As I sit here this morning typing this blog I cannot believe my Atlanta Falcons are in the same position they were in last season after 10 games at 4-6! We can talk about bad tackling or a lack of passing game vs a 1-8 team coming into the game, but maybe we just aren’t a good team. It feels like we are in another rebuild season, but we was told differently in the preseason! Our organization throughout the media and how they structured their preseason reps for starters screamed this coaching staff was SUPER CONFIDENT that we had a playoff team in that building. Was that false bravado or did they know in the back of their minds that this team was flawed even with all of the off season free agency moves made by Our GM.
As of right now the Atlanta Falcons are on the exact same path of a 7-10 record we had last season and us as Falcons fans have to wonder how did we get back to this place of uncertainty as we head into the bye week. Should Arthur Blank fire Arthur Smith or let him stay to the end of the season since we are still in the race to win our division. With all the doom and gloom after that embarrassing loss to the Arizona Cardinals we play against the saints after the bye week and with a win we will be tied with the saints for the divisional lead at 5-6. Us as fans want Arthur Smith fired, but will Arthur Blank choose that path?
In one hand he has to grade if the juice is worth the squeeze with Arthur Smith. Has coach Smith lost his locker room or not. Have the fanbase totally turned on coach smith and that affects ticket sells on the walk up box office sells. Does it affect season ticket holders defaulting on their psl/season tickets? The other question is if Arthur Smith isn’t the ONLY problem with this Falcons team outside of roster of players. Are we as Falcons fans overlooking our GM as another potential problem with this team? Is that why Mr Blank hasn’t called a press conference because both Terry and coach smith share equal responsibility of this team failures and he needs the full season to evaluate both guys.
If you listen to what Arthur Blank said in the off season he said he was told this was a three year plan to rebuild this Falcons team. The first two years the GM Terry Fontenot and coach Smith was handcuffed by a bad roster and was in salary cap jail after getting rid of Julio Jones and Matt Ryan contracts. This was supposed to be the season the Atlanta Falcons take over the NFC South division. Our GM had the second most money in free agency to fix this team and terry used it to rebuild the defense and the draft was used to bolster the offense the offense once again in the 1st round as we drafted Bijan Robinson at 8th in this past draft when we already had an 1100 yard RB on the roster in Tyler Allgeier. Drafting Bijan has caused a log jam in the RB room as Coach smith has trouble throughout this season trying to balance the rushing touches between Bijan, Tyler, and CP.
To the point it has me wondering if Arthur Smith wanted to draft Bijan or did our GM/owner want Bijan because he could be the new FACE/marketing ploy to get more fans on board with this falcons team and sell more tickets! Arthur Smith lack of knowing how to use Bijan and Tyler in the same game kinda makes me wonder if coach Smith wanted Bijan at all. Yes Bijan had a great game in his return to his home state of Arizona, but it resulted in a loss unfortunately. We drafted Kyle Pitts, Drake London, and Bijan in consecutive years in the first round of the draft with a desperate need for defensive line help every since Terry arrived as our GM and still hasn’t been addressed. None of those positions on a football team are starting building blocks in a rebuilding team tbh. Those positions are picks you make when you already have your future FRANCHISE QB on the roster! We could have had Micah Parsons instead of Kyle Pitts or Jalen Carter over Bijan since we already had a good RB on the roster that he drafted in the 5th round in Allgeier.
In closing I know everyone wants coach Arthur smith fired today, but are we blaming the wrong person for this team failures? Did Arthur Smith have control of our draft or did Terry Fontenot draft those players and told Arthur Smith to make it work?!!? Why else does it seem like he does not know how to use Pitts and Bijan in his system? At first I was sure Arthur Smith was in charge of the draft while Terry was in charge of free agency, but I’m not sure anymore tbh. Thank you for reading this blog and please leave a comment below if you agree or disagree with the subject at hand! The clock is ticking Arthur Blank! What are you going to do?