What will make the 2017 Atlanta Falcons season a success?

Expectations are tough to manage. A year ago around this time, I was preaching patience with Dan Quinn after a 2015 collapse that soured a lot of fans on him and this Falcons team. It turns out that my own expectations were far too low after the Falcons ran all the way to the Super Bowl, and now it becomes a question of how we manage this new reality.

So here’s a softball question to help us grapple with this weighty matter: What would be the baseline for a successful 2017 season?

For me, anything less than a deep playoff run will be disappointing, even though I know the history of this football team and the history of the losing teams in the Super Bowl quite well. After seeing what they did in 2016 and feeling pretty strongly the talent level will actually be upgraded this coming season, I just can’t imagine a significant step back, even if a championship may be asking for the moon.

How about you?