The Atlanta Falcons haven’t made the playoffs since the 2017 season, and one ESPN analyst thinks that drought is a long way from ending.
In ESPN’s Future Power Rankings, which project the 2027-29 window for all 32 teams, analyst Seth Walder made a bold, yet bleak prediction for Atlanta: no playoff berths, at all, over the next three seasons.
ESPN Predicts Falcons Won’t Make the Playoffs Through 2029
Walder’s reasoning centers on the one thing the Falcons still haven’t solved.
“The Falcons will not make the playoffs from 2027 to 2029,” Walder wrote. “Atlanta needs a quarterback, but the current team isn’t bad enough to land a top-two pick. The Falcons could draft one next year, but they might have to give up some serious capital to trade up.”
That leaves Atlanta in a familiar bind, and Walder doesn’t see an easy way out of it.
“And though there are building blocks on this team, I fear the Falcons could be caught in the middle — even in the NFC South,” Walder wrote.
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Why the Falcons Are Stuck in NFL Purgatory
The prediction stings because it describes exactly what the Falcons have been. Atlanta hasn’t reached the postseason since Matt Ryan led the team there in 2017, an eight-year drought that trails only the New York Jets among active streaks.
The Falcons haven’t been bad, either… just mediocre.
They’ve won either seven or eight games in most of those seasons, the definition of NFL purgatory. They’ve tried nearly everything to break out of it, spending big in free agency, drafting aggressively, turning the roster young and then veteran again, and cycling through coaches and quarterbacks. Nothing has stuck.
Last season captured it perfectly. Atlanta went 8-9 and tied for first in the NFC South, only to miss the playoffs on a tiebreaker as the Carolina Panthers claimed the division at the same record. What stung most was how close it was. The Falcons cycled through three kickers in 2025, and each missed at least one clutch kick that flipped a one-score game, the difference between another January at home and finally ending the drought. They signed veteran Nick Folk in the offseason to make sure that particular nightmare doesn’t repeat.
The quarterback question hangs over all of it. The Falcons are set to open 2026 with Tua Tagovailoa, viewed largely as a stopgap, while Michael Penix Jr. tries to prove he’s the long-term answer as he recovers from a torn ACL. If neither pans out, it’s back to the drawing board again.
The division has and looks to be winnable still. The Panthers are trying to build around Bryce Young, the Buccaneers may not have Baker Mayfield after this season, and the New Orleans Saints are still a question mark. It’s a division where 8-9 won it last year, and it could stay that way for a while.
Atlanta does have pieces worth building around in Bijan Robinson, Drake London and Kyle Pitts. But building blocks haven’t been the problem. Finding a quarterback and legitimate head coach has been.
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