ESPN: the Atlanta Falcons are the NFL’s 9th best team

The Atlanta Falcons are a confident football team right now. Setting aside a sloppy performance in their first preseason game, they’re fielding arguably the best roster in franchise history. Head coach Dan Quinn is hitting his stride as an NFL head coach. And Thomas Dimitroff just purchased a new pair of bike shorts. Even if they don’t win the Lombardi in 2018, the Falcons are a dangerous team. Underestimate them at your own risk.

ESPN released their latest power rankings yesterday. Surely the Falcons are listed among the league’s best teams. Surely they’re giving the Falcons all the credit they deserve.

Nope! ESPN must’ve missed the memo, because they have the Falcons ranked 9th. What’s more, from ESPN’s vantage point, the Falcons are the NFC’s 6th best team. I’m bad at math, and heck, I don’t analyze football for a living, so I could be wrong here. But that seems like a significant stretch, based on the talent on this roster alone.

Obviously power rankings don’t matter much, if at all, as the season progresses. And obviously the Falcons had some glaring deficiencies last season that might have caused ESPN to downgrade them a bit. But this can’t be real life, can it? Surely the Falcons aren’t actually the 6th-best team in the conference?

Your thoughts (other than “power rankings are lame!”)?