The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are in Phase III of their 2025 offseason program, with one more week of OTA practices and a three-day minicamp ahead. After that, players and coaches will get one last extended break before reconvening for training camp in late July and begin preparations to defend their four straight NFC South titles. The Bucs now know exactly where and win that quest will begin after the NFL dropped its full 2025 game schedule in mid-May. As we wait for that schedule to begin, we’re taking a look at each team the Buccaneers are going to face along the way. From how those teams fared last year, to what they’ve done with the roster since, to some as-yet-unanswered questions – we want to get a better feel for what the Bucs will be up against this fall. Today’s focus is on an Atlanta team entering its second season under Head Coach Raheem Morris and charting a new course with 2024 first-round quarterback Michael Penix as the opening-day starter.

The Falcons were widely considered favorites to end the Bucs’ streak of NFC South titles last year after signing veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins to a lucrative three-year deal in the offseason. The Falcons then stunned the rest of the league less than two months later by using the eighth-overall pick in the draft on Washington quarterback Michael Penix. In one sense, Cousins did help Atlanta close the gap on the Buccaneers as his two best games were wins over Tampa Bay in which he threw for nearly 800 yards and eight touchdowns. However, he was largely ineffective in the second half of the season, perhaps limited in his mobility from an Achilles tendon tear the previous season, and was benched in favor of the rookie for the final three games with Atlanta still very much in the division title race.

Atlanta got off to a 4-2 start that included a one-point road win at Philadelphia in Week Two and a 36-30 overtime victory over the Buccaneers in a Week Five Thursday night game in Atlanta. Cousins threw for a franchise-record 509 yards and four touchdowns in the latter game, including a 45-yard overtime game-winner to KhaDarel Hodge after Younghoe Koo had tied the game with a 52-yard field goal as time expired in regulation. At 6-3 after nine weeks, the Falcons had a two-game lead in the division plus a head-to-head sweep of the Buccaneers in hand.

Despite a four-game losing streak that started in mid-November and included blowouts delivered by the Broncos and Vikings, the Falcons had their division fate in their own hands after wins over the Raiders and Giants left them at 8-7 heading into Week 17. However, an overtime loss in Washington coupled with the Buccaneers win over Carolina ceded control back to the Buccaneers, who would clinch the division in Week 18 with a win over the Saints while the Falcons lost a second straight overtime game to Carolina to finish at 8-9.

Penix did enough in his three starts to convince the team to stay with him as the starter in 2025, as he threw for 775 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions. That led to speculation that the Falcons would seek to trade Cousins, though he remained on the roster as of June. The Falcons got big years from other recent first-round draft picks, as second-year running back Bijan Robinson ran for 1,456 yards and 14 touchdowns and third-year receiver Drake London caught 100 passes for 1,271 yards and nine scores. With a strong offensive line anchored by Chris Lindstrom and Jake Matthews, the Falcons fielded the NFL’s sixth-ranked offense, finishing in the top 10 in both rushing and passing. The Atlanta defense, however, finished 23rd in the rankings and gave up the 10th most points in the league. The Falcons once again finished near the bottom of the league in sacks produced by their defense, which obviously informed some of their most significant offseason moves in 2025.

Atlanta’s biggest move in free agency was the signing of edge rusher Leonard Floyd, most recently of the 49ers. Floyd has had at least 8.5 sacks in each of the last five seasons while playing for three different teams; in that same span, no Falcons player has had more than seven sacks in any season. The Falcons also added former Charger Morgan Fox to their defensive front and built some defensive depth with the mid-level signings of linebacker Divine Deablo (Raiders), cornerback Mike Ford (Browns) and safety Jordan Fuller (Panthers).

The Falcons continued to address their edge rotation in the draft, first by staying put at the 15th pick and landing Georgia’s Jalon Walker, widely considered a top-10 talent. General Manager Terry Fontenot then got aggressive, trading from the 46th pick back up into the first round at number 26 to nab Tennessee edge rusher James Pearce Jr. That deal with the Rams included Atlanta’s 2026 first-round pick.

The Falcons only had five total picks in the draft but also managed to build on a strength by taking a pair of safeties, Notre Dame’s Xavier Watts and Oklahoma’s Billy Bowman in the third and fourth rounds. They join standout Jessie Bates in the Atlanta secondary; Watts could start immediately at safety and Bowman could be in the running for the slot corner job.

After German kicker Lenny Krieg impressed at the NFL Scouting Combine, the Falcons signed him to a three-year deal and plan to have an open competition between him and incumbent Younghoe Koo, who uncharacteristically missed nine of 34 attempts in 2024. Atlanta also has a new third-string quarterback in former Charger Easton Stick, and he could become Penix’s primary backup if Cousins is moved.

Cousins would be the most noteworthy departure if that still comes to pass. Otherwise, the team lost a pair of stalwarts from the trenches, with standout center Drew Dalman and two-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Grady Jarrett both moving to Chicago. Dalman signed with the Bears as an unrestricted free agent and Jarrett joined him after being released in a cap-related move.

Outside linebacker Matthew Judon and safety Justin Simmons, both 30-something veterans added to the roster late last offseason, remain unsigned as of June 1, and given the team’s additions in the draft at those positions are not likely to return to Atlanta. Edge rusher Lorenzo Carter (Titans) and defensive tackle Eddie Goldman (Commanders) also found new addresses in free agency.

Other Noteworthy Developments

The Falcons fired Defensive Coordinator Jimmy Lake in January after just one season in that post on Morris’ staff and quickly replaced him with Jeff Ulbrich, who was on Dan Quinn’s Atlanta staff from 2015-20. Ulbrich finished up the 2024 season as the Jets’ interim head coach after Robert Saleh was fired but had previously coordinated a very good defense in New York for more than three seasons.

Atlanta extended a tender offer to fourth-year lineman Ryan Neuzil in March to make him a restricted free agent, but he didn’t signed the offer or landed a deal from another team before the deadline for such moves a week before the draft. Instead, he and the team reached agreement on a new two-year deal just last week and he is expected to replace the departed Dalman at center.

Will Michael Penix be a difference-maker in his first full season as a starter?

Like the Buccaneers’ other two competitors in the NFC South, the Falcons will be rolling with a young and largely inexperienced quarterback in the starting lineup in 2025. Penix’s performance in three late-season starts are noted above and are pretty standard for a rookie getting his first opportunity at one of the most difficult positions in all of sports. However, he did get a ton of experience in college at Indiana and Washington, with 45 career starts, and in his last two seasons produced 9,544 yards and 67 touchdowns in 28 games. He has a strong arm and a nice touch on deep balls and he throws well on the run, and he thrived under pressure at Washington.

Penix is the first quarterback the Falcons have drafted in the first round since franchise icon Matt Ryan in 2008 and Ryan started right away in his rookie season. Penix got a little more time to adjust to the NFL while backing up Cousins last year, but the job is his now and he will likely have a very long leash. Prior to taking what they hope is their next long-term franchise quarterback, the Falcons built up their offensive weaponry with top-10 picks on Robinson, London and Kyle Pitts, so Penix has the tools to thrive at the professional level. How successfully the Falcons strive to unseat the Bucs as division champs in 2025 will probably be determined by how quickly Penix puts it all together.

Did the Falcons’ finally fix their pass rush with their aggressive moves in the draft?

Atlanta’s 298 sacks are the fewest for any NFL team over the last 10 seasons combined and they have ranked 26th or lower in sacks per pass play in seven of the last eight seasons, including 31st last season. They haven’t had an individual hit double digits in sacks in a season since Vic Beasley in 2016, and that was an outlier season for Beasley.

They have thrown some draft resources at the issue in recent seasons, such as Arnold Ebiketie in the second round in 2022, but their last first-round pick on a pass rusher was Takk McKinley in 2017 and he never exceeded seven sacks in a season. Free agency darts on the likes of Dante Fowler, Lorenzo Carter, Bud Dupree and Matt Judon failed to move the needle much either.

As noted above, the Falcons took multiple swings at the edge rusher position this offseason through both free agency and the draft. Leonard Floyd is a safe bet to produce well given how consistent he has been over the last five years while accumulating 48.5 sacks in that span, and the Falcons won’t have to overload the soon-to-be 33-year-old with too many snaps after fleshing out the rotation in the draft. Both Walker and Pearce are athletic marvels with high ceilings, and even if only one of them hits early the Falcons should be more effective at rushing the passer in 2025 than they have been in a decade.