5 NFL teams that need to embrace tanking for the rest of 2020
1. Atlanta Falcons
The Atlanta Falcons are another one of those “good-bad” teams as they are currently 2-6 but if they jumped on an onside kick and taken a knee at the goal line they would be 4-4 and right in the mix for an NFC Wild Card spot. Throw in the epic collapse against Nick Foles and the Chicago Bears and the Falcons could be 5-3 and still in contention for the NFC South crown.
Alas, they are closer to the bottom than the top but they have enough talent, especially on offense, to win games and ruin their draft pick haul for 2021. The Falcons looked on the verge of picking in the top 5 last season after starting 1-7 but a late-season surge saw them finish 7-9 and they ended up picking 16th overall.
This season they need to fully embrace losing and “trust the process” by trading away players like guard James Carpenter and center Alex Mack to teams in need of offensive line help or defensive end Takkarist McKinley to teams desperate for pass-rush help. They may not be able to move any big-ticket players like Matt Ryan and Julio Jones, and they absolutely should not, but they can make some less headline-grabbing trades to add picks for 2021.
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The Falcons still have Ryan and Jones under contract until 2024, though Ryan has a possible out in his contract after 2021 that comes with a $26 million cap hit, so the prudent thing would be to rebuild their defense and have another go at it in 2021. Unless someone comes to them with a godfather offer for 35-year-old Ryan they have little choice but to run it back with him until at least 2022.