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Late Friday night, you’ll find yourselves faced with either a Falcons preseason win or loss. It may be tempting to put some stock into either of those outcomes, but as we’ve been saying for nigh on 12 years now, you should not do that. Never, ever.
What matters about preseason is how good players look, what they do to their stock when it comes to position or roster battles, and whether everyone makes it out of the game in good health. What doesn’t matter is whether the Falcons win or lose.
It can be tempting to argue with that, I know, and it’s understandable that you don’t want to see your favorite team losing games in any context. Let’s take an instructive look at every season since 2010 and how the Falcons fared in both preseason and the regular season.
Preseason vs. Season Wins
| Year | Preseason | Regular Season |
|---|---|---|
| Year | Preseason | Regular Season |
| 2017 | 0-4 | 10-6 |
| 2016 | 3-1 | 11-5 |
| 2015 | 2-2 | 8-8 |
| 2014 | 2-2 | 6-10 |
| 2013 | 0-4 | 4-12 |
| 2012 | 1-3 | 13-3 |
| 2011 | 0-4 | 10-6 |
| 2010 | 2-2 | 13-3 |
What you’ll notice is that there isn’t any evident correlation whatsoever. The team’s best preseason, record-wise, coincided with their best season on this list, as they went to the Super Bowl in 2016. Otherwise, they went 0-4 three times and went 10-6 twice and 4-12 once, went 2-2 three years and went 6-10, 8-8, and 13-3 in the process, and finally went 1-3 one time and wound up at 13-3. If you’re looking for a correlation here, you’re not going to find it in the record.
Keep this in mind the rest of the preseason, and if you find yourself getting excited over a win or despondent over a loss when the games don’t really count, read this again. The Falcons are in for an exciting season if they can just stay healthy, so root above all for an intact team when these four weeks of preseason are up.