For a while there, the Atlanta Falcons were not a primetime team. They had none in 2023, just one in each of 2022 and 2021, and two each year in 2020 and 2019. The sense that the Falcons were not just a mediocre team, but a particularly unexciting one, clearly was at the front of every mind on the NFL’s schedule making squad.
Those days are over. The Falcons landed a few primetime games last year with Kirk Cousins in the fold, and now they have five in 2025. You can likely thank Michael Penix, the team’s high-flying supporting cast on offense, and a suddenly interesting defense for that, perhaps, but there’s clearly a different view of Atlanta now.