. McGary, who has established himself as a consistent contributor, is in charge of protecting Michael Penix Jr’s blindside. Back in 2023, PFF considered the Falcons' decision to extend McGary’s contract as one of the best moves of free agency, he was fresh off having the third-best run-blocking grade among all Falcons offensive linemen.
While Atlanta’s offensive line has proven to be elite, their pass-rush lies on the other end of the spectrum. According to PFF, the Falcons pass-rush remains their biggest weakness heading into this season.
“Atlanta’s lack of pass-rush productivity was the team's ultimate undoing as it barely missed the postseason. The Falcons tied for the second-worst PFF pass-rush grade in the NFL while also ranking among the league’s three worst teams in pressure rate and pass-rush win rate,” they stated. “They didn’t have a ton of money to spend in free agency, so most of their hope for improvement lies in their two first-round draft picks, Jalon Walker and James Pearce Jr.”
The Falcons only have three edge rushers listed on their roster. Two of them are rookies (Jalon Walker and James Pearce Jr), and the other is a 32-year-old veteran (Leonard Floyd) who just posted his lowest single-season sack total in five seasons.
On the bright side, Walker and Pearce Jr flashed enough potential in college to offer hope that some quarterback pressure will be on the way soon.
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