not a falcon fan, but TD has fugged up this franchise,,, he is horrible at drafting.... the only draft pick from the first rd he got right so far is Julio Jones.... hate to say it but Vic Beasley is looking like a bust.
then yall fire the most successful coach in franchise history in mike smith,,, he only had two bad seasons...
Good Luck filling up that brand new shiny stadium, nobody is going to pay those astronomical fees for tickets or PSL's... that a dumb move from Blank, who have absolutely no football sense, dude has like 5 GM's on his staff... then hires a dude from Mercedes Benz to handle day to day operations.
To be fair TD, drafted Matt, drafted Trufant and obviously Julio. At the time Spoon & Baker both looked like good picks but both got derailed b/c of injuries and a decline in play. But since the 2015 draft and the front office restructure that followed, I'm not sure how much of the responsibility of the draft you can put on TD...I'm by no means a TD fan and agree that he should've been fired at the same time as Smitty based on his track record at that point for his overall body of work (in FA and a lack of overall player development). But if we're to believe that Quinn has control over the final 53, then we've got to call a spade a spade and acknowledge that TD didn't make these draft picks by himself in the last couple seasons. If/when he gets fired, it's as a lame duck scapegoat to appease the fanbase...he should've BEEN fired off of merit 2 years ago, but he'll get fired b/c now it's gives Blank a convenient out for "sticking with him". In reality Blank stuck with him too long and jacked up his organizational structure in the process. What GM is going to want to come to a team with 3-4 other GMs on board in various front office capacities and a coach with final say over the final 53 when the coach isn't exactly on the surest footing himself right now. Blank set this franchise back 5-7 years with that FO restructuring decision
As for Smitty, his firing was justified. The team peaked in 2012 and started to fall off rather quickly after that. The draft of 2013, which provided a complete list of busts currently no longer with the team, Matt Ryan's contract which severely impacted the team's ability to retain talent and personnel decisions that saw us lose impact players like Jon Abraham and sign guys like Steven Jackson, Osi, etc accelerated the end of Smitty's chapter. Great guy and Im happy he's doing well in Tampa, but bad drafts, personnel moves and the fact Smitty was never a great tactician to begin with justified his firing IMO. It wasn't getting better so saying he only had two bad seasons is missing the bigger picture of what this team was trending to.
As I've said before I'm not sure if DQ knows how to be a HC. The nuance, feel for the game and in game decision making leave a lot to be desired. Remember, Quinn was hired as a guy to get the defense right with the assumption the offense would stay at a top 10 level. What has happened is that he hired a meddlesome & arrogant OC who has stifled the offense and the game of the team's franchise player, Matt Ryan. Every decision this team makes should be to make it as easy for #2 to flourish as possible. The previous regime understood that. This one almost seems willfully ignorant to do what it takes to put these players in the best positions to succeed