It’s time to stop talking about the Falcons' playoff chances

The Atlanta Falcons suffered their eighth loss of the season at home against the Pittsburgh Steelers in what was a game of offensive struggle. Going into the Steelers game last Sunday the Falcons were only a half game behind the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for first place in the NFC South. Well, the Falcons lost on Sunday and on Monday Night Football Tom Brady led his team to yet another fourth quarter comeback against the New Orleans Saints.

Now, with the Falcons at 5-8 and the Buccaneers at 6-6 Jon Chuckery says you can miss him with the Falcons' playoff talk, and he explained why Tuesday on The Jon Chuckery Show.

Jon believes that the Falcons “playoff run” has been nice, but it’s time to face the facts, and Jon also thinks the Falcons' bleak playoff hopes are also the reason Arthur Smith is now more open to starting rookie quarterback Desmond Ridder.

However, Jon wants to see more than just Ridder start for the Falcons. He wants to see all the rookies get some extra time.

“Yes it’s time to start Ridder, it’s also time to start Arnold Ebiketie," Chuckery said. "It’s also time to give DeAngelo Malone more playing time. It’s also time to give Tyler Allgeier more run.

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"I’ve seen everything that you could want out of Marcus Mariota, and we’re not a playoff team, and we’re not trending in that direction. Does anybody on this earth really believe that the Falcons are about to go 4-0 down the stretch?”

The Falcons close out the regular season playing the Saints in New Orleans, the Ravens in Baltimore, and their final two regular season games are against the Cardinals and Buccaneers in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Now, the Buccaneers close their regular season out with a pretty tough schedule going to San Francisco to take on the 49ers, battling the Bengals at home, traveling to Arizona to take on the Cardinals, facing off with the Panthers at home, and again playing in Atlanta to take on the Falcons. However, even though the Bucs don’t have an easy schedule down the stretch either the Falcons are still going to have to win some games being behind two and a half games, and that currently is easier said than done.

Jon Chuckery believes it’s time to figure out what you have in your rookies, and whether or not you think they will make things better or worse, changes have to be made because the product on the field obviously hasn’t been good enough.