What I think about some things I saw over the (long) weekend …

There are many reasons why Raheem Morris and Terry Fontenot didn’t win more games with the Falcons.

For Morris, there was poor game management in 2024 and persistent failures by special teams in 2025. For Fontenot, there was a spotty track record in drafts from 2021 to 2024.

But the biggest failure of all, for both coach and GM, was the quarterback plan. Morris and Fontenot visualized winning with Kirk Cousins before handing the reins to Michael Penix Jr. They ended up losing with both quarterbacks.

The four-game win streak to end another losing season wasn’t enough for Morris and Fontenot to keep their jobs. Franchise owner Arthur Blank fired them hours after the team beat the Saints on Sunday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in the season finale.

Morris was 16-18 in two seasons as Falcons coach, not counting an interim stint in 2020. The Falcons were 37-48 during Fontenot’s five-year tenure. Blank will explain publicly why he chose to dismiss both men when he holds a news conference Thursday.

Messing up the quarterbacks should be high on the list. The next coach and GM will be dealing with the mess that Morris and Fontenot left behind at the position.

Cousins was supposed to fill the void left by Matt Ryan. Morris benched Cousins before the end of his first season. Cousins surely is on his way out no matter who is hired as the next GM and coach. The Falcons can save $35 million in cap space by releasing him.

Penix suffered a season-ending ACL tear in November and may not be ready for the start of next season. He’ll have much to prove once he’s able to play. Penix’s passing accuracy was inconsistent this season, and he didn’t run as much as he should.

Morris and Fontenot’s QB plan was a bad idea from the start. I’m not just saying so with the benefit of hindsight.

The Falcons signed Cousins as a free agent in March 2024. Days earlier I opined the Falcons should bow out if the price were too high because Cousins would soon be 36 years old and he was recovering from Achilles surgery.

That’s when Spotrac projected Cousins would get $70 million guaranteed on the market. The Falcons ended up signing him for $100 million guaranteed while seemingly bidding against themselves.

Weeks later, the Falcons selected Penix with the No. 8 overall draft pick. At the time I panned the Falcons for using the pick for a quarterback after having signed one to a rich contract.

It was an inefficient use of limited salary-cap space. The Falcons weren’t taking full advantage of having a QB on a rookie scale contract. Also, it would be difficult for them to develop Penix with Cousins ahead of him.

It didn’t take long for Morris and Fontenot’s QB plan to fall apart.

Mobility issues contributed to Cousins’ poor play in 2024. He was the highest-paid backup in NFL history this season. The Falcons could have used that money to build depth in other areas.

Penix wasn’t ready to step in for Cousins late in the 2024 season. Morris had given Penix only a handful of repetitions with the starters. Morris also didn’t play Penix late in a couple of lopsided losses before finally naming him the starter in Week 15.

Fontenot and Morris said one reason they selected Penix with the No. 8 pick in 2024 was that they didn’t expect to be drafting that high again, so it was best to take a quarterback they liked then. The Falcons won’t be drafting that high this year because Fontenot traded their first-round pick to move up in the 2025 draft.

At least Fontenot used that pick on a promising player, edge rusher James Pearce Jr. He was part of Fontenot’s best draft as Falcons GM. I thought that might be enough for Fontenot to get a reprieve from Blank, but he was shown the door along with Morris.

In the end, neither Fontenot nor Morris could overcome the mistakes they made with the team’s most important position.

Georgia’s dynasty over before it started

The hope in Athens was that coach Kirby Smart would build a college football dynasty like Nick Saban, his old boss at Alabama. That sentiment accelerated when Smart won back-to-back national championships in 2021 and 2022.

NIL rights and the permissive transfer portal for players were supposed to bring more parity, but the Bulldogs were dominant. Now comes the harsh reality that Georgia will have to settle for being among the nation’s top programs instead of the undisputed best.

The Bulldogs didn’t make the four-team College Football Playoff in 2023. The past two seasons they followed SEC championships with losses in the first round of the CFP. The latest defeat came Thursday against an Ole Miss team that hired Pete Golding, a first-time head coach, a month ago.

The 39-34 loss wasn’t Smart’s finest hour. There’s still nobody else the Bulldogs should want as their coach.

Smart is 117-21 at Georgia (109-16 if you throw out Year 1, when he was still building the program to his specifications). Smart has won four SEC championships in 10 years after Georgia won two league titles between 1982 and 2015. He has dominated all of Georgia’s rivals except Alabama, and he just beat the Crimson Tide for the SEC title.

The Bulldogs fell short of sky-high expectations the past three seasons, but it’s not as if any other program is running the table.

Michigan won the final four-team CFP for the 2023 season but didn’t make the 12-team fields in the past two seasons. Ohio State won the 2024 national title but lost its 2025 CFP opener to Miami on Thursday. Two teams still alive in the CFP have never won a national championship (Indiana and Oregon) and the other two haven’t won a consensus title in decades (2001 for Miami, 1960 for Ole Miss).

Georgia is one of four teams to make the 12-team CFP field in both years. Indiana, Ohio State and Oregon are the others. The Bulldogs are the only team among the four to lose their first CFP game in both years, but that’s mitigated by making the field in the first place as SEC champions.

Making the CFP is easier than ever for power-conference programs with Georgia’s resources. There are eight available bids instead of four (seven at-large, one automatic).

Winning the CFP is harder than ever. The champion must win at least three games instead of two, four games without a first-round bye).

Smart hasn’t started a dynasty in Athens. I doubt that any program can pull that off during this era of NIL, the transfer portal and a 12-team CFP field. Nearly all the others would take Smart as their coach.

‘Big’ problem for Hawks

The Hawks (17-20) stood 10th in the Eastern Conference after the weekend. They desperately need a brawny center who can defend the rim and rebound while adding something on offense. They don’t have one when Kristaps Porzingis doesn’t play, which has been most of the time.

Porzingis recently returned to the lineup after a 10-game absence because of illness. With him, the Hawks earned quality victories over the Timberwolves and Knicks while holding their own in the paint. Then Porzingis sat out Saturday, and the Raptors dominated the Hawks around the basket while beating them 134-117.

Porzingis is the only true center among the “bigs” on the roster. The Hawks can follow coach Quin Snyder’s formula of playing small and fast and shooting 3’s all they want. They won’t accomplish much as long as their smallish front line allows opponents to have easy passage to the rim and collect so many of their misses.

Per Cleaning the Glass, before Sunday’s game the Hawks were tied for 27th among 30 teams for the percentage of misses that opponents rebounded. They ranked 29th in put-back points allowed per miss. Only two teams allowed a higher rate of shots at the rim.

The rebounding numbers are better when Porzingis is on the court. The rim-protection numbers are better when Mo Gueye plays. Porzingis has been available for only 15 games. Snyder has limited Gueye’s minutes even when the Hawks are getting bullied in the paint.