It’s the bye! We’ve already gone through most of it, but tomorrow afternoon, there will be no Atlanta Falcons game to watch as they rest up and get ready for Week 6.
The early bye feels odd—we’ve only seen four games and I already have a quiet Sunday—but it does present its opportunities for a team that could stand to get healthier and iron our some persistent issues. Let’s take a look at what the Falcons will hope to accomplish during the bye.
Rankings
These are very high level categories I share each week,
intended as little more than a snapshot, but you’ll notice something striking: The Falcons are an average or much better team in every one of these except turnovers (ever so slightly) and points scored. That makes points scored seem like the outlier, and we saw they’re capable of better in Week 4 against Washington.
We could expect this team to regress, but it’s fair to expect the offense to be more proficient than they have been at scoring. If that’s the case, they can probably afford a little pullback on defense and still remain a very competitive team every week, but it’s too early to draw any sweeping conclusions beyond that.
How the Falcons stand to change coming out of the bye
The most concrete changes are that they’ll be getting injured players back. It sounds likely that A.J. Terrell will make his triumphant return to the lineup after essentially missing a couple weeks, with Dee Alford turning in one terrific performance and one shaky one in his stead. Fellow cornerback and returner Natrone Brooks, who has been out with a nasty concussion, could be back for Week 6 to handle kickoffs and provide depth. The team also should have Darnell Mooney out there, given that Raheem Morris downplayed his latest injury and he has essentially two full weeks and a day from Week 4 to recover.
Those are important additions. Getting Mooney close to 100% after he’s been hurt and scuffling will help this passing attack, and Terrell is the essential man in this cornerback corps, especially with tough matchups on the horizon. Both players likely would have been questionable at best had the Bills game come in Week 5; the fact that they’re both much more likely to play with the passage of time makes this more well-timed than I had expected.
We’re also getting closer to the returns of Storm Norton, Ta’Quon Graham, Troy Andersen, and Bralen Trice, though none are guaranteed to be back after Week 6. Norton would be welcome depth at the very least and could take over if Elijah Wilkinson’s impressive hot streak at the beginning of the season slows, Graham is a hyper-competent run defender who would be nice to have back in the mix, and Trice remains an intriguing talent even if we haven’t really gotten to see him yet. Andersen will be returning to a depth role, but when healthy his coverage chops and athleticism would make him a large, tangible upgrade on what the Falcons have behind Kaden Elliss and Divine Deablo today.
In addition to the injury front, the Falcons have a chance to look at their lineups, their success and lack thereof so far, and adjust with the Bills and 49ers on the docket in the next two weeks. That might lead to slight tweaks in playing time, particularly where rotations are heavy along the defensive line, and might encourage Zac Robinson to incorporate a little more play action and a lot more early down running given how successful those have been.
What to know about the bye week
It’s very early! It’s well-timed in the sense that the Falcons can get multiple players back, including an absolutely essential one in Terrell, but it does mean there’s no post-primetime or Germany bye week for a team that will be weary later in the season. Hopefully that works out just fine.
Really, all we need to know about the bye is that the Falcons will come out of it healthier and with extra time to sort through the inconsistency that plagued them the first four weeks. It gives Robinson and company time to iron out their offensive issues, from predictability to execution to lack of play action, and gives Jeff Ulbrich a chance to tinker with the run defense to get ready for Buffalo, San Francisco, and so on. And it gives Marquice Williams time to figure out what the in the blue hell is going on with special teams blocking and coverage, which has been killing this team’s field position and handing excellent field positions to opposing offenses all season long. There’s no shortage of things to work on, and there are no shortage of coaches and players who desperately need this season to be a success who will be working hard to ensure it is. Whether that translates to improvement and consistency is, of course, the question that keeps us awake at night.
But with the Bills looming in primetime in Week 6, it’s nice to have the breather. Let’s hope the Falcons make the most of it.
