Anti-Dynasty #26: 1966-70 Atlanta Falcons

Peak Anti-Dynasty Points: 40
Record: 16-51-3 (.250)
Average DVOA: -23.8%
Bottom-Five DVOA: -23.8%
Two last-place finishes in the NFL
Head Coaches: Norb Hecker, Norm Van Brocklin
Key Players: QB Randy Johnson, RB Junior Coffey, T Errol Linden, DE Claude Humphrey, LB Tommy Nobis, CB Ken Reaves
Z-Score: -0.02

There are still a pair of expansion teams left to come in our rankings, but their position on this list is due to decades of failure, not just their initial poor performance. In terms of coming out ready to go and just utterly faceplanting, the Atlanta Falcons were the worst expansion team of all time—the worst average DVOA in their first five years, the most Anti-Dynasty points, the worst record, the whole deal.

Much like the Cowboys and the St. Louis Cardinals, the Falcons' existence can be credited to the NFL's desire to mess with the AFL. The NFL had decided to expand by two more teams in 1967, but the AFL undercut them by announcing two new expansion teams for 1966, one of which would have been in Atlanta. In a panic, the NFL rushed their own plans up and convinced the Atlanta Stadium board to take their new team instead—the better, established, and more prestigious league should be the one to move into the rapidly growing Atlanta market, not some rank upstart. Of course, this would all be made moot in June of 1966 as the two leagues agreed to merge, making the rush to beat the other entirely meaningless. Maybe if the Falcons had gotten to play an AFL schedule, they wouldn't have been quite so helpless from the beginning. Or maybe they would.

The Falcons' Plan A was to become Green Bay Packers, Southern Edition. Green Bay had a disgruntled superstar in Jim Taylor, who was upset because the Packers had drafted a rookie in the first round whom they intended to groom to replace him, a crazy situation which has of course never been repeated. Nothing ended up coming from that, and Taylor remained with the Packers for the rest of his contract, but the Falcons figured, hey, while we're here, why not ask if Vince Lombardi would like to be the coach of a new team? You miss 100% of the shots you don't take and all that. To no one's surprise, Lombardi said no. Alright, the Falcons replied, what about one of your assistants? Lombardi recommended a couple of people on his staff, but notably did not recommend defensive backs coach Norb Hecker. Oh, Falcons' owner Rankin Smith thought, I see what's going on. Lombardi doesn't want anyone to hire Hecker way from him; he's trying to keep one of his best assistants hidden! Smith immediately hired Hecker to be the first coach of the franchise.

It turns out the reason Lombardi didn't recommend Hecker for the job was that Hecker was not ready to coach an NFL franchise—the only mind games being played were the ones in Smith's head. The Falcons got off on the wrong foot, literally, missing the ball on their first kickoff of their first exhibition game, and things didn't get much better from there. The Falcons had estimated DVOA of -34.9% or less in each of their first three seasons. To put that in perspective, the Chicago Bears have been playing since 1920, and don't have a single season that bad. No other team has put up three straight years so awful in either regular or estimated DVOA. If we use SRS-to-DVOA conversions, we do find the 1921-1923 Louisville Breckenridges, who at least had the dignity of immediately folding afterwards. Despite the valiant efforts of Tommy Nobis, the Falcons defense ranked 23rd or worse in each of those seasons, and Randy Johnson's passing attack joined them. Hecker was fired midway through the 1968 season with a 4-26-1 record and went back to being a decently successful coordinator and position coach, as he should have been from the beginning.

Hecker's replacement was Norm Van Brocklin, who was known for crazy press conferences (including threatening to fight beat reporters on multiple occasions), his players absolutely hating him and demanding to be traded away … and managing to bully his way into the franchise's first winning seasons starting in 1971. Certainly a more entertaining era than Hecker's, much like being strapped on top of an intercontinental ballistic missile is entertaining.