Okay, I'll come out and flat out say it... It's time for Mike Smith to go. The only question is whether Arthur Blank waits until the end of the season or says adios early. Blank has fired two head coaches (Reeves and Mora). One came before the end of the season, and one right after the season ended. So offhand, I'd say that one could go either way. At this point, my guess is that he will NOT make the move during the bye week. With the rest of the NFC South being as bad as us, we're still "competitive" in the division race. But keep in mind that our first two games after the bye are road games against divisional opponents. Lose both of those, and our chances drop dramatically. And I'm sure everyone here got the tone of the "Eight Simple Steps" post. In my view, most of our roster woes fall on general manager Thomas Dimitroff. The simplest way to put it is that building and maintaining depth is the very essence of his job. He had a good run, but the party's over. I'm certain this season is it for Smitty. Not so sure AB will pull the trigger on Dimitroff. Our next head coach (and perhaps next GM) will have some interesting decisions to make. The following are our players that will become free agents: Javier Arenas, Kroy Biermann, Cameron Bradfield, Matt Bryant, Gabe Carimi, Mike Johnson, Dwight Lowery, Cliff Matthews, Robert McClain, Bear Pascoe, Corey Peters, Jacquizz Rodgers, Jonathan Scott, Antone Smith, Osi Umenyiora, Sean Weatherspoon, Eric Weems, Josh Wilson, T.J. Yates. Drew Davis, Patrick DiMarco and Harland Gunn will be restricted free agents. And the following players will be entering their final contract years. The new regime would not incur any additional cap hits if they chose to release or trade any of the following: Harry Douglas, Joe Hawley, Lamar Holmes, Steven Jackson, Julio Jones, Peter Konz, Jonathan Massaquoi. We should not be in for any compensatory draft picks in the upcoming draft. However, we have all of our own picks plus an extra seventh rounder from the Rams. (It's the last remnant of the trade for Desmond Trufant. We gave up a third and a sixth to move up in the first, but they threw us back an extra seventh rounder two years in the future.) Our current practice squad: CB Ricardo Allen, OT Reid Fragel, S Kimario McFadden, TE Kyle Miller, WR Bernard Reedy, OG/DT Adam Replogle, DT Travian Robertson, LB Jacques Smith, RB Jerome Smith, WR Ryan Spadola. The team also has LB prospect Marquis Spruill among the IR players, plus S prospect Zeke Motta currently on the PUP list. So there you have it... put yourself in the role of our next GM, and start mulling over what roster moves you would want to make.
The new GM is the most interesting question for the end of the season. Arthur Blank is not happy, and unless the team has an amazing turnaround in the second half of the season, we will see some changes as soon as the season ends. Mike Smith is as good as gone. The key question is whether Dimitroff is out the door with him. Overall, he has been a good GM and has made a lot of very good moves. He also has some bad tendencies, and he has certainly had his share of moves that haven't turned out as planned. Unfortunately, after seven years the players that he inherited from Dan Reeves and Rich McKay are now either gone or in their sunset years. So now we're leaning on nearly all Dimitroff acquisitions, and the misfires are really coming back to bite us. Offhand, I'd say that unfortunately, he deserves to be gone. Building and maintaining depth is his primary responsibility, and for the last two years we simply haven't had it - with his moves or lack of moves being a key factor within a couple of units.
I believe it was Bill Barnwell on Grantland that assessed Dimitroff's style. The premise was that Dimitroff's approach to building a team was "stars and scrubs." Sometimes it works (the trade for Julio Jones) Sometimes its a disaster (when Julio Jones got injured) So sorry Torgo, Dimitroff is never going to be interested in building depth. He's going to have a top heavy team of stars, and have undrafted rookie free agents (whom he may have drafted in the 5th round ) backing them up.
I'd replace "scrubs" with "projects" if we're referring to his intentions. The key difference is that Dimitroff has consistently aimed for players that would theoretically develop into the solid pieces that Atlanta needs. More often than not, it hasn't worked out. And that's when we have turned to the true scrubs. A few of those projects that DID work out: Michael Palmer, Vance Walker, Kroy Biermann, Harry Douglas, Will Svitek, Corey Peters, Joe Hawley, Antone Smith, Jonathan Massaquoi. Projects that did NOT work out include: Chevis Jackson, Robert James, Thomas Brown, Wilrey Fontenot, Keith Zinger, Chris Owens, Lawrence Sidbury, William Middleton, Garrett Reynolds, Spencer Adkins, Mike Johnson, Dominique Franks, Kerry Meier, Shann Schillinger, Akeem Dent, Andrew Jackson, Bradie Ewing, Charles Mitchell, and others. Yeah, it's a long list. If anyone wants to contend that we haven't done a particularly good job developing fringe talent under Smith/Dimitroff, the list above is Exhibit A. Of course, if we're referring to the end results, "scrubs" fits quite well - and the list above shows the true mediocrity of our draft classes over the last seven years.
The falcons could win next week against Carolina. The question to you guys. Do you want the falcons to start winning and save mike smiths job, or keep losing and start the rebuilding phase?
Keep winning. I hate this theory that losing and getting the 5th overall pick is somehow light-years better than winning and getting the 11th overall pick. This isn't the NBA or Hockey or Madden 15, the NFL draft is a total crapshoot.
I'll second that. If we somehow end up being kings of the dung heap that is the NFC South, we'd end up with the 21st or later draft pick. Even if we finish with a losing record and get blown out in the playoff game, we'd still be 21st. But I'd still rather win and get that chance at the postseason instead of tanking just for the draft pick.
