Fire Arthur Smith?

[SoCalDirtyBird]

Ladies and gentleman, it has come to this point for many on Falcons Twitter. I don’t share this sentiment with most of the rest of Falcons Twitter, but I am in the very humbling minority on this issue.

It’s too early to decide right now, but his case to stay here weakens SIGNIFICANTLY if the Falcons don’t make the playoffs this year - with this SOS, in this weak division. The remaining 8 games are extremely important for him, IMO. Even if the Falcons keep him, he might lose all support in the locker room if we finish badly and be a prime candidate for a mid-year firing next season (which would be terrible for the franchise). We’re in a tough spot for sure!

[SteelKing728]

@scar988 if Heinicke doesn't improve things, should the team go back to Desmond Ridder?

[scar988]

14 hours ago, SoCalDirtyBird said:

Ladies and gentleman, it has come to this point for many on Falcons Twitter. I don’t share this sentiment with most of the rest of Falcons Twitter, but I am in the very humbling minority on this issue.

It’s too early to decide right now, but his case to stay here weakens SIGNIFICANTLY if the Falcons don’t make the playoffs this year - with this SOS, in this weak division. The remaining 8 games are extremely important for him, IMO. Even if the Falcons keep him, he might lose all support in the locker room if we finish badly and be a prime candidate for a mid-year firing next season (which would be terrible for the franchise). We’re in a tough spot for sure!

As long as they don't lose 10+ games, I see him keeping his job. It's a low bar. That's 4 more wins.

1 minute ago, SteelKing728 said:

@scar988 if Heinicke doesn't improve things, should the team go back to Desmond Ridder?

I think they already should. But it wouldn't surprise me to see them wait until after the bye.

[DM316]

The utilization (or lack of) with the high draft picks on offense is puzzling. Redzone struggles aren't acceptable with the wealth of talent. Not much accountability from our playcaller, I saw enough last week with TE2 throwing to TE3 while Pitts stayed in to block. The spacing seems bad with a lot of the pass concepts. Idk that it matters as much who is at QB as we sit.

[SoCalDirtyBird]

1 hour ago, SteelKing728 said:

@scar988 if Heinicke doesn't improve things, should the team go back to Desmond Ridder?

He’s already improved things on offense. Scored 20 points in the half he played in last week, scored a season high 26 points on offense (yea, that’s how bad we are) this past week vs a top 11 defense without our best pass catcher suiting up. The chances are extremely high that we wouldn’t have even scored 10 points this past week in Ridder suited up.

I’m all for playing Ridder if we’ve given up on going to the playoffs, but that’s a decision that the team has to make. 

[scar988]

The most frustrating thing about Arthur Smith is that he has three weapons that suggest he would be a red zone genius if he knew how to use them.

Drake London is a 6'5" basketball forward playing WR

Kyle Pitts is a 6'6" TE that should be getting used like prime Tony G

Bijan Robinson is a clone of Marshall Faulk and should be used accordingly

Then you have secondary guys that could get looks if those three aren't doing the job.

Tyler Allgeier is a Michael Turner-esque bowling ball

Jonnu Smith is an H-back who should be on the field at all times in the RZ.

Mack Hollins is a 6'4" possession WR who should get some looks

CP84 is like having a second, older, less good, Bijan out there.

 

So many things they can do in the RZ and they decided to do a damn Jet Sweep to a TE2. Arthur Smith tries to get too cute in the red zone, and if he just played his players like the defense would expect him to play them, they'd still score more TDs in the red zone. 

"Oh, Allgeier, Bijan, London, Pitts and Jonnu are on the field in a shotgun 2RB, 2WR, 1 TE look, They're probably running it." 

So go PA, and then run a levels concept. It wouldn't be hard to design a semi-competent red zone offense. The issue right now is Arthur Smith.

[scar988]

42 minutes ago, SoCalDirtyBird said:

He’s already improved things on offense. Scored 20 points in the half he played in last week, scored a season high 26 points on offense (yea, that’s how bad we are) this past week vs a top 11 defense without our best pass catcher suiting up. The chances are extremely high that we wouldn’t have even scored 10 points this past week in Ridder suited up.

I’m all for playing Ridder if we’ve given up on going to the playoffs, but that’s a decision that the team has to make. 

Has he though? The one drive they actually drove down and scored a TD was a run-heavy drive. Didn't get a red zone drive outside of that and a fumble recovery. I don't think he improved the offense. I think he and Ridder were basically the same. I think Ridder honestly would have been more efficient against the Vikings. Taylor had 6 TWPs and was lucky he only had 1 interception. 

 

[SoCalDirtyBird]

33 minutes ago, scar988 said:

Has he though? The one drive they actually drove down and scored a TD was a run-heavy drive. Didn't get a red zone drive outside of that and a fumble recovery. I don't think he improved the offense. I think he and Ridder were basically the same. I think Ridder honestly would have been more efficient against the Vikings. Taylor had 6 TWPs and was lucky he only had 1 interception. 

 

He certainly didn’t play well, I won’t argue with you there. He’s a UDFA career backup, not Tom Brady lol. 

As far as if Ridder would have played as well or better, that’s honestly really tough to say. He’s played far worse this season against teams with worse defenses and had he Drake London out there to throw to. 

Again, Heinicke definitely did not play well. All I’m saying is that we actually had a chance to win that game even with all of his mistakes because we were at least able to kick field goals and not absorb multiple turnovers and drive killing sacks. Some points are better than no points. 
 

Defense allowing 31 points against a Vikings team without their best player and on their 3rd string QB that’s been there 5 days was ENTIRELY unacceptable. Good, athletic tight ends like Hockenson and LaPorta really wreck our defense.

[DM316]

31 minutes ago, scar988 said:

The most frustrating thing about Arthur Smith is that he has three weapons that suggest he would be a red zone genius if he knew how to use them.

Drake London is a 6'5" basketball forward playing WR

Kyle Pitts is a 6'6" TE that should be getting used like prime Tony G

Bijan Robinson is a clone of Marshall Faulk and should be used accordingly

Then you have secondary guys that could get looks if those three aren't doing the job.

Tyler Allgeier is a Michael Turner-esque bowling ball

Jonnu Smith is an H-back who should be on the field at all times in the RZ.

Mack Hollins is a 6'4" possession WR who should get some looks

CP84 is like having a second, older, less good, Bijan out there.

 

So many things they can do in the RZ and they decided to do a damn Jet Sweep to a TE2. Arthur Smith tries to get too cute in the red zone, and if he just played his players like the defense would expect him to play them, they'd still score more TDs in the red zone. 

"Oh, Allgeier, Bijan, London, Pitts and Jonnu are on the field in a shotgun 2RB, 2WR, 1 TE look, They're probably running it." 

So go PA, and then run a levels concept. It wouldn't be hard to design a semi-competent red zone offense. The issue right now is Arthur Smith.

Exactly. Keep it simple stupid. "We got mismatches everywhere, you can't take them all away and we will beat you consistently" should be the logic. 

[SoCalDirtyBird]

Yep, I’ve made it there. Fire Smith

[SoCalDirtyBird]

I think I can speak for most Falcons fans when I say this:

Beat the Saints at home and all of Ridder and Smith’s transgressions against our people shall be forgiven.

If they lose, they can both GTFO forever. That’s pretty much where I’m at.

[scar988]

11 hours ago, SoCalDirtyBird said:

I think I can speak for most Falcons fans when I say this:

Beat the Saints at home and all of Ridder and Smith’s transgressions against our people shall be forgiven.

If they lose, they can both GTFO forever. That’s pretty much where I’m at.

I hope they blow the Saints out. I hope Ridder throws for 250+ and 2 TDs+ with no turnovers. And I hope the offense scores 30+ while the defense allows just 1-2 total scores.

[SoCalDirtyBird]

Ridder just isn’t a capable starting QB in the NFL, and he likely never will be. Some coaches could find a way to do more on offense, but Smith isn’t nearly a good enough coach to scheme around Ridders deficiencies.

[scar988]

2 hours ago, SoCalDirtyBird said:

Ridder just isn’t a capable starting QB in the NFL, and he likely never will be. Some coaches could find a way to do more on offense, but Smith isn’t nearly a good enough coach to scheme around Ridders deficiencies.

One of those throws was Ridder just trying to do too much. Bad throw. The other was Robinson letting up a step too early and Ridder still throwing it. I think those two miscues were bad. But he showed improvement, especially in reading the pressure from the blitzers. I do think eventually, he will put it all together and be at least a decent starter in the NFL. 

[SoCalDirtyBird]

21 hours ago, scar988 said:

One of those throws was Ridder just trying to do too much. Bad throw. The other was Robinson letting up a step too early and Ridder still throwing it. I think those two miscues were bad. But he showed improvement, especially in reading the pressure from the blitzers. I do think eventually, he will put it all together and be at least a decent starter in the NFL. 

I don’t disagree with you. I think he’ll be a starter that’s just below the Dalton line. Get him on a cheap contract with a good coach like Reid, Shanahan, McVay, Payton, etc and he can provide some value. But if he ever has a pretty good year like Daniel Jones did last year and cashes in on it, his value to a team goes to down to 0.