The NFL announced the Falcons preseason schedule.

They will open their preseason on the road against the Detroit Lions. Following that will be another road game against the St. Louis Rams. Their preseason home opener will be next, as the face the San Diego Chargers in a primetime game on CBS. The final preseason game will come against the Baltimore Ravens at home.

Specific dates and times will be determined at a later date when the team’s regular season schedule is announced at some point in early to mid-April.

The AJC reports that the NFL has opted to move the Falcons-Vikings matchup on December 21 from 1 pm to 4:15 pm Eastern. This is part of the league’s flex scheduling which occurs in the second half of the season to have the best games televised. The Falcons already had their matchup with the Carolina Panthers in Week 12 moved from the early slot to a later one. The game will still be broadcast by FOX.

The Falcons announced their training camp schedule on Tuesday. All players will report Friday, July 25. Their first practice will take place the next morning at 8:30 am. In total, they will have 30 practices including 13 sets of two-a-days.

The Falcons will also hold an open to the public night scrimmage on Friday August 1 at Mill Creek High in Hoschton, GA. The following day, they will hold another open practice, which will be a mock game at the Georgia Dome around noon.

The team will have a total of 16 practices open to the public during the first two weeks of camp leading up to their first preseason game against the Jacksonville Jaguars on August 9. They will wrap up their training camp the following week with eight closed practices, breaking camp on August 15, a day before their preseason home debut against the Indianapolis Colts. The Falcons will face the Tennessee Titans at home in their third preseason game on August 22. The team will then be forced to cut down its roster from 80 to 75 players by August 26. The Falcons will wrap up their exhibition schedule against the Baltimore Ravens on August 28 in Baltimore. Rosters will then be finalized on August 30, down to the 53-man limit.

The Falcons then open the regular season at home against the Detroit Lions on September 7.

The league announced the regular season and preseason schedules for 2007. The Falcons will feature 3 primetime games, including two Monday Night home games. The first of which will be against the New York Giants on October 15, and the latter being against the New Orleans Saints on December 10. It will be a rematch of last season’s Monday Night matchup. The third game was previously announced game against the defending champion Indianapolis Colts on Thursday night on Thanksgiving.

The Falcons open the season with two road games against the Minnesota Vikings, followed by the Jacksonville Jaguars. Their home opener will be against the Carolina Panthers, followed by another home game against the Houston Texans. That game should offer an interesting matchup between former Falcons passer and potential Texans starter Matt Schaub against his former team.

The Falcons will receive a bye week during Week 8, and will close the season at home against the Seattle Seahawks on December 30.

The dates for the preseason games have now been set. The Falcons will open the preseason on August 10 at the New York Jets, following by a road game against the Buffalo Bills on August 17. Their home preseason games will be against the Cincinnati Bengals on August 27 (on Monday Night) and Baltimore Ravens on August 31.

Click here to view the rest of the schedule.

The Falcons have a rough look at their preseason schedule. They will open the preseason on the road against the New York Jets sometime between August 9 and 13th, and then will travel to Buffalo to face the Bills between August 16 and 20th.

Their preseason home opener will be on August 20, hosting the Cincinnati Bengals on ESPN Monday Night. They will close out the summer against the Baltimore Ravens at home on August 31.

The official league schedule is expected to be announced as early as next week, sometime after April 9. Then the Falcons will know the times and dates of their preseason and regular season games.

The league announced that the Falcons will play host to Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts on Thanksgiving Night in 2007. This is the second ever Thanksgiving game for the Falcons, after playing the Detroit Lions in 2005. It will also mark the first time a Thanksgiving Day game will be played in the Georgia Dome.

It also marks the third consecutive season in which the Falcons hosted the defending Super Bowl champion, after squaring off with the Pittsburgh Steelers this past year, and the New England Patriots in 2005.

The game will begin at 8:15 EST and will be aired on the NFL Network. The remainder of the 2007 schedule will not be announced until early next month.