The Falcons have been a consistently solid team since Mike Smith took over as coach and Matt Ryan as QB when both joined the franchise in 2008. The Falcons made the Playoffs in 4 of their 6 seasons together, winning 11 regular season games in 2008, 13 in 2010, 10 in 2011 and 13 in 2012 (when they lost at home to San Francisco in the NFC Chamionship 28-24, giving up leads of 17-0 and 24-14. When they missed the Playoffs in 2009 they still went 9-7. Last season the Falcons were hard hit by injuries, especially WR Juilo Jones -- from which they never recorvered -- and ended up 4-12. Although TE Tony Gonzalez has retired their is still a solid nucleus of talent on both sides of the ball to suggest the Falcons should revert back to prior form and contend for the Playoffs. Atlanta may fall short of New Orleans but should be capable of finishing ahead of both Carolina (a team that should decline from last season) and Tampa Bay (a team that is on the rise but not quite yet ready to contend). I expect Atlanta to win at least 9 or 10 games this season.