The

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The Falcons joined th ...

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

was the franchise's 49th season in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

and the seventh under

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

Mike Smith. The Falcons were defeated by the

Carolina Panthers The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL), as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. T ...

in week 17, officially eliminating them from postseason contention for the second straight year. As a result, Smith was fired after his seventh year as head coach, after two straight years with a losing record. The 2014 Atlanta Falcons were featured on the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

documentary series Hard Knocks. As of 2022, the only member of the 2014 squad still a Falcon is Jake Matthews.

2014 draft class

* Note: The Falcons traded their sixth- (No. 182 overall) and original seventh- (No. 220 overall) round selections to the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

in exchange for the Vikings' fifth-round selection (No. 168 overall).

Staff

Final roster

Schedule

Preseason

Regular season

:Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.

Game summaries

Week 1: vs. New Orleans Saints

Week 2: at Cincinnati Bengals

Week 3: vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

In this game,

Devin Hester Devin Devorris Hester Sr. (born November 4, 1982) is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver and return specialist in the National Football League (NFL). He is widely regarded as the greatest return specialist i ...

would break

Deion Sanders Deion Luwynn Sanders Sr. (born August 9, 1967) is an American football coach and former player who is the head coach at the University of Colorado Boulder. Nicknamed "Prime Time", he played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons ...

's all-time record for punt/kick returns for touchdowns, with 20.

Week 4: at Minnesota Vikings

Week 5: at New York Giants

Week 6: vs. Chicago Bears

Week 7: at Baltimore Ravens

Week 8: vs. Detroit Lions

;

NFL International Series The NFL International Series is a series of American football games during the National Football League (NFL) NFL regular season, regular season that are List of National Football League games played outside the United States, played outside th ...

Week 10: at Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Week 11: at Carolina Panthers

Week 12: vs. Cleveland Browns

Week 13: vs. Arizona Cardinals

Week 14: at Green Bay Packers

Week 15: vs. Pittsburgh Steelers

The Falcons were the only NFC South team to lose to all of their AFC North opponents

Week 16: at New Orleans Saints

With the win, the Falcons swept the Saints for the 1st time since 2005 and eliminated their opponent from postseason contention.

Week 17: vs. Carolina Panthers

Standings

Division

Conference

Use of artificial crowd noise

Shortly after the end of the post-season the Falcons were investigated by the League for piping

artificial crowd noise Artificial crowd noise is pre-recorded audio that simulates the live sounds of spectators, particularly during sporting events. Sports teams have used artificial crowd noise to simulate stadium sounds during practices to acclimate themselves to ...

during opponent's offensive snaps at home games during the 2013 season and the 2014 season. Team owner Arthur Blank stated that he was "angry and embarrassed" about the allegations, and has allegedly acknowledged the validity of the accusations, stating "I think what we've done in 2013 and 2014 was wrong", and promising to cooperate fully with the investigation. The NFL fined the Falcons $350,000 and took away a fifth round draft pick in the 2016 draft as punishment.

References

External links

* {{2014 NFL season by team

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Atlanta Falcons seasons 2014 in sports in Georgia (U.S. state)