The Atlanta Falcons showed a glimpse of what their offense can be in 2025 during the final three games of the 2024 season.
With Michael Penix Jr. behind center, the Falcons averaged 32 points per game and turned the ball over just three times. In the final game of that stretch, Penix joined Drake London and Bijan Robinson as the first under-25 trio to reach 300 yards passing, 175 yards receiving and 150 yards rushing in the same game.
Now, Penix has an offseason to prepare, but so do NFL defenses. How Atlanta's offense changes and how other teams change to prepare for its new approach could be a defining story of 2025. In a new piece for ESPN, senior NFL writer Bill Barnwell ranked each team's skill group and determined that Atlanta offers a lot for its new quarterback to work with.
Barnwell ranked the Falcons ninth among NFL offenses in terms of their talent at running back, wide receiver and tight end. I'd highly encourage any Falcons fan to check out Barnwell's full piece, but for now we will focus on what he had to say about Robinson.
"Bijan Robinson, the No. 8 pick in 2023, has been very good, but the idea that he was going to be a position-transcendent playmaker turned out to be draft hype," Barnwell writes. "I'm not evaluating players versus their draft pedigree or the opportunity cost of taking a running back for these rankings, but strictly evaluated versus other backs, Robinson has been stellar, ranking seventh in RYOE among backs over the past two seasons. After fumbling four times as a rookie, he fumbled just once on 365 touches last season, another positive step. The one thing that's missing is big plays: Robinson didn't have a single gain of more than 40 yards last season, which seems impossible for a player who had five of those in his final college season. We should see more of them in 2025."
One could quibble with the notion that Robinson isn't a position-transcendent player depending on how one defines that specific term, but he has yet to become a truly instrumental part of Atlanta's passing game. That is an area the Falcons are working on this offseason, but so too is the amount of explosive plays from their run game. If Robinson, and the entire offense, can begin to produce runs of 40 yards or more at a consistent clip, they should reach their high potential.
In 2024, we saw the passing game make a sizable jump. The Falcons had the fifth-most passing yards of any NFL offense last season while maintaining a rush attack that ranked 10th in the league. If they are able to keep that level of balance while improving in Penix's second year with the offense, the Falcons should emerge as a high-scoring group.
Penix is the true x factor in the mix for Atlanta, but the limited returns last season were promising. NFL teams and fanbases have debated for years the right way to build an offense, and a portion of that group believes the best way to do so is by plugging a young quarterback into a ready-made unit.
With Penix in place, the Falcons are set up to fully maximize their offensive investment in recent drafts. Like a pilot episode that debuted to rave reviews, the early returns were promising. But now, we get to see what the cast can do with a full season.
