On Tuesday, we shared new Falcons running back Steven Jackson’s feeling that he didn’t sign with Atlanta just to make it to the playoffs.
Jackson isn’t the only person in the Falcons locker room who would be left disappointed by anything less than a trip to MetLife Stadium for the Super Bowl. Wide receiver Roddy White has been with the team a lot longer, but he has the same expectations when it comes to the 2013 season.
During an appearance on ESPN, White said that he felt the Falcons were “satisfied” by their performance under Mike Smith until last season. That was when making it wasn’t enough and the urgency has only risen after last year’s trip to the NFC Championship Game.
“I think that the first three we were getting there and were just having fun being there. And then we turned a curb, and we said we have to stop just getting there and we have to win games,” White said. “We’re ready to take that next step. We know how good our football team is and the players we got, so it’s either Super Bowl or nothing for us right now.”
The Falcons have had a lot of success since Smith took over as the head coach, but it’s hard not to look at the upcoming season through the prism of Super Bowl or bust. Anything else would be a sideways step at best and that’s pretty much the same as a backward step when you were as close to the Super Bowl as the Falcons were last season.