{"id":17817,"date":"2021-06-30T19:00:58","date_gmt":"2021-06-30T19:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/?p=17817"},"modified":"2021-06-30T19:01:00","modified_gmt":"2021-06-30T19:01:00","slug":"atlanta-falcons-2021-win-prediction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/nfl\/atlanta-falcons-2021-win-prediction\/","title":{"rendered":"ATLANTA FALCONS 2021 WIN PREDICTION"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BY ADAM GREENE<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arthur Smith begins his first campaign as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons and, many times, that upgrade alone can lead to a significant win increase. Smith comes over from the Tennessee Titans, a prolific offense that boasted a run game he will not be able to recreate in Atlanta with free agent running back Mike Davis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Atlanta didn\u2019t help its chances by dealing the best wide receiver in team history (Julio Jones) in a trade to Smith\u2019s former team. Good franchises work within the salary cap to keep their stars and bad ones do this; ship guys out for pennies on the dollar. It\u2019s an inglorious beginning for Smith and new general manager Terry Fontenot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ATLANTA<\/strong> FALCONS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last season:<\/strong> 4-12, fourth place NFC South<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2021 odds:<\/strong> over 7.5 wins -115, under 7.5 wins -115<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2021 NFL Draft:<\/strong> Kyle Pitts, TE, Florida \u2013 Round 1, Richie Grant, Safety, UCF \u2013 Round 2, Jalen Mayfield, OT, Michigan \u2013 Round 3, Darren Hall, CB, San Diego State \u2013 Round 4, Ta\u2019Quon Graham, DT, Texas \u2013 Round 5, Adeteokunbo Ogundeji, DE, Notre Dame \u2013 Round 5, Avery Williams, CB, Boise State \u2013 Round 5, Frank Darby, WR, Arizona State \u2013 Round 6<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UDFAs: <\/strong>J.R. Pace, CB \u2013 Northwestern, Javian Hawkins, RB \u2013 Louisville, Marcus Murphy, Safety – Mississippi State, Eli Howard, DE \u2013 Texas Tech, Alani Pututau, DE \u2013 Adams State, Antonio Nunn, WR \u2013 Buffalo, Caleb Huntley, RB \u2013 Ball State, Ryan Neuzil, OL \u2013 Appalachian State, Erroll Thompson, LB \u2013 Mississippi State, John Raine, TE \u2013 Arkansas, Jack Batho IV, OT \u2013 South Dakota School of Mines, Austin Trammell, WR \u2013 Rice, Dwyane Johnson Jr, Safety \u2013 San Diego State, Bryce Hargrove, OL \u2013 Pittsburgh, Joe Sculthorp, OL \u2013 NC State, Kion Smith, OT \u2013 Fayetteville State, Zac Dawe, DT \u2013 BYU, Kobe Jones, Edge \u2013 Mississippi State, Dorian Etheridge, LB – Louisville<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acquisitions:<\/strong> Duron Harmon, Safety \u2013 Free Agent, Mike Davis, RB \u2013 Free Agent, Lee Smith, TE \u2013 Trade, Cordarelle Patterson, WR\/KR \u2013 Free Agent, Erik Harris, Safety \u2013 Free Agent, Barkevious Mingo, Edge \u2013 Free Agent, Brandon Copeland, LB \u2013 Free Agent, Jonathan Bullard, DL \u2013 Free Agent, Josh Andrews, Center \u2013 Free Agent, Fabian Moreau, CB \u2013 Free Agent, George Obinna, Edge \u2013 Free Agent, John Atkins, DL \u2013 Free Agent, A.J. McCarren, QB \u2013 Free Agent<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key Losses:<\/strong> Julio Jones \u2013 WR, Alex Mack \u2013 Center, Todd Gurley \u2013 RB, Ricardo Allen \u2013 Safety, James Carpenter \u2013 RG, Matt Schaub \u2013 QB, Laquon Treadwell \u2013 WR, Ito Smith \u2013 RB, Damontae Kazee \u2013 Safety, Brandon Powell – WR<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PRESUMED STARTERS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

QB:<\/strong> Matt Ryan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RB:<\/strong> Mike Davis<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WR:<\/strong> Calvin Ridley<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WR:<\/strong> Russell Gage<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WR:<\/strong> Tajae Sharpe<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TE:<\/strong> Kyle Pitts<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FB:<\/strong> Keith Smith<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LT:<\/strong> Jake Matthews<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LG:<\/strong> Matt Gono<\/p>\n\n\n\n

C:<\/strong> Matt Hennessy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RG:<\/strong> Chris Lindstrom<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RT:<\/strong> Kaleb McGary<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LDE:<\/strong> Jacob Tuioti-Mariner<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LDT:<\/strong> Grady Jarrett<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RDT:<\/strong> Tyeler Davison<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RDE:<\/strong> Dante Fowler, Jr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OLB:<\/strong> Mykal Walker<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MLB:<\/strong> Deion Jones<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OLB:<\/strong> Foyesade Oluokun<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CB:<\/strong> A.J. Terrell<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CB:<\/strong> Kendall Sheffield<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SS:<\/strong> Richie Grant<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FS:<\/strong> Duron Harmon<\/p>\n\n\n\n

K:<\/strong> Younghoe Koo<\/p>\n\n\n\n

P:<\/strong> Sterling Hofrichter<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FORECAST<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outside of the defending Super Bowl Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the NFC South is a mess and the Falcons, regardless of how they\u2019ve screwed up over recent years, have the offensive roster to take advantage of it. Add to that a last place schedule and better offensive play design\/calling and you have a recipe for a potential playoff run. They couldn\u2019t ask for a better slate of games out the gate, opening at home against the Jalen Hurts-led Philadelphia Eagles before meeting the Tampa buzzsaw. But, after that, it\u2019s the New York Giants, Washington Football Team and New York Jets all before their bye. That looks like a potential 4-1 start to me before they even meet up with the Carolina Panthers or Drew Brees-less New Orleans Saints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final Record Prediction: <\/strong>10-7, potential NFC Wild Card team<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NFL season begins on Thursday, Sep. 9 and the Week 1 Schedule is already up and taking bets at BetOnline.AG<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow our BetOnline Twitter accoun<\/a>t for the latest sports news and betting odds, and stay tuned on the Instagram feed<\/a> for more good information too.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY ADAM GREENE Arthur Smith begins his first campaign as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons and, many times, that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":17822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[129],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17817"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17823,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17817\/revisions\/17823"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}