Five Falcons made the Pro Football Focus Top 101 for 2017

Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, Alex Mack, Grady Jarrett, and Deion Jones were more or less indisputably five of the best Falcons this past season. It’s no great surprise to find out that Pro Football Focus, a site dedicated to determining the best and worst performances in the NFL, agrees that is the case.

Pro Football Focus had Julio as their #15 player for 2017, Deion Jones as their #35, Mack as their #49, Ryan as their #58, and Jarrett as their #84. All of these are difficult to quibble with, even if Jones had a weird year with some drops and Ryan’s stats didn’t live up to his performance. You could agitate for Keanu Neal, De’Vondre Campbell, and Desmond Trufant or Robert Alford, but that’s a pretty fair list either way.

While the Falcons will need even better seasons from Julio, Debo, and Ryan in particular in 2018 to be a great team, the fact that they have such a gifted nucleus is worth an awful lot. It makes them a contender this coming season even if things go awry, which they almost certainly will.

Congratulations to all five Falcons for this little honor, and maybe they be #1-#5 in 2018.