2025 Atlanta Falcons

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The 2025 Atlanta Falcons are a team that follows the typical caste formula characterized by a few white starters at the approved positions and a dozen or so white players on the roster in total. Over the past few years it appeared that the team was lightening up a little. After all, they went from 4 white starters in 2022 to 7 in 2024. However, the 2025 Falcons have relapsed to typical caste form under the tutelage of Raheem Morris. Now the team is back down to just 4 white starters after the benching of QB Kirk Cousins, the departures of C Drew Dalman and ILB Nate Landman, and the placement of RT Kaleb McGary on IR.

There are quite a few familiar faces on offense this year. Kirk Cousins was benched in December of 2024 in favor of Michael Penix Jr. Keep in mind that Cousins signed a four-year, $180 million contract in March of that year. It remains to be seen how Atlanta will handle this situation. Backup TE Charlie Woerner is back again. Also returning are LT Jake Matthews and RG Chris Lindstrom. Last year's backup C Ryan Neuzil is back, but this time as a starter after the departure of Drew Dalman. On defense, Kaden Elliss is back and starting at LILB instead of RILB. Accompanying him are two backup ILBs Troy Andersen and JD Bertrand.

The Falcons added three new faces in 2025: RT Jack Nelson, WR David Sills V, and TE Teagan Quitoriano. Nelson is a seventh-round draft pick and second-stringer while Sills and Quitoriano have bounced around various practice squads for a while in typical caste system fashion, but at the moment they are listed to the team's active roster as third-stringers at their respective positions. Time will tell if they get the opportunity to make an impact. The Atlanta Falcons could use all the help they can get seeing as how they have not won double-digit games or made the playoffs since 2017.

Offense:
QB - Kirk Cousins
WR - David Sills V
TE - Charlie Woerner, Teagan Quitoriano
LT - Jake Matthews
C - Ryan Neuzil
RG - Chris Lindstrom
RT - Jack Nelson

Defense:
LILB - Kaden Elliss, JD Bertrand
RILB - Troy Andersen

Special Teams:
P - Bradley Pinion
LS - Liam McCullough

Injured Reserve:
LT - Storm Norton
RT - Kaleb McGary

Practice Squad:
QB - Easton Stick
OT - Ryan Hayes

Number of White starters: 4
Total number of White players on 53-man roster: 13
Grade: F
 
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Solid write-up.

Troy Andersen is one of the leading poster children for the epidemic of injured White players over the past couple of years. A second round draft pick he played in every game as a rookie in '22, mostly as a backup and put up 69 total tackles, then missed all but 2 games in '23 with a knee issue when he was set to start in the middle, then missed most of last year after another knee injury and now is starting '25 on IR. He's immensely talented with a nearly perfect 9.98 RAS and had perhaps the best individual game of any defensive player last year, racking up a huge amount of tackles and adding a pick-six. But he somehow hurt his knee in that game and he was done for the year again right when he was exploding into stardom. Now, even if he can somehow get healthy for once he'll probably remain a backup as it's hard to trust a player that injury prone. Being on a team with veteran hard-core Caste acolyte Raheem doesn't help his cause either.
 
Agree, good write up.

Just have to be the bearer of bad news with Sills. He was cut before week 1 for a literal journeyman bust of a DE who has like 8 career tackles. Sills did land on their practice squad so maybe he’ll come back up. Until then, Falcons are down to 12 and 4. Yuck.
 
Freethinker said:
Agree, good write up.

Just have to be the bearer of bad news with Sills. He was cut before week 1 for a literal journeyman bust of a DE who has like 8 career tackles. Sills did land on their practice squad so maybe he’ll come back up. Until then, Falcons are down to 12 and 4. Yuck.
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Thanks! I saw that about Sills but he is currently listed as active on the NFL's official site and as a third-stringer on the Falcon's depth chart on ESPN.
 
Don Wassall said:
Solid write-up.

Troy Andersen is one of the leading poster children for the epidemic of injured White players over the past couple of years. A second round draft pick he played in every game as a rookie in '22, mostly as a backup and put up 69 total tackles, then missed all but 2 games in '23 with a knee issue when he was set to start in the middle, then missed most of last year after another knee injury and now is starting '25 on IR. He's immensely talented with a nearly perfect 9.98 RAS and had perhaps the best individual game of any defensive player last year, racking up a huge amount of tackles and adding a pick-six. But he somehow hurt his knee in that game and he was done for the year again right when he was exploding into stardom. Now, even if he can somehow get healthy for once he'll probably remain a backup as it's hard to trust a player that injury prone. Being on a team with veteran hard-core Caste acolyte Raheem doesn't help his cause either.
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Thanks Don! I agree about Andersen. Wish he could stay healthy and be the superstar that we know he can be.
 
Positive development for David Sills V. He's been elevated into the starting lineup.

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His snap totals and their percentage per week:

1761228636496.png

Now the question, will he actually get any targets or is he a glorified blocker?
 
Leonardfan said:
Kirk Cousins time. Penix is on his third torn acl since college.

nfltraderumors.co

Update: Falcons QB Michael Penix Jr Believed To Have Partially Torn ACL

Update: Per Zach Klein, Penix has a partially torn ACL and "the feeling is" he's done for the season. Penix tore the ACL in his other knee twice in college. According to Adam Schefter, Falcons
nfltraderumors.co nfltraderumors.co
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Yikes! That was his good knee.

It’s fair to ponder if Penix’s days as an undisputed starter are already over. Reason I say that is he hasn’t lit the world on fire when healthy. Now he’ll be returning next year at 26 years old already with a pair of bum knees and very little NFL success to point to. A smart franchise would probably realize they have damaged goods that aren’t that great to begin with and start the process of moving on. Maybe you could fleece an even stupider franchise and trade the guy before he totally breaks apart. But this is the Falcons. They are the stupider franchise in most discussions. Don’t think they’ll be relevant again for a long time.
 
Freethinker said:
Yikes! That was his good knee.

It’s fair to ponder if Penix’s days as an undisputed starter are already over. Reason I say that is he hasn’t lit the world on fire when healthy. Now he’ll be returning next year at 26 years old already with a pair of bum knees and very little NFL success to point to. A smart franchise would probably realize they have damaged goods that aren’t that great to begin with and start the process of moving on. Maybe you could fleece an even stupider franchise and trade the guy before he totally breaks apart. But this is the Falcons. They are the stupider franchise in most discussions. Don’t think they’ll be relevant again for a long time.
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Anyone that watched Iowa expose Penix in 2020 should have known this would be the outcome.
 
David Sills has been the 3rd WR on the Falcons for much of the season now. According to FootballGuys, he's up to 256 offensive snaps. He only has 9 targets and 4 catches to show for it. That means he's been targeted only 3.5% of the time he's on the field. In other words, he gets a target once every 28 or 29 offensive plays.

Has there ever been a WR in recent memory who's on the field so often, yet ignored so wildly? Luke McCaffrey comes to mind but I'm sure if I pulled the same stats it wouldn't be as extreme. I wonder if Cousins taking over at QB will change this whatsoever? Could Penix have been choosing to ignore him, sort of how we theorize Daniels was freezing out LMac?
 
Freethinker said:
David Sills has been the 3rd WR on the Falcons for much of the season now. According to FootballGuys, he's up to 256 offensive snaps. He only has 9 targets and 4 catches to show for it. That means he's been targeted only 3.5% of the time he's on the field. In other words, he gets a target once every 28 or 29 offensive plays.

Has there ever been a WR in recent memory who's on the field so often, yet ignored so wildly? Luke McCaffrey comes to mind but I'm sure if I pulled the same stats it wouldn't be as extreme. I wonder if Cousins taking over at QB will change this whatsoever? Could Penix have been choosing to ignore him, sort of how we theorize Daniels was freezing out LMac?
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Justin Watson was all but completely ignored by Mahomes for years despite being tall, fast and smart and routinely receiving starter's snaps. And Isaac TeSlaa has played 144 snaps so far this season and has just 4 receptions, so he's right there with Sills when it comes to being ignored despite having obvious tremendous talent. My theory with TeSlaa is that Dan Campbell is keeping the "locker room" content by not allowing TeSlaa to have a big role as a rookie as the Lions already have an established set of offensive stars.
 
We will not see another iteration of "Raheem's Dreem Teem" next season as he has just been sacked, along with the GM.
 
Drafting QB Michael Penix in the first round after signing Kirk Cousins will go down as the GM’s biggest blunder. They also let center Drew Dalman go in free agency and he is the starter in the Pro Bowl this year for the Bears.
 
Snow Plow said:
Drafting QB Michael Penix in the first round after signing Kirk Cousins will go down as the GM’s biggest blunder. They also let center Drew Dalman go in free agency and he is the starter in the Pro Bowl this year for the Bears.
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I would say so considering the cost of Cousins and Pennix had red flag issues because of his age, build and most importantly injury history.

The GM should have to work his way up from slappy to a real position again as no competent GM would ever do so many f(*c& ups in one aborted tenure.

It's seems like "the Dream" was thrown out with the bath water but his hiring was an obvious DEI hiring anyway as nothing in his tenure in Tampa showed brilliance.
 
The Dream Team got blown up. The next coach inherits an oft-injured 3rd year Qb with bad knees and a mediocre record. Not to mention he will be 26 when the season starts.

Instead the “experts”, media and fans put their crosshairs on JJ McCarthy who has been injured but also shown flashes and improved. Funny how that works.

The Falcons mismanagement of the QB position by the inept brain trust is humorous. Cousins starting the whole year could have seen them make a playoff appearance in the week NFC South.

It sounds like Matt Ryan is going to serve as a special advisor in the Falcons latest rebuild. Would be nice if they got a little Whiter.
 
Leonardfan said:
The Dream Team got blown up. The next coach inherits an oft-injured 3rd year Qb with bad knees and a mediocre record. Not to mention he will be 26 when the season starts.

Instead the “experts”, media and fans put their crosshairs on JJ McCarthy who has been injured but also shown flashes and improved. Funny how that works.

The Falcons mismanagement of the QB position by the inept brain trust is humorous. Cousins starting the whole year could have seen them make a playoff appearance in the week NFC South.

It sounds like Matt Ryan is going to serve as a special advisor in the Falcons latest rebuild. Would be nice if they got a little Whiter.
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They really got what they deserved didn’t they for screwing over Kirk Cousins, the top FA QB after the 2023 season.

And regarding Kirk, he got alot of flak but he actually holds a winning record during his tumultuous time in Atlanta at 12-10. That record really sparkles when contrasting it to the 4-8 mark that his upsider replacement has during the same period with the same surrounding talent.

Whoever takes over would be wise to establish that Cousins is the franchise QB for the duration of his contract. Penix can ride the pine and maybe actually learn enough to be functional someday. More than likely, he won’t be, and the new regime can select a young QB to groom when Penix’s rookie deal expires.
 
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