In desperate need of new direction (again), the Atlanta Falcons unveiled new uniforms in April, creating a sleek look to match a potentially high-octane offense.

More important will be the new faces that accompany the fire attire.

Owners of the league’s second-longest postseason drought, the Falcons cleaned house after an eighth straight losing season. General manager Terry Fontenot, head coach Raheem Morris and free agent quarterback-bust Kirk Cousins were all dismissed, ushering in a new era in Atlanta.

Replacing Fontenot and Morris were no-brainers for longtime owner Arthur Blank, who picked up Bears assistant general manager Ian Cunningham and two-time NFL Coach of the Year Kevin Stefanski to take the reins.

“We found a coach with the right vision, focus and demeanor to lead our team into the future,” Blank said of Stefanski. “He has a great plan for his staff, and he’s learned many things during his stops in Cleveland and Minnesota (as an assistant) that have prepared him for this moment. Our objective is to win games and contend for championships every year and that is where our shared focus will remain.”

While the quarterback battle is still a question mark, there are certainly reasons for Falcons fans to be optimistic. Making a splash in his first offseason in charge, Cunningham inked superstar running back Bijan Robinson to a three-year contract extension worth up to $75 million, solidifying the 24-year-old as the highest-paid rusher in NFL history. The first-team All-Pro had 2,298 yards from scrimmage a year ago, marking the most ever by a Falcon.

Atlanta’s run-game will again anchor the offense after finishing with the league’s eighth-most rushing yards (2,138) in 2025.

Stefanski is no stranger to dominant backs, having coached Nick Chubb in Cleveland and Adrian Peterson in Minnesota. With the addition of offensive coordinator Tommy Rees and veteran offensive line coach Bill Callahan, there’s no reason why Robinson won’t flourish as the team’s best player.

“The run game is going to be as good as we make it,” Robinson said. “All five of our o-linemen are built to run the football. I’m very happy about it and it’s something I’ve been looking forward to since Bill came in. He’s had a lot of great running backs and he knows how to use them in the right situation. Stefanski and Tommy know how to call it; it’s going to be very exciting.”

Barring an unforeseen injury, running the ball won’t be an issue. Where the Falcons have to win over their fanbase will be under center.

The unprecedented decision to draft injury-plagued Michael Penix Jr. eighth overall just a month after signing Cousins to a $180 million contract in 2024 defined the Fontenot era as a major failure. Cousins’ star fizzled out quickly, while Penix has started just 12 games in two seasons and suffered a partially torn ACL in Week 11 last season.

With Cousins off to Las Vegas, Atlanta signed fellow left-hander Tua Tagovailoa to a one-year deal in March. While the Falcons still have a month to decide who will take the opening snaps in the season-opener in Pittsburgh, the starter will have a solid receiving corps to fall back on.

Despite having to acclimate with five different quarterbacks – likely to be six when Tagovailoa makes his Atlanta debut – in four pro seasons, Drake London continues to emerge as a true No. 1 wide receiver. The 25-year-old was primed for a career-year before missing five games due to injury a season ago.

London, joined by recently extended tight end Kyle Pitts and rookie third round pick Zachariah Branch, spearheads a unit that should again be among the best in the NFC South.

“I think it makes us feel good that we’re part of something that’s growing and building,” said London, who signed a four-year, $141 million deal in June. “It means they have trust in us. We’re walking in the right direction towards being legendary. It’s cool to have (the extension), but there’s work to do and we’re focused on that.”

What should give Falcons fans the most optimism heading into 2026 is what lies ahead on the schedule – and the recent trend that’s on their side.

It’s no ‘hot take’ to label the NFC South as one of, if not the easiest, divisions in the league. And it’s been that way for a while.

Of the last four division winners, the 2024 Buccaneers (10-7) were the only team to reach double-digit victories. As woeful as the Falcons have been across that stretch, they’ve finished two games out of first or closer in each of those seasons.

A division that’s perennially up for grabs, paired with the fourth-easiest 2026 schedule based on opponent win percentage (.465), a new front office, coaching staff and a returning core ready to put points on the board – there’s reason for hope in Atlanta.

FIFA has issued a statement defending its president, Gianni Infantino, against what it calls a “concerted and ongoing effort” to undermine his leadership of the organization.

The statement was released Saturday, a day after a report by British newspaper The Daily Telegraph raising questions about an exit package paid by UEFA to a female staffer who worked with Infantino when he was general secretary of European soccer’s governing body.

UEFA confirmed that a “departure payment” was made to the employee and said it was “in line” with regulations at the time.

Infantino worked at UEFA for 16 years before being elected FIFA president.

In the statement Saturday, FIFA accused Infantino’s critics of trying to weaken his authority and remove him from office without due process.

“It is increasingly evident that there is a concerted and ongoing effort by some to undermine FIFA and its president,” the FIFA statement said. “Those who do not have the support of FIFA’s member associations should not seek to achieve through allegation, insinuation or misinformation what they cannot achieve through FIFA’s established democratic processes.” 

 
It said some reporting has included “unsubstantiated assertions and demonstrably false claims” which shouldn’t be presented as fact.

“Change inevitably challenges established interests, but disagreement with that change cannot justify efforts to undermine the democratic mandate of FIFA’s president or the institution he was elected to lead.” 
Infantino faced intense backlash after details of his plan to sell World Cup profits to private equity were published. UEFA and two other continental confederations – North America’s CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation – rejected the plan.

He did receive backing from FIFA’s management board last Wednesday following a meeting in Morocco, and he apologized over the process. UEFA’s threat to have its 55 member countries boycott FIFA competitions until the plan was scrapped remained, with UEFA saying Thursday that the announcement “changes nothing.” 
While confirming the exit payment “was in line with the regulations that existed for departing staff at the time,” UEFA said the rules had been tightened since 2016 and currently “reflect those found in a modern, high-profile organization.

Just about every player enters training camp saying they’ve never felt better and they’re in the best shape of their life. In the case of Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer, seeing is believing. 

Mateer turned heads over the summer at the Manning Passing Academy in late June for a noticeably more muscular physique. He kept the conversation going by posting multiple shirtless pictures on Instagram: 

There was chatter in social media circles, Reddit — “is that kind of muscle good for throwing?” — and on a few podcasts that Mateer’s strapping physique would affect the fluidity and mobility of his throwing motion. 

“Is John Mateer too jacked?” Tom Fornelli asked, perhaps with a scoop of sarcasm. “I don’t know if I want my QB being too big … I’m not trying to get a body-builder quarterback. When you’re that big, you’re too tight. How are you supposed to unleash a throw down the seam with that — he’s got his pecs getting in the way!” 

Below is our attempt to discern whether bulking up could have any impact on how Mateer will steer the Sooners offense through the air. 

We asked an expert  

Mateer had an up-and-down 2025 season marred by a hand injury suffered in a late September game against Auburn. He returned in time to face Texas in the Red River Rivalry but was a diminished version of himself as a passer for most of the rest of the season until late in the year.

In the offseason, he began working out with his offensive linemen and has put on anywhere from five to 10 pounds. He enters fall camp at a listed 224. Oklahoma did not respond to a request to speak to Mateer, his QB coach or the Sooners’ strength and conditioning coordinator. 

Pat Powers is throwing out any theory that Mateer added bad muscle this summer. 

A former Northern Illinois football analytics staffer, high school football assistant coach and sports science researcher for Driveline Baseball and the NFL, Powers says from a kinematic perspective the concept of Mateer’s bulk inhibiting his ability as a passer could not be further from the truth. 

“Yeah, that’s false,” Powers said. “Basketball is a good example where if you see guys say lifting is going to make you less flexible, it’s completely untrue. It doesn’t bear out in reality. And also, any decent training program is going to take that into account and work on mobility, flexibility, and that type of fitness.”

Mateer’s listed weight isn’t in any way an outlier. Arch Manning is listed at 222, Gunner Stockton is 215 and Byrum Brown in 235. If Austin Mack wins the starting job at Alabama he’d be the heaviest starting QB in the SEC at 237 pounds. According to Powers, getting bigger can actually help Mateer.  

“Different players are going to adapt differently, and it’s not typically like oh, you put on five pounds, your elbow flexion is going to fall, or your shoulder abduction is going to decrease,” Powers said..” It changes player to player, and that’s some of where like the kind of ecological dynamics comes in, where a lot of skill adaptation is learning to how your body changes, which is why there’s such things as like de-loading weeks and lifting programs, where you’re taking a week for your body to recover and kind of adapt to the changes its made. 

“So it’s not quite a one-to-one of like this happened, so this happened. It’s more a balance of general and specific training because all the weightlifting stuff is what’s known as general fitness, and then when you get to like the actual throwing exercises, that’s specific. So it’s basically improving your general fitness gives you more capacity to both practice more and have raw inputs to improve the specific skills.” 

Ground force = rotational force 

Mateer is a former baseball player. In fact, he skipped offseason 7-on-7 football camps as a high schooler to play on the diamond. You can see the baseball background in how he throws a football – his throwing motion is much more sidearm almost as if he’s a shortstop turning a double play. But zeroing in on Mateer’s arm at all can lead you down the wrong rabbit hole. 

While you may think that throwing a baseball is one-to-one with throwing a football, consider that there is much more overlap with hitting. This was applicable to another OU quarterback years ago, Kyler Murray, who was drafted by the Oakland A’s before opting to go to the NFL. Murray told The Oklahoman “I can throw a football all day and my arm doesn’t get tired,” …”If I throw a baseball more than a certain amount of time, it’s going to get a little sore.”

The reason why has to do with what exactly is happening when a quarterback throws a football, as explained by quarterback guru Yogi Roth. 

“We got a phrase that we use at Elite 11 all the time: ‘Ground force equals rotational force,’” Roth shared during a 2015 conversation. “[Murray] has a lot of that. If you think of a baseball player when they swing, and the way they generate force with the bat or when they generate force even throwing, it’s the same as a quarterback.”

Many famous quarterbacks with the types of throwing style you might remember like Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers or Dan Marino aren’t actually doing much work with their arms. They’re using more of their core to draw rotational force from the ground and essentially fire it up through their bodies and the ball shoots off their hands almost as a byproduct. The right hip is doing most of the work. 

This also makes Mateer different from a similar example of a swole passer people had concerns about, Tim Tebow, whose arm strength wasn’t in doubt but his accuracy was because of a long, looping throwing motion. The pitfall of Tebow’s for was that it was too “armsy,” using too much of his upper body, rather than an efficient lower body. Here’s a scouting report on Tebow (who played around 235 pounds) from NFL.com:

“Release is far too slow to fit balls into spots against NFL defensive backs. Release point and mechanics (elongated, wind-mill delivery which comes out too low) likely need to be altered.” 

So what should you make of tarps-off Mateer? 

Nothing much beyond, the odds are he looks like he’s in much better shape than you do.

It doesn’t mean he’ll be too tight to go deep to Isaiah Sategna or Parker Livingstone. In fact, because Mateer runs the ball so much it might help him hold up to the wear and tear in the SEC. But there’s a lot that goes into the training and coaching of being a refined passer in the SEC, and 10ish pounds of muscle isn’t going to automatically ruin him. 

Awards futures are where the market pays you to remember. Every summer the book re-prices last year’s highlight reel, hands you the same MVP and the same rookie hype at a premium, and dares you to buy the rerun. I’d rather bet what’s coming.

Our model doesn’t grade storylines, it grades deserved records, who actually played like contenders and who performed to expectations. In 2026, that’s the whole board.

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Nearly every ticket I like sits on a team our model says ran cold last year, is better than its record and is due to rebound, but is priced like it’s still stuck in the mud.

Here is my breakdown of several NFL awards markets, including MVP:

Most Valuable Player

Josh Allen, QB, Bills (+550)

Allen will be QB1 of one of the most talked-about teams in football, so I understand the need to make him the chalk. In fact, at +4 we project Buffalo as a legit upside team overall. But this price is taxing the idea of the MVP.

Allen’s issue: Where’s his ceiling? What’s the median expectation? I’d argue it’s already near MVP levels, and to make real noise in the market from there he’d have to pull off some superman-level heroics. Pass.

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Joe Burrow, QB, Bengals (10-1)

This is the number I keep coming back to. Cincinnati is the most undervalued team on our entire luck board, a full game and a half colder than it actually played, winning six games with a roster we graded like a playoff team. Burrow is also our third-likeliest passing champ. Give a healthy Burrow 17 games with that offense, which everyone agrees has the talent to erupt but just needs to stick it out through a full season, and you’ve got a resurgence that lands him right in the middle of this race.

A Burrow bounce back is my MVP ticket. Buy.

Patrick Mahomes, QB, Chiefs (10-1)

Kansas City is the other cold team hiding in plain sight, a clear positive grade buried under a six-win season. At the same 10-1 you’re buying the identical profile as Burrow, an elite quarterback on a team our model swears was better than its record. The obvious variable is injury, and whether Mahomes comes back as the player we remember. That could be a massive catalyst for good, but it could just as easily mean performances that aren’t worthy of a trophy.

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The ceiling is there, but for the price it’s not worth the bite in my opinion. Pass.

Offensive Player of the Year

Bijan Robinson, RB, Falcons (+900)

Our third-most-likely rushing champ, and unlike Jahmyr Gibbs he’s a true bell cow. Atlanta runs its whole offense through him, and a workhorse on a full snap count is exactly the resume this award pays. Give me the back who gets the ball 40 times a game over the one splitting a backfield in Gibbs. I’m not sold that Atlanta knows what it’s doing at quarterback, which only makes Bijan’s consistency more important to this offense. If the Falcons do well, this price is a steal. Buy.

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Puka Nacua, WR, LA Rams (10-1)

Over the last seven seasons, wide receivers have won this award more than any other position, and with Nacua as our most likely receiving-yards champ — playing for a Rams team our ratings peg as the best in the league — this is an obvious click. A quarterback hasn’t won this award since 2018, so it’s going to a skill guy who has the system to get him the ball and create his own explosive plays. I took a bite at this 10-1 price. Buy.

Offensive Rookie of the Year

Jeremiyah Love, RB, Cardinals (+300)

Short price, but I’m not fighting it. Arizona is a bounce-back team on our board, and a workhorse rookie back stepping into a rising offense is the purest OROY magnet there is, especially given the quarterback situation in Arizona. Volume wins this thing, and Love is walking straight into it. This award hasn’t had a direct correlation to team success; more often it’s a star inside a rebuild, and Love fits that notion perfectly. Buy.

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Comeback Player of the Year

Kyler Murray, QB, Vikings (+550)

Step one is simply getting back on the field. But if Kyler clears that hurdle, he’s got the weapons around him to make a real story. His whole career has been a story, the incredible high school run, the twist of elite college football and baseball, the hot start in the league, but it’s gone quiet lately.

In a story-based award market, that’s exactly the setup I want: Kyler Murray falling right into the funnel of media attention at a great price. Buy.

The board at a glance