It has been a summer of relative optimism for the Falcons. Marcus Mariota and Desmond Ridder have looked good, the team’s offseason additions have been positive ones thus far, and there’s a general sense that this is a franchise headed in the right direction. Shortly before the rubber meets the road and the Falcons face off against the Saints in Week 1, we received a rude reminder that the optimism is largely contained to this franchise and this fanbase.
The Athletic polled five NFL executives to see how they would rank the NFC teams, 1-16. Four of those executives ranked them 16th in the conference, and one ranked them 15th.