Predicting our way through the 2022 season: Week 3 means Seattle Seahawks

The Falcons’ season is a few months away, but that doesn’t mean it’s too early to look at the schedule and try to figure out how this year is going to go. To that end, we’re taking a game-by-game trip through the 2022 slate and trying to figure out whether the Falcons win or lose each week.

Depending on which one of us you ask, the Falcons are either going to be 1-1 or 0-2 heading into their Week 3 matchup against the Seahawks. One of the better franchises in the NFL over the last decade, Seattle is now in the midst of a true rebuild, having jettisoned Russell Wilson this offseason and working with a patchwork roster and a front office that has been frustrating Seahawks fans for years. That makes the road trip out there an interesting one, because on paper this is the first lesser light the Falcons are going to face in 2022.

Will Atlanta win this one or will they drop it on the road? Our staff weighs in below, and we’d love your take in the comments.

Falcons 27, Seahawks 21

I’ve got Atlanta coming off a loss to the Rams, dropping them to 1-1 on the season, and then completing their West Coast field trip with a win against Seattle. This is one of those games I’ll likely go back and forth on, but from where I sit today there are many reasons to bet on Atlanta.

The first is Seattle’s woeful quarterback situation. You don’t have to love Marcus Mariota and Desmond Ridder to think one of them is likely to be better than Geno Smith and Drew Lock, the top competitors for the job in Seattle. The Seahawks roster still has its real strengths, but the defense is not the world-beating group it once was, and the offense is not loaded up with proven playmakers outside of DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett. Russell Wilson’s freelancing ability clearly drove the decision makers in Seattle nuts at times, but it also helped keep a so-so offense afloat a lot in recent years, and with him gone I’m not sure this Seahawks team is going to be making much noise on offense this year.

If the Falcons at least come out of the gate decently in the first two contests, I like their chances of knocking off Seattle on the road. - Dave Choate

Falcons 24, Seahawks 17

Projected Falcons record: 1-2

After a brutal opening stretch against the archrival Saints and the reigning Super Bowl champion Rams, the Falcons finally get to play a favorable opponent. The Seahawks are one of the few teams in the league that might legitimately possess a worse overall roster than Atlanta. Outside of wide receiver and running back, the offense is a mess. Seattle’s QB will either be journeyman Geno Smith or former Broncos starter Drew Lock. An argument could easily be made that Marcus Mariota is superior to both.

On defense, the depth chart is barren outside of the safety duo of Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs. The front-seven has as many (or more) question marks as Atlanta’s group. This is a unit that will be vulnerable to both the run and pass. Atlanta’s defense just needs to find a way to slow down the rushing attack, but otherwise matches up well with the Seahawks offense. As such, I’d expect the Falcons to play a good game on the road—where they’ve performed better under Arthur Smith—and come away with their first victory of the season in Week 3. -Kevin Knight

Falcons 31, Seahawks 16

At the risk of making this an overly optimistic article here on The Falcoholic, I think this could be a statement game of sorts for Atlanta. What that statement will mean depends on the outcome of the first two games, but Seattle strikes me as a team closer to where the Falcons were last year. Now, I don’t know if the Falcons are much better right now than they were last year, but I do think they will have a couple more impact players this season than in 2021.

My bullishness on the Falcons’ defense in this game is purely matchup driven because I think A.J. Terrell and Casey Hayward can really handle DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett. Without Russell Wilson to improvise when things break down, I believe Atlanta can put the clamps on this offense unless something goes drastically wrong against the run. On the flip side, this could be a big Kyle Pitts/Drake London/Cordarrelle Patterson game, because of the matchup problems they create with Seattle’s linebackers. If things click through the air, I do believe we could be looking back at this as one of the team’s best performances of the season.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to spend the next several months trying to undo the jynx I’ve just laid on this game. - Will McFadden

Falcons 24, Seahawks 20

This is one of the most winnable games on Atlanta’s schedule this coming season, even if it’s in the very formidable Lumen Field.

My tune for this game would very likely be different if Russell Wilson was still running the show up in the Pacific Northwest, but that quarterback position suddenly looks far less daunting with Drew Lock and Geno Smith competing for the job. As a result, Seattle’s wonderful wide receiver duo of Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf is now weighed down by more than just Pete Carroll’s archaic coaching philosophy. I’m nonetheless excited to see how well Casey Hayward and AJ Terrell match up with them, as this will be yet another strong barometer following their matchup against Allen Robinson and Cooper Kupp in Week 2.

Atlanta’s QB room isn’t much more intimidating and this team doesn’t have the overall talent to completely overwhelm the Seahawks, especially on the road, but I feel that the offensive weapons the Falcons possess will get the better of a not so great Seattle defense. That will have us feeling good to close out September. - Adnan Ikic