Atlanta Falcons have brutal opening period in 2024

Sharp Football’s Warren Sharp gave a detailed analysis of the 2024 schedule in an effort to find “schedule fairness” in the NFL scheduler’s annual masterpiece. In this analysis, Sharp points out that the Atlanta Falcons have a brutal stretch of games to open the season, being one of seven teams scheduled to play four games in 17 days. Other teams that share this unfortunate distinction are the Cleveland Browns, Miami Dolphins, Pittsburgh Steelers, Kansas City Chiefs, New York Jets and Baltimore Ravens.

In this schedule fairness, Sharp looks for aspects of the schedule that could benefit one team over the other throughout the season, such as the amount of rest a team gets compared to the average, the amount of time prepare teams to prepare for games, how many short weeks a team has, etc. Having to play four games in two and a half weeks is an obvious disadvantage that these seven teams will have to overcome.

This stretch is particularly brutal for Atlanta because it comes early in the season, where they are playing three of their four prime-time games this season:

• Week 2: Monday September 16 in Philadelphia
• Week 3: Sunday, September 22 vs. Kansas City
• Week 4: Sunday, September 29 vs. New Orleans
• Week 5: Thursday, October 3 vs. Tampa Bay

The NFL threw the Falcons a bone by making three of these games at home, but this could easily be considered the most crucial stretch for Atlanta, if they want to be a playoff team.

Kirk Cousins ​​has already struggled in September, amassing a putrid 11-25-1 record over his career, but adding a possible fatigue factor to an aging quarterback coming off an Achilles injury is not ideal.