New general manager Ian Cunningham is stepping into a less-than-ideal situation in Atlanta. On one hand, he has some terrific pieces on both sides of the ball, a reasonable amount of cap space, and a fanbase that knows that 2026 is not a year where we\u2019re going to place outsized expectations after eight straight losing seasons. On the other hand, it\u2019s a roster with a ton of holes, some very expensive commitments, and a thorny quarterback situation.<\/p>\n
There are many long-term priorities here\u2014reworking the offensive line, turning over inside linebacker entirely, sorting out specialists on special teams\u2014but I can think of four immediate challenges the front office has to tackle in 2026. Here they are.<\/p>\n
Michael Penix Jr. believes he\u2019ll be ready to go in time for training camp, and he\u2019s no doubt eager to grab the starting quarterback job and not let it go. But what Penix believes and hopes for and his actual timeline may not match up, given that ACL surgery is not an easy recovery, and Kirk Cousins will be released soon.<\/p>\n
The organization would like Penix to be the guy, but they have to hedge. They have to decide if they can get a cheap backup that can step in for a game or two early on and\/or if Penix gets injured, or if his recovery and injury history merit having a legitimate starting-caliber quarterback in-house. The price point on that will necessarily be higher, but it may be the smart hedge, nonetheless.<\/p>\n
Getting a player in who is good enough to keep this offense running if the Falcons are without Penix but not so good that they\u2019re eating Atlanta\u2019s cap space up will be one of the biggest challenges of the offseason, and the player they sign will tell us a lot about how the franchise views Penix\u2019s recovery timetable. After quarterback woes of one type or another were major factors in sinking each of the past four seasons, the pressure is certainly there to get this one right.<\/p>\n
Ensuring the Falcons offense isn\u2019t a two man show<\/p>\n
If the Falcons re-sign Kyle Pitts, it\u2019s a three man show. But last year was deeply frustrating in part because the Falcons were wholly reliant on Bijan Robinson\u2019s superstar antics and either Pitts or Drake London in the passing game, depending on who was healthy and\/or hot in a given week. Darnell Mooney\u2019s injury clearly sapped his effectiveness last year, Ray-Ray McCloud was cut, and only Tyler Allgeier really did anything of note in a supporting role.<\/p>\n
Cunningham and company have to decide whether Mooney can come back stronger after his injury and have to address a wide receiver depth chart that went belly up in 2025 regardless. They\u2019ll want to add another capable pass catching tight end even if they retain Pitts, given that Kevin Stefanski\u2019s offense prizes them. And they\u2019ll need to find a capable backup for Bijan given that Allgeier is almost certainly landing a big deal elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Those are no mean feats, but they\u2019re urgent. Zac Robinson\u2019s limitations as an offensive play caller were evident last year, as were the limitations of both Penix and Kirk Cousins, and that in turn meant a limited, predictable offense. That doesn\u2019t mean that Robinson, Penix, and Cousins wouldn\u2019t have all fared better had there been a legitimate #2 receiver, #3 receiver, #2 tight end with pass catching chops, and so on; it\u2019s virtually guaranteed they would have won another game or two with a better supporting cast and we\u2019d be having different conversations right now. Cunningham and company will need to find at least a credible #2 receiver this offseason to give Penix\/our mystery second quarterback a fighting chance.<\/p>\n
Addressing the biggest defensive holes<\/p>\n
The Falcons don\u2019t currently have a slam dunk #2 cornerback or nose tackle. They\u2019re going to head into the offseason with a shortage of rotational options along the defensive line and at outside linebacker, as well as iffy depth at inside linebacker and safety. We saw the cost of those holes over and over again in 2025, as Dee Alford did a beyond admirable job filling in for Billy Bowman Jr. but struggles from Natrone Brooks, C.J. Henderson, and Cobee Bryant outside hurting them when Mike Hughes wasn\u2019t healthy and Hughes stumbling at times when he was healthy. We saw the team\u2019s inability to stop the run because they lacked size and potency up front. And so on.<\/p>\n
Whether Bryant is ready to step into the #2 corner role or not, the Falcons need to add to all the groups above in a meaningful way to create a defense that isn\u2019t quite so reliant on its top-shelf talent. Terry Fontenot\u2019s final masterclass draft gave the team some building blocks in James Pearce Jr., Xavier Watts, Jalon Walker, and hopefully Bowman, but Cunningham will have to build on that for Jeff Ulbrich\u2019s defense to go from solid with flashes of brilliance to very good.<\/p>\n
Across the entire roster, Terry Fontenot\u2019s worst legacy will be the team\u2019s iffy depth. For every Elijah Wilkinson and Dee Alford, there are two JD Bertrands and David Sills, players who were pressed into action because of thin depth charts and were clearly not good enough to be in those roles. That\u2019s less a reflection of the players\u2014Sills had moments that suggest he\u2019d be a good WR5 and Bertrand has been useful on special teams\u2014than it is a roster-building strategy that left the team perilously thin at many positions.<\/p>\n
Cunningham will be tasked with fixing that, and we saw the Bears refuse to be complacent with their depth in recent years. Take wide receiver and tight end, where the team added Luther Burden and Colston Loveland to position groups that seemed pretty strong heading into last offseason, and see the benefits of having so many weapons on hand for Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams to work with. Or see the team\u2019s near-constant tinkering and additions to their defensive line, from rookie Shemar Turner to former Falcon Grady Jarrett. And so on.<\/p>\n
For the Falcons to weather inevitable attrition more effectively and be a more flexible, capable team in 2026 and beyond, they need to be less-top heavy. Addressing the three needs above will help with that, of course, but there needs to be a roster-wide focus on improved depth.<\/p>\n
What would you add to this list?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New general manager Ian Cunningham is stepping into a less-than-ideal situation in Atlanta. On one hand, he has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[223,254,79029,52003,2554,224,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-770618","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-falcons","10":"tag-atlanta-falcons-analysis","11":"tag-atlanta-falcons-free-agency","12":"tag-atlantafalcons","13":"tag-falcons","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116118717934682689","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}