We've spent the last few weeks running down the Falcons roster position-by-position, and you may have noticed that there were not many positions that we were all that dour about. That led me to ask myself whether I truly felt the Falcons had a better roster in 2016 than they did a year ago. The answer, resoundingly, is yes.

Let's run down this roster position by position, in brief, and see if each one has gotten better (on paper).

QB: Same

RB: Same

FB: Same

WR: Better?

TE: Better

LT: Same

LG: Same

C: Better

RG: Same?

RT: Same

DE: Better

DT: Same

OLB: Better

MLB: Better

CB: Same

S: Worse?

Special TeamS: ???

Unless you really hate some of the team's draft picks and free agents, they don't appear to have gotten significantly worse anywhere, and safety is only worse if you anticipate that Keanu Neal won't be as good as William Moore right off the bat, which seems legitimate even if Moore had his struggles in 2015. There are many positions where the improvement is incremental, and others where it's dependent on players already on the roster stepping up, but I don't see how you can argue that this roster is worse.

The Falcons aren't necessarily legitimate playoff contenders just yet, and their schedule is rough enough on paper to potentially mitigate that improvement, at least in terms of the final standings. Still, these Falcons are on the right track, so let's hope they stay there.