Broncos coach Sean Payton has a history with Atlanta, dating back to the intense rivalry between the Saints (whom he coached from 2006 through 2021) and the Falcons. Payton’s current team was back in Georgia tonight for a preseason game.
And Payton couldn’t resist making a crack about the crowd in Atlanta, or the lack of one.
“There’s a lot of people dressed up as empty seats today,” Payton said at a halftime interview, via Awful Announcing.
The official game book for the Broncos-Falcons contest lists attendance at 68,183. That may have been the tickets sold, not the tickets used.
Whether the seats will be filled during the Falcons’ regular-season home games depends on whether the team performs better than it did on Friday night. Preseason or not, the Falcons trailed 24-0 at the half. The final score was 27-7.
The Falcons have reason for optimism. They finished in a three-way tie for the NFC South crown. If they can get something/anything out of the quarterback position, they could win the division in 2026.
They’ll need to win early in the season to get the fans on board. Three of the first four games are on the road, and three of the first four teams they play made it to the playoffs in 2025.
