BakoSaint

We'll see in about 6 months. Where is your red line? If we go 9-8 and miss the playoffs again and its because of something totally unforeseeable like Ram suffering a setback, Davis's production dropping off with age, or Young displaying some combination of injury and lack of effort, will you give DA another year?

voodooido

9-8 is a tough one. Next year the NFC south looks so much better. I would say depending on our new OC and Carr's play. If those two work out well I would be more inclined to give another year. If they mix like oil and water, it is time for everyone to kick rocks.

BakoSaint

If Kirk Cousins returns to form, our division is much tougher. If Kirk Cousins suffers setbacks and is never the same, our division could actually be easier than in 2023 and I think that given Cousins age and injury there is an about 25% chance of that happening. In the very realistic scenario B where Kirk Cousins is Washington Donovan McNabb, I could see the Falcons motivation completely deflating, the locker room falling apart, Raheem Morris a proven loser head coach losing any confidence of a turnaround he once had, and the Falcons becoming one of the worst teams in the league, losing 13+ games. On the other hand if Cousins is back 100% and lights a fire under Atlanta's roster they could win 13 games.

If I had to guess, Mayfield will get a little worse now that he got paid and Evans is a year older, and the Panthers will still probably be bad but its virtually impossible for Young to get worse without being benched for Dalton, while he could get much better. Trading Burns could make them worse, but again there is not much worse to get and we already beat them twice. If Cousins is still Cousins our division will be harder next year. If Cousins is Washington McNabb, our division may be even easier, and with the harder outside schedule 8-9 games might win it. But then the champ will struggle in the playoffs.

My standard for meaningful success remains a playoff win and non-embarrassment if the second playoff game is a loss. Of course if a team kept doing that every year and never did more it would be a failure but that would make it worth giving it another year for each year we can pull it off.