{"id":881247,"date":"2026-05-03T10:21:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T10:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/881247\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T10:21:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T10:21:16","slug":"falcons-post-draft-starting-lineup-on-offense-with-player-grades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/881247\/","title":{"rendered":"Falcons post-draft starting lineup on offense with player grades"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Atlanta Falcons<\/a> have much to figure out before the 2026 NFL season arrives in September, but there will be a handful of new starters on both sides of the football. The Falcons added six players in the 2026 NFL Draft, including cornerback Avieon Terrell and wide receiver Zachariah Branch.<\/p>\n

Plus, the team signed a quarterback, two wide receivers and a new starting right tackle in free agency. Former first-round pick Kaleb McGary<\/a> surprisingly retired, but the Falcons quickly signed former Kansas City Chiefs<\/a> offensive tackle Jawaan Taylor<\/a> as a replacement.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Will Tua Tagovailoa<\/a> or Michael Penix Jr.<\/a> start for the Falcons at quarterback this season? Will Branch earn a starting wide receiver gig as a rookie?<\/p>\n

Find out in our post-draft starting lineup projection for the Falcons offense, including Pro Football Focus grades<\/a> for each player.<\/p>\n

Falcons starting offense with PFF grades<\/p>\n

QB Michael Penix Jr.: 59.3<\/p>\n

WR Zachariah Branch: 82.0<\/p>\n

I think Branch will be the team’s long-term No. 2 wide receiver, but as you can see, I have the rookie starting out in the slot this season. That’s partially due to his status as a third-round pick, and partially due to the team giving Jahan Dotson a two-year, $15 million contract, including $10 million guaranteed.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Falcons Wire: Atlanta Falcons: Post-draft starting lineup on offense<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Atlanta Falcons have much to figure out before the 2026 NFL season arrives in September, but there…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":881248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[4955,223,254,2554,9201,4127,11406,4130,224,7,7191,309,11587,11412,110,6153,11408,1879,6,410,11428,2661,3452,1473,114914,33452],"class_list":["post-881247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-atlanta-falcons","tag-2026-nfl-draft","tag-atlanta","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-atlantafalcons","tag-avieon-terrell","tag-bijan-robinson","tag-chris-lindstrom","tag-drake-london","tag-falcons","tag-football","tag-jahan-dotson","tag-jake-matthews","tag-jawaan-taylor","tag-kaleb-mcgary","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-kyle-pitts","tag-matthew-bergeron","tag-michael-penix-jr","tag-nfl","tag-pro-football-focus","tag-ryan-neuzil","tag-the-falcons","tag-tua-tagovailoa","tag-wide-receiver","tag-will-branch","tag-zachariah-branch"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116510148748517900","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881247","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=881247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/881248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}