2017 – the last season the Atlanta Falcons were above .500 in wins. Since then, the Falcons have posted five seasons with seven wins and one season with four (2020).

The team is looking for a new found spark and is poised for a breakout in 2024 with the roster moves in free agency and the new coaching staff assembled. Former Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins signed a new four-year contract extension worth $180 million. While the big payout seems quite lucrative for a 35-year-old signal caller, Falcons owner Arthur Blank is just trying to win the franchise’s first Super Bowl. A blank check was one of the many ways he could do so.

Last year’s season alone was very interesting to watch as the team had bright spots on the offensive side of the football. With the newest addition of running back Bijan Robinson, the Falcons in 2023 looked like a team willing to improve upon their 7-10 record from the season prior.

Those hopes and dreams from the fan base and the organization quickly fizzled out after many mistakes at the quarterback position. Each week, there was going to be a press conference from the then head coach Arthur Smith on which quarterback was starting. Desmond Ridder and Taylor Heinicke both saw action and neither athlete could make their play stay consistent and the revolving door kept on spinning.

The hairs on Coach Smith’s head began to turn grayer, and the team’s lack of offensive production, even with a promising roster, looked bleak.

Blank and his team set out on a new goal this offseason and that was to clean house from the very top to the bottom. The hiring of new head coach Raheem Morris began the new era in Falcons football and his expertise and former head coaching experience goes a long way in solidifying the first winning season in over seven years.

The number seven seems to be the curse for the Falcons that needs to be broken this year, and with a new quarterback at the helm who has experience and is consistent in his play, I predict a record of ten wins this upcoming season.

Our very own Coach Kevin Smith wrote an article titled: ‘The Falcons are taking a big gamble on Kirk Cousins’, and within the piece he mentioned the fit within the new offensive scheme under coordinator Zac Robinson and how the weapons that Cousins will have at his disposal is extremely exciting.

Smith said,

In addition to his past success, one of the biggest reasons Atlanta pursued Cousins was because they loved his potential fit in the offense new coordinator Zac Robinson will bring with him from Los Angeles. Robinson spent the last few years as the quarterbacks coach for Sean McVay with the Rams and is expected to implement a McVay-style wide-zone/bootleg/play-action scheme that will use myriad shifts and motions to displace defenses and create match-up advantages. Robinson worked with Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell when O’Connell was in LA, so there will be familiarity in the system for Cousins. Much like with Matthew Stafford in LA, it is a system that plays to the strengths of the cerebral Cousins, whose ability to read defenses is enhanced by all of Robinson’s pre-snap movement.

Some offensive weapons include: Bijan Robinson, Kyle Pitts, Drake London, Tyler Allgeier, and Darnell Mooney, just to name a few. These are just five impact players at their positions that give the team an expectation that the offense will be the leading and most important unit.

First Winning Season Since ’17?

I understand that the history over the last seven seasons is against me when I say this – I have a strong feeling that if Cousins can stay healthy, the offensive production alone will propel this 2024 Falcons team to new heights, securing a playoff position and winning more than seven games for the first time in seven years.

Is this a slam dunk? Absolutely not; however, I like the new regime and the coordinators that Morris brought on coupled with a veteran quarterback who immediately fixes the revolving door issue that plagued this team a season ago.

If the defense and special teams can be just average, and new coordinator Zac Robinson can unleash the offensive fireworks, something that the former head coach could not do, the Falcons will be poised for a breakout season and will finally break the curse of the sevens.