Atlanta Falcons: Pre-Camp NFC Power Rankings

Feb 3, 2015; Flowery Branch, GA, USA; Atlanta Falcons team owner Arthur Blank (left) and new head coach Dan Quinn pose for a photo during a press conference at the Falcons Training Facility. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

The Atlanta Falcons are beginning a new era in Flowery Branch this season.  After two massively disappointing seasons in 2013-14, Falcons Owner Arthur Blank decided it was time to move on from former HC Mike Smith and look for a new man to lead his team on Sundays.  Blank and GM Thomas Dimitroff decided that former Seattle Seahawks DC Dan Quinn was a perfect fit for the Atlanta Falcons organization.

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Quinn brings in a mentality of toughness, getting his players to play as fast and as physical as possible.  The intensity of Quinn’s practices have already set the tone with his players and diehard Falcons fans.  The vibes emanating from Flowery Branch are mostly positive as optimism is very much in the air for the 2015 Atlanta Falcons team.

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With a favorable schedule, drawing the cannibalizing NFC East and the bottom heavy AFC South in divisional rotation, the Atlanta Falcons can certainly finish at or above .500 in 2015 and possibly get back into the NFC Playoffs after a two-year absence.  Perhaps it’s just the presence of Dan Quinn and his staff that is giving us so much optimism and excitement heading into the season.  We believe that new is better and that the Atlanta Falcons are trending in the right direction under Coach Q’s leadership.

But how do the Atlanta Falcons stack up against the rest of the 15 teams in the National Football Conference?  Are the Dirty Birds playoff contenders, or are they playoff pretenders entering the 2015 NFL Season? We’ll find all this out in a way-too early pre-training camp version by attempting to power rank the NFC.  Keep in mind, this could all be wrong very quickly once the season begins in September.  But I am very curious to see where our Atlanta Falcons fall in the pecking order of the NFC.  So here we go…

Next: Tier IV: Likely Picking in the Top 10 in the 2016 NFL Draft