What to know about Falcons – Cardinals in Week 16

Two disappointing bird teams on the same field! A pair of 30-plus quarterbacks with little to lose airing it out! Some defense in there, maybe! That ought to get the blood pumping.

The Falcons want to avoid handing the Rams a top ten pick, lean into what might be a job-saving stretch for Raheem Morris if he can finish the season strong (even if we don’t think it should decide his fate), and continue to figure out who belongs here for what damn well better be a more successful 2026 team. Getting there would be helped a great deal by a win over the Cardinals.

Here’s what you need to know about Sunday’s game.

Team rankings

These rankings tell a story of a Falcons team that is a little worse record-wise than it should be, and a Cardinals team that’s probably also true of. In both cases, though, it’s narrow.

Atlanta is the better team, too, but again that gap is not a massive one. It’s most striking on defense, where the Falcons have very obviously been the better team, and in terms of rushing, where the same is true.

How the Cardinals have changed

A bit since the last time the Falcons saw them in 2023, and bigger changes to come.

My favorite journeyman quarterback, Jacoby Brissett, has taken over for Kyler Murray. While I don’t expect Brissett to be the 2026 starter for the Cardinals, this likely does mark the end of the Murray era in Arizona, as he appeared in just six games and threw six touchdowns against three interceptions with a career-low 46.3 QBR and 44.1% success rate as a passer. Brissett hasn’t gotten the Cardinals any wins, but he’s willing to throw all day long and has tied a career-high with 18 touchdown passes in 11 games and nine starts. Atlanta’s going to see this team, which is mighty deficient in terms of rushing, throwing the ball a lot on Sunday.

Chances are good the team will also fire coach Jonathan Gannon, who has a 1-1 record against the Falcons in a couple of really hideous football games that ended 25-23 and 20-19, and basically reboot the franchise outside of a few core pieces like receivers Marvin Harrison Jr. and Michael Wilson, edge rusher Josh Sweat, and tight end Trey McBride. Things are fairly grim.

The team that the Falcons are seeing is very, very different than 2023, regardless. The defense has changed considerably outside of Baker and fellow safety Jalen Thompson, and Sweat is kind of terrifying to deal with. The offense is also quite different, with Wilson and McBride among the handful of familiar faces the Falcons will be contending with, and certainly the most impactful.

What to know about Week 16

I predicted that Thursday Night Football would be a slopfest between the Falcons and Buccaneers, both because it was a short week and it’s deep in the DNA of those two teams. As predicted, aside from second half defensive heroics and the law firm of Cousins, Pitts & Robinson, it was just that, a penalty-filled mess the Falcons were fortunate to emerge from with a victory.

I have similar expectations for Week 16, but with more scoring. The reality is that Jacoby Brissett has thrown for over 250 yards in every one of his appearances except the last one (where he posted 249) and has thrown two or more touchdowns in each of his starts minus one. The Falcons secondary has shown serious cracks the past two weeks against teams willing to air it out downfield, and now Cobee Bryant is likely to be pressed into action as a starter in relief of Mike Hughes, who is out for Week 16. Brissett is going to throw it 35-40 times at minimum, isn’t afraid to attack deep, and will hang in there to deliver passes, meaning the chances of him hitting on a handful of big plays is extremely high. The Falcons will have to shut down a forgettable Arizona rushing attack—which should be straightforward, given that their top rusher has 269 yards—but priority 1 is keeping Harrison, Wilson, and McBride from destroying them. That will require the pass rush to be sharp and the team’s secondary to come up with a big effort.

The same is true in reverse, especially if Drake London returns. Nobody in this Arizona secondary has been stellar in coverage—safety Jalen Thompson is at least above average—and their linebacker group is not exactly an asset in that regard either. Getting London power slot reps and plenty of them and trying to force mismatches where Pitts and Bijan Robinson can get in a foot race with overmatched defenders should be extremely lucrative for Atlanta, and if Cousins can play at the level he did against Tampa Bay, big plays should abound for Atlanta’s offense. The Falcons also have the major advantage of being able to run the ball effectively with Robinson and Tyler Allgeier, something that will matter against the 21st-ranked run defense in football.

Oh, and I guess you could consider this a Zane Gonzalez revenge game of sorts. He was Arizona’s kicker from 2018-2020 and has been better this season than Cardinals kicker Chad Ryland, who has hit 76% of his field goal tries but is just 3/6 from 50-plus yards. If the game hinges on a long field goal, I know which one I’d rather have.

This will be a day of dueling passing attacks, in other words, and Atlanta should have the edge because they can also run the ball and have more talent almost across the board. As we’ve learned repeatedly this year, should doesn’t mean much to these Falcons, though.