Let the fact that the Falcons aren’t completely out of the playoffs loom menacingly over today’s game

Two things are simultaneously true: The Falcons are in line for a top five pick, and the Falcons aren’t out of the playoffs yet.

We’ve given them up for dead because of the sheer impossibility and unpalatable nature of thinking about this Falcons team in the playoffs, but as Matthew Tabeek with the Falcons rudely reminded us this morning, the stars could align in such a way that Atlanta gets to the postseason.

There are some lousy teams on this list, including the Falcons, so it’s very possible that as of 4 p.m. Atlanta will be mercifully eliminated at long last. The fact that this is even a possibility speaks to just how miserable the NFC has been this year between the Panthers collapsing, the NFC East eating itself, the Vikings looking less like a juggernaut and a more like a bunch of jamokes, and so forth. There just aren’t a lot of great teams this year, to put it mildly.

Anyways, win or lose, chances are this is the last time we’ll mention “playoffs” and “Falcons” in a sentence this year. “Top three pick” and “Falcons,” though? Oh yeah.