After firing Arthur Smith, the Atlanta Falcons can't make this mistake again | Bill Shanks
Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank did the right thing by firing head coach Arthur Smith. The pathetic 31-point loss to the hated enemy out of the Bayou Sunday made his decision easy, especially after reports surfaced last week Blank was torn on what to do.
The game left no doubt, not that there should ever have been any question about whether Smith needed to go or not. The Arthur Smith era ends with a 21-30 record, three-straight 7-10 seasons.
It might be better to call it the “Arthur Smith error” instead.
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Hiring another coordinator didn’t make sense three years ago when Blank fired Dan Quinn, and it certainly won’t make sense if he does it again. Blank has hired five head coaches in his time as owner. Not one had NFL head coaching experience. Only one was a head coach, Louisville coach Bobby Petrino, and that was a disaster from start to finish.
Smith was the hot coordinator candidate three years ago, interviewed by the Jaguars, Jets, Chargers, Lions, Eagles and Falcons. Blank interviewed only two coaches (out of seven) who had head coaching experience: his own interim head coach at the time, Raheem Morris (who was also head coach at Tampa Bay from 2009-11), and Tampa Bay defensive coordinator Todd Bowles (who had been the head coach with the New York Jets from 2015-18).
Why has Blank avoided hiring proven NFL head coaches? Is he afraid someone with experience will tell him to stay off the sidelines? Is he afraid when a player becomes available who is from the Atlanta area, like, let’s say, Deshaun Watson, the more experienced head coach will tell him to bud out and not interfere? Is he afraid someone more experienced will not want him involved at all in any type of “collaborative effort” for making decisions?
Ted Turner used to be that type when he owned the Braves, but then in the mid-80s after multiple losing seasons, he handed control over to Stan Kasten and Bobby Cox — sports people. Turner went and bought movie companies and built an empire, and the people he left in charge led the Braves to a World Series within a few years.
Smith again proves (like Quinn did) that great coordinators are not always good head coaches. He was supposed to be an offensive mastermind who led Tennessee to the fourth-best scoring offense in the NFL in 2020. But it wasn’t like Smith was bringing Derrick Henry with him to Atlanta.
We don’t know whether to blame Smith or general manager Terry Fontenot, who was oddly hired right after Smith was, about the decisions that were made. Sure, Smith and Fontenot were handed a mess — a team burdened by no salary cap room and more dead money than any team in the league.
But Smith and Fontenot knew walking in the door they had an aging quarterback in Matt Ryan, who either immediately or soon would be leaving. They knew they’d have a new quarterback at some point early in their tenure. Instead of building a line of scrimmage for that new signal-caller, they (meaning we don’t know which one so we’ll blame both of them) drafted skill players three years in a row with their first-round draft picks.
Tight End Kyle Pitts is a waste of space. He was the fourth overall pick in the 2021 draft, but he’s never been used properly. The Falcons could have drafted Oregon tackle Penei Sewell instead.
Then, in 2022 it was Drake London, wide receiver from USC. This past year it was Texas running back Bijan Robinson. Both drafts could have instead produced picks like Georgia defenders Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter, or offensive linemen like Charles Cross or Tyler Linderbaum.
And then, there’s the quarterback situation. The Falcons could have taken Justin Fields in 2021, Brock Purdy in 2022, or Will Levis in 2023. Instead, they took Desmond Ridder from Cincinnati in the third round of the 2022 draft and the offensive mastermind messed him up from the start.
Instead of giving Ridder more snaps in 2022, Smith went with Marcus Mariota longer than necessary. Ridder was given only four starts, when he should have gotten half the season to show what he could do. Then Smith opted not to play Ridder much at all in the 2023 preseason. It was good enough for Patrick Mahomes to play in the preseason for the Chiefs and he’s one of the best quarterbacks in football, but Smith didn’t want Ridder to get hurt. Ridder missed valuable snaps that could have helped him develop.
Ridder never got on track this season, so Smith pulled him midseason and put him in football timeout. Then when he gave Ridder his job back, Smith said he would leave him alone for the rest of the season. But when his job status got shaky with losses, Smith yanked Ridder again for lifelong backup Taylor Heinicke.
Ridder may never be a great NFL quarterback, but he deserved better treatment from Smith. And even if the quarterback position was going to be a dumpster fire, shouldn’t Smith have been innovative enough to produce more than 21.9 points per game with all of those skill players at his disposal? Add Cordarrelle Patterson and Tyler Allgeier to the high draft picks. That’s five skill players who should have given Smith toys to play with.
Instead, the offense was a mess all season. Sure, turnovers hurt, but there was never any plan to get the ball in the hands of those skill players consistently. Patterson became irritated with his usage, and Pitts must wonder why the Falcons selected him so high in the draft if they weren’t going to target him more.
Atlanta didn’t score 30 or more points once this season. Not even once.
Smith never handled the press very well, wore that silly mustache that made fans even more weary of him, and was looked at as someone completely over his head. Forget about giving him a participation trophy for winning more games than he should have in his first two seasons. The Falcons had legit promise this season after spending a lot in free agency, and instead, they were the same ole Falcons.
They had the easiest schedule in the NFL, and they were just not a good football team. The Falcons were 6-4 against teams that finished the regular season with a winning record this season, but the record against teams that finished with losing records was an embarrassing 1-6.
They had their best win in Smith’s tenure two weeks ago, beating Indianapolis by 19 points (highest point margin of victory in the last three seasons). Did they follow that win up with another strong performance? No, the Falcons were awful last week in Chicago and then got blown out in New Orleans by a combined score of 85-34.
So, now what? There are some assistant coaches who could be first-time head coaches that might be interesting (Joe Brady, Todd Monken, Mike Macdonald). But that just hasn’t worked for Blank. He needs to get someone who can pick a new quarterback and take this team to the next level. Who would you want to do that — a first-timer or someone who has done it before?
Blank needs someone to be in charge, to be the man, to have accountability. Blank is 81, so he might be wanting something quick. Go with experience, Arthur, since going with rookie head coaches has simply not worked out. Six straight losing seasons (39-60 record) and only two winning seasons in the last 11 years say something must change.
Call Bill Belichick. Yeah, he’ll be 72 in April and he won’t have Tom Brady, but he might have something to prove. Call Jim Harbaugh and give him complete control. See if Brian Flores would be interested.
Blank just needs to get out of the way. He’s not going to sell the team anytime soon, so the most we can hope for is he just gives someone the keys to this franchise before 7-10 becomes the norm for this decade. For a man who built a fortune by creating a place that has items to fix things, he certainly has made a mess of his franchise.
Listen to The Bill Shanks Show weekdays at 3:00 pm ET on 104.3 FM in Savannah and online from anywhere at TheSuperStations.com. Email Bill at TheBillShanksShow@yahoo.com.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: After firing Arthur Smith, the Atlanta Falcons can't make this mistake
