We are now less than a month away from the beginning of the regular season. Between now and then, the Atlanta Falcons will play two more exhibition games and then trim their roster down ahead of Week 1.
We will likely know a lot more about this team going into their first real game of the year, but right now it's difficult to be optimistic about their outlook for 2026. On the heels of an embarrassing loss to the Denver Broncos in their preseason debut, CBS Sports is predicting that the Falcons will also lose their season opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
"New Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski is extremely familiar with the Steelers after spending the past six seasons as a head coach in the AFC North, but that won't be enough to help Atlanta
pull off the upset. The Falcons could win this game if they get a miracle performance from Tua Tagovailoa or Michael Penix Jr. (or whomever the starting QB happens to be), but it's hard to see that happening."
On the bright side, the Steelers are far from the dominant AFC favorites that the Broncos are - and their own quarterback situation is not ideal, either.
Then again, Aaron Rodgers showed he still has enough last season to get Pittsburgh to the playoffs and there's definitely enough talent to go around for them to beat this Atlanta team - especially at home.
Winning Week 1 would be a great way to begin the season, but the real silver lining here is that the same analyst at CBS is also predicting losses for all three of the Falcons' division rivals. They have the Carolina Panthers losing at home to the Chicago Bears, the New Orleans Saints going down on the road against the Detroit Lions and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers losing to Joe Burrow and the Bengals in Cincinnati.
The NFC South may well come down to the least-terrible team making the fewest mistakes. It would come as no surprise at all if it's still undecided going into Week 18.
This article originally appeared on Falcons Wire: NFL analyst predicts Week 1 loss for Falcons vs. Steelers
