FLOWERY BRANCH — On Jan. 15, 2021, Arthur Smith was hired to coach the Falcons.
He inherited an aging quarterback, a disgruntled wide receiver and an offensive line that could no longer protect the great Matt Ryan. He also had a defense that lost its way and a nearly unmanageable salary-cap situation.
Smith is about to end his third regular season and progress has been made, but has it been enough for owner Arthur Blank to stick with Smith for another season or so?
The Falcons (7-9) are set to face the Saints (8-8) at 1 p.m. Sunday at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
The Falcons need a win and a loss by Tampa Bay (8-8) to lowly Carolina (2-14), to claim the NFC South title and then host a playoff game. With a loss, the Falcons would finish 7-10 for the third consecutive season under Smith and extend their streak of not making the playoffs to six seasons.
Smith’s teams, which were undermanned in Year 1 and 2, always played had.
After spending lavishly in free agency on top of three draft classes, the Falcons were set for a break-through this season. However, things did not come together as planned on the offense with Desmond Ridder at quarterback, and they lost their top defender, Grady Jarrett, early in the season.
Also, three young defenders – safety Richie Grant, outside linebacker Arnold Ebiketie and linebacker Troy Andersen – did not come through with breakthrough seasons on defense.
Smith has taken everything in stride and has been open about discussing his future.
“It’s a privilege you get to do this,” Smith said. “Year after year, no matter how long you play, the end of seasons is always strange for everybody because nothing ever stays the same. Every team changes.”
Smith was more focused on the Saints than his future.
“I think of the guys that have come through here,” Smith said. “I know there’s a lot always made about the drama that comes at the end of an NFL season, but you have to think about everybody involved in it. Players, some of these guys may play their last game. They may be on different teams. There’s a lot – change is constant in this league.”
The Falcons were hoping to make progress in “Year Three” of their self-proclaimed three-year plan.
“You grow close every year,” Smith said “You live four different seasons in one. You spend so much time together, so there’s always a weirdness at the end of the year.”
Smith would love nothing more than to reach the playoffs, even with a 8-9 record. The Falcons possibly could host the slumping Eagles and perhaps get a win and get on a roll.
“You just hope that, especially with this team, that you get the opportunity to still play,” Smith said. “Like I said, it’s our own fault that we’re not in total control, but we do still have life.”
Yeah, the Falcons can look in the mirror if they want to blame someone for the subpar season. The offense never operated with any precision and productivity. They rankin the bottom half of the league in yards (18th) and points scored (19.0).
Ridder was benched twice and most everything seemed like a major struggle.
The Falcons jumped to 2-0 start, then lost the next two. They climbed to 4-3 and then had horrible losses to the Titans, Vikings and Cardinals to drop to 4-6 at the bye week.
The Falcons won two against the Saints and the lowly New York Jets to reach 6-6.
Tampa Bay beat them on a touchdown pass in the last minute, and then the Panthers upset them on a last-second field goal as they dropped to 6-8.
The Falcons switched back to Taylor Heinicke after Ridder’s ill-advised pass to the middle of the field was intercepted. But Ridder wasn’t on the field during the Panthers’ 17-play, 90-yard march to victory.
The Falcons had a big 29-10 win over the Colts, but followed that with a loss to the Bears.
The Falcons never could get on a major role this season against a soft schedule. They’ve only won back-to-back games twice and haven’t have a three-game win streak under Smith during a season. (They won two to end 2022 and two to start 2023 for a four-game win streak.)
The lack of consistency has been an issue.
“Well, I think any time you put in anything new and you’re going through it – you’re kind of trying to go through the season – it’s always going to be like that,” Falcons assistant head coach/defense Jerry Gray said. “If we would’ve come in Year 1 and we had the best defense in the league, it’d like, ‘Man, everybody wants that.’ Everybody wants the easy road.”
It has been the easy road for Smith. It’s been a heavy lift after the Dan Quinn/Thomas Dimitroff era.
The franchise unloaded wide receiver Julio Jones. They botched the transition from Ryan by going after Deshaun Watson and played the 2022 season with the largest dead salary-cap money (more than $80 million) in league history.
“I don’t think it’s going to be easy,” Gray said. “We look at our players – again, we lost our best pass rusher in Grady. When you do that, somebody else has to step up. So, we’ve actually played with a lot of young guys, understanding what they’re job is.”
The Falcons have tried to remain positive. Gray pointed to Seattle’s 2010 team which went to the playoffs with a 7-9 record.
“The good thing about it is we’re still in the hunt,” Gray said. “This reminds me a lot of when I was in Seattle. I went over there with Pete Carroll in 2010. And low and behold, they gave us a chance to get in. We played the Super Bowl-defending champs. We beat them there in Seattle. All you need is a chance.”
The Seahawks were able to build off of that breakthrough win over the Saints.
“Our team wasn’t really great with numbers, but they gave us a chance to get in,” Gray said. “... You can see what Seattle did. They added to the players and all of a sudden, they were in two Super Bowls themselves.”
Even with the changes at quarterback and the injuries, the Falcons have remained united. Other than Mack Hollins going off on the sidelines in London after a couple of errant passes, things have been pretty calm.
“I think it starts with (Smith),” quarterback Taylor Heinicke said. “He loves football, he loves to coach. ... You’ve watched previous weeks. If we were 2-14, I think we would still have the same energy.”
The chemistry appears to be real.
“The love for one another,” linebacker Kaden Elliss said. “The respect for one another. The respect for the work that we put in collectively as a group. That you’ve seen each individual put in from the coaching staff, to front office, to the people in the cafeteria to the players. It’s been a lot of work. Getting to watch that and grow together. That keeps you together. "
Progress has been made, but has it been enough.
“Yeah, you learn a lot,” Smith said. “Absolutely.”
Smith wanted to focus on preparing for the Saints and plans to elaborate when the season is over.
“There are always unknowns that come up,” Smith said. “Every year or every week you have this job, there’s something new that comes up, and you’re always constantly learning things. Yeah, absolutely.”
Heinicke, who wasn’t drafted and had to carve out himself a career in the league, has a clear perspective on the NFL.
“It’s special being to be in the NFL and you have this opportunity, it doesn’t last forever,” Heinicke said. “You don’t know how many games you’ll get to play or games you get to coach, so every time you come to work it’s a special opportunity to try to make the best of it, try to have fun with it because again, you just never know what’s going to happen.”
The Falcons want to go to the playoffs.
“We’ll see if we can get in, if not, end on a good note, beating our rivals,” Ellis said.
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