REAL FOOTBALL Thread

Carp said:
I think the thought process was more that he wouldn't stay healthy. So far he's proven the doubters wrong.
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COrrect. I don't think anyone thought a 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th would be overpaying for a healthy McCaffrey, especially after his injury in 2021.
 
I'm starting to wonder if Arthur Smith will survive as head coach after the season. There are some legitimate reasons that could motivate a change, especially if the Falcons go .500 and/or miss the playoffs.

First, his leadership skills are questionable. There were already signs of him losing the team today and anyone who watches the man for at least 30 seconds knows he has no charisma. If he loses the team, I'm not sure he gets kept.

Second, he doesn't have the salary cap excuse. Blank opened his checkbook to give Smith everything he wanted in free agency. If the team doesn't take a significant step forward, it will be a huge mark against Smith.

Next, the Falcons invested top 10 picks in Pitts and London. Smith apparently has no idea how to use Pitts (I legitimately have no idea why they drafted a pass catching TE with Smith as the head coach). And I also question Smith's competence in planning and calling a pass game of any kind. He's seem really out of his depths there. The lack of production from those two is a huge problem for Smith as the clamor about their usage grows week after week.

Next, the QB situation is a disaster. They made a failed run at Watson and alienated the greatest ever Falcon in Matt Ryan. They sign Mariota and draft Ridder. Mariota quits the team and Ridder gets the job. The Falcons had a chance to take a swing at Lamar Jackson and passed on the premise that Ridder is the man. Now Ridder is going down in flames and there's no hope of a fix anytime soon. Bad QB situations get coaches fired.

Finally, Smith does not endear himself to the media or the fans. He's prickly and off-putting. That's going to shorten his rope considerably.

Yes it's only the first year the Falcons are out of payroll hell but I could still see Smith getting the axe. It's less about his record to this point and more about how little he's been able to get out of the offense and how unreasonable he is. You can't be both underperforming and a pain to work with.
 
I wonder if after this year the Falcons will sign Ryan. Ryan isn't gonna sign anywhere this year because of the bad cap situation of signing him. As I understand after this season the Colts won't be able to get out of paying him anything.

Ryan could cater in a new QB. Or at least maybe help ridder.
 
zitothebrave said:
I wonder if after this year the Falcons will sign Ryan. Ryan isn't gonna sign anywhere this year because of the bad cap situation of signing him. As I understand after this season the Colts won't be able to get out of paying him anything.

Ryan could cater in a new QB. Or at least maybe help ridder.
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I don't see Ryan and Arthur Smith reuniting.
 
2021 NFL draft is going to go down as a draft with amazing talent, but so many QBs selected who amounted to jack squat.

Lawrence should be fine.

Zach Wilson looks like ****
Trey Lance failed for SF and looks to probably be a failure
Justin FIelds has been miserable.
Mac Jones peaked as a rookie. And that was middle of the pack. Now he just got benched.

ALl the non-QBs taken in that time frame.

Pitts
Chase
Waddle
Sewell
Horn
Surtain
Devonta Smith
Parsons
Slater
Vera-Tucker

Basically only 2 of them aren't probowl level or borderline probowl levels. 3 if you add in Pitts without a QB.
 
Looks like purdy is the #1 rated QB as per QBR.

He’s a ****ing stud and you could see it from the very beginning.
 
Tapate50 said:
Instead of Pitts I wanted Chase. He was the lock.
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Yup. You always go with the stud WR over the TE. Anyone who takes Bowers over Marvin Harrison Jr in the upcoming draft is a moron as well. And I like Bowers a lot. More than I ever liked Pitts. But I am not taking him top 10 at this very moment over Harrison or Nabers.
 
Because she's crossing over into sports, i'm gonna rehash this one.....

Taylor Swift is a solid 4-5. She looked awful last night.
 
Carp said:
Yup. You always go with the stud WR over the TE. Anyone who takes Bowers over Marvin Harrison Jr in the upcoming draft is a moron as well. And I like Bowers a lot. More than I ever liked Pitts. But I am not taking him top 10 at this very moment over Harrison or Nabers.
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Bowers is one of the top 3 players in College Football right now but I'd agree that you don't take him top 10 if your plan is to keep him at TE. Unless you plan to turn Bowers into a full time receiver (an idea I'm not particularly a fan of) then you don't draft him before the 12-15 range.

Taking a TE with a top 10 pick was bad enough but then to take him and just not use him is inexplicable. What made it even more mind boggling is the Falcons then went out the next year and used another top 10 pick to draft a tall, sure handed possession receiver in London. You already had Pitts who projected as a top notch pass catching TE and went over 1,000 yards his rookie season. Drafting a big chain mover doesn't make sense when you have a TE like that.

I honestly don't know what the Falcons are doing and I'm not sure they know either.
 
The elephant in the room here is that you don't know how good Pitts really is because he has never had a good QB.
 
Tapate50 said:
Not untrue.

But he's not getting separation or making plays with the ball in his hands like you'd expect either.
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I'm sure that is the case - But defenses play differently when they fear the QB so have to mix up zone/man packages. WIth a terrible QB you basically get a free pass to have a vanilla gameplan and it makes it easier on the defensive players.

In addition, against man coverage its on the QB to throw the receiver open. Its on them to identify open windows where you can throw the ball with the right timing to get your receivers in stride despite a defender being close them.
 
striker42 said:
Bowers is one of the top 3 players in College Football right now but I'd agree that you don't take him top 10 if your plan is to keep him at TE. Unless you plan to turn Bowers into a full time receiver (an idea I'm not particularly a fan of) then you don't draft him before the 12-15 range.

Taking a TE with a top 10 pick was bad enough but then to take him and just not use him is inexplicable. What made it even more mind boggling is the Falcons then went out the next year and used another top 10 pick to draft a tall, sure handed possession receiver in London. You already had Pitts who projected as a top notch pass catching TE and went over 1,000 yards his rookie season. Drafting a big chain mover doesn't make sense when you have a TE like that.

I honestly don't know what the Falcons are doing and I'm not sure they know either.
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Pitts was drafted on the delusion that Julio could be reasoned with.

It's simple as that. They took a gamble at one last shot to push the chips in and win, and screwed up royally. It's not that complex honestly, just mismanagement.

London was a bad pick but that was a historically bad draft. Sure you could argue Olave, Wilson, and Williams over him, I wanted Charles Cross but I mean I'm always down to take an OL in the top 10.

Clearly the bigger miss was not realizing Julio was on the way out and drafting Jefferson in 2020.
 
thethe said:
The elephant in the room here is that you don't know how good Pitts really is because he has never had a good QB.
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There are two potential scenarios, either Pitts is as good as expected or he's not. Both are bad looks for Smith and the front office.

It's possible Pitts is as good as expected. He received for over 1,000 yards as a rookie which was the only time he had a competent QB throwing to him and one who could perhaps overcome the limits of the system. But last year and this year he's been largely absent. If he's the guy he looked like at Florida, the combine, and his rookie year then he's being heinously misused. It's not just that the QB play has been bad this year, it has, but that's not all of it. There's not even an attempt to scheme around Pitts. He's an afterthought in the system. If he's actually really good, then this coaching staff has some explaining they need to do and the front office as well.

The other possibility is that Pitts isn't the unicorn people thought. That he's a combine warrior who hasn't been able to adjust to the speed of the pro game and that his rookie stats were more the result of Ryan throwing to him than his ability. If this is the case then Smith and the front office have a huge black mark on them. People questioned drafting a TE in the top 10, much less the top 5 at the time. To draft one and to be wrong about him is a huge embarrassment.

Personally, I think Pitts is capable of a huge amount more than he's been able to show. The QB play for the Falcons the past two years has been some of the worst you'll ever see. Also, I seriously doubt Arthur Smith's ability to design and call a competent passing game and doubt even more his willingness to feature TEs prominently in his offense. I think if you put Pitts out there with a better QB and in a competently run offense, he'd explode.
 
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