It’s never easy to start over as a franchise, especially when you pushed so hard to build your roster into a championship-caliber team after several seasons. The Falcons had to face a new reality after considering themselves to be in “win-now” mode since 2017. They were no longer an offense filled with a plethora of highly-regarded, productive players. They didn’t have their superstar wide receiver anymore. It was a team filled with mostly unknowns.
Arthur Smith and Terry Fontenot did what they could to assemble a roster under stringent cap limitations. It was a season where they had to assess which players from the previous regime could still be long-term assets.