After moving on from longtime QBs, Falcons, Seahawks in need of victory

Two football teams who entered the season looking very differently than they had been for years meet when the Atlanta Falcons visit the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday at 4:25 p.m.

The Falcons and Seahawks both used the offseason to signal an end of an era, with each trading a franchise quarterback who could very well end of up in the Hall of Fame.

Atlanta dealt four-time Pro Bowler Matt Ryan to the Colts, turning the page on the former MVP who had been their starter since 2008 and had led them to their lone Super Bowl appearance this century.

The Seahawks moved on from Russell Wilson, trading the nine-time Pro Bowler to the Denver Broncos, who signed the Super Bowl-winning signal caller to a five-year, $245 million deal.

As expected, both teams have regressed and will likely need to win Sunday’s game if either is to have a successful season.

The Falcons (0-2) weren’t expected to contend for a playoff spot. But since the NFL expanded the playoff field from two wild-card entrants to three in each conference in 2020, there have been 18 teams that have started 0-2 — and not one has made the postseason.

That’s no longer a concern for the Seahawks (1-1). But Seattle can’t afford to drop a home game to winless team if it’s going to contend in an NFC West Division in which the Seahawks were the lone team that didn’t make the playoffs last year.

Ryan’s replacement, Marcus Mariota, signed as a free agent after backing up Derek Carr in Las Vegas for the past two seasons after failing to become the franchise quarterback the Tennessee Titans envisioned when they selected him second overall in 2015.

Mariota has completed 62.7 percent of his passes for 411 yards with a pair of touchdowns and interceptions, in addition to rushing for 88 yards and a score on 18 carries, but he’s made some mistakes that have prevented the Falcons from being undefeated.

In the second opener against the New Orleans Saints, Mariota fumbled away a possession in the red zone when he was stripped trying for extra yards in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, he fumbled the snap on a play designed for him to run for a game-securing first down late in the fourth quarter.

Against the Rams, was intercepted by Jalen Ramsey in the end zone with a little over a minute remaining, essentially sealing the Falcons’ 31-27 loss after Atlanta had rallied from a 28-3 deficit with less than four minutes left in the third quarter.

“At the end of the day, if we can just stack these days and put four quarters together, I think we will be a good team,” Mariota said.

Seattle’s Geno Smith, a second-round pick by the Jets in 2013, is off to a solid start, as his 81 percent completion percentage leads the league.

After going 23-for-28 passing for 195 yards and a pair of touchdowns in a season-opening win over Denver, Smith went 24-for-30 passing for 197 yards with an interception and no touchdowns in a 27-7 loss at San Francisco.

“We need to trust him and we need to maybe give him a few more opportunities and stuff,” Seattle coach Pete Carroll said of Smith. “We’ve been pretty solidly conservative, counting on running the football, and when we didn’t run the football then OK, we didn’t have much of a mix that we needed. We can do better with that.

Smith’s two favorite targets — by far — are Tyler Lockett (12 catches) and DK Metcalf (11 catches, 71 yards), while tight ends Colby Parkinson and Will Dissly each have 43 receiving yards and a touchdown.

“Great corps,” Falcons cornerback A.J. Terrell said. “Good quarterback. Good receivers. Just got to watch film and get all of the details down on them. DK is a great receiver. Lockett has been doing his thing, too.”

“They’ve got a lot of weapons,” Smith added.

The Falcons should be able to move the ball, as the Seahawks gave up 373 yards — 188 through the air and 189 on the ground — to the 49ers, who used backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo most of the game after starter Trey Lance suffered a season-ending ankle injury.

Rookie first-round pick Drake London has caught 13 of the 19 passes thrown to him for 160 yards through two games. He’s the first rookie since Stefon Diggs in 2015 to have at least five receptions for at least 70 yards in each of his first two games.

However, it will be imperative that Mariota gets the ball more frequently to Kyle Pitts, who developed great chemistry with Ryan last season. Pitts, who generated 1,026 receiving yards — the second-most by a rookie tight end in NFL history — last year, has been targeted 10 times and has four catches for 38 yards this season.

The Falcons remained on the West Coast following Sunday’s loss to get ready to face the Seahawks instead of having to take two trips across the country.

“I think it’s good for us to stay out here, be on the West Coast, being all together,” Mariota said. “It’s what it’s about. We’ll find ways to all improve. We’ll all continue to get better. But to be out here together, I think is great for us.”