Good morning. This is LEADOFF, an early look at Atlanta sports.
Consecutive home losses to the Bills and Dolphins have sent the Falcons tumbling in various versions of NFL power rankings.
The Falcons' biggest drop this week was in NFL.com's rankings, which dropped Atlanta eight spots to No. 12 with this assessment: "Maybe the Falcons aren't that solid. Julio Jones was out there against Miami on Sunday, and Matt Ryan is the reigning MVP, but for the second straight contest, they allowed a team with little to zero offense (to) come in and beat them at their place."
The Falcons fell seven spots to No. 10 in USA Today’s rankings this week and six spots to No. 9 in Bleacher Report’s.
They dropped four spots to No. 7 in ESPN’s rankings and three spots to No. 7 in CBS Sports’.
But they fell only two spots to No. 5 in Sports Illustrated’s rankings.
Of course, if the Falcons win at New England on Sunday night, look for them to regain some ground in next week’s power rankings.
In case you missed it ...
The rebuilding Hawks open their season tonight in Dallas and are projected by sports books to win just 27 or 28 games. Jeff Schultz writes about the new situation in which the team and its coach find themselves. See his column here.
Georgia Tech athletic director Todd Stansbury increased the salary pool for the football team's assistant coaches by 15 percent, with $50,000 raises for most of the nine-member staff. See Ken Sugiura's report here.
In a southwest Florida pasture, where cattle grazed as recently as last month, the Braves broke ground Monday on a new $100 million spring-training facility. Now the question is: Will it be completed on schedule in February 2019? See story here.
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