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Arthur Smith

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Arthur Smith 

Post#1 » by atlantabbq99 » Sat Jan 16, 2021 8:24 pm

He did a great job with Ryan Tannehill.

Coach Smith will probably be the one deciding if it will be Fields or Zach.
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Re: Arthur Smith 

Post#2 » by Jamaaliver » Sun Jan 17, 2021 6:24 am

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Re: Arthur Smith 

Post#3 » by Jamaaliver » Sun Jan 24, 2021 4:26 am

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Re: Arthur Smith 

Post#4 » by Jamaaliver » Sat Jan 30, 2021 4:32 pm

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Atlanta Falcons: Arthur Smith

Grade: B+

Smith is going to return Atlanta to its most successful offensive system in the Matt Ryan era. The former Titans offensive coordinator has perfected the wide-zone system that Kyle Shanahan has repopularized throughout the NFL. If Atlanta was going to rebuild, Smith would probably not be the kind of organizational catalyst right for the task of, say, eventually trading Ryan and Julio Jones and reaping the available capital. He is in the perfect position to inject some offensive competence right away and get the Falcons to a place where they can compete in a division that has (likely) lost Drew Brees.
Before the news of a Deshaun Watson trade hits, I would put Smith in the pole position for coach of the year frontrunner, given the ceiling of the roster and how quickly he should be able to turn the offense around.
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Re: Arthur Smith 

Post#5 » by Jamaaliver » Sat Mar 6, 2021 4:30 pm

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Arthus Smith: Without Derrick Henry, we’ll use multiple backs and trust our scheme

Arthur Smith has benefitted from calling plays for running back Derrick Henry for the last two seasons. He’s well aware things will change now that he’s the head coach in Atlanta.

“We’re not going to have Derrick Henry here,” Smith said, via D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Hand it off and watch him stiff-arm 15 people and go 99 [yards]. … You’d love to have that, but that’s not reality.”

Instead, Smith envisions a committee approach to running back, emphasizing the system for its effectiveness.

“The reality is that we’ll get multiple backs in here, and we’ll have the way we trust our schemes and the way we teach the details of it, and we’ll commit to it,” Smith said. “That should provide hope to people because of that mindset.”
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Re: Arthur Smith 

Post#6 » by Jamaaliver » Tue May 31, 2022 1:46 am

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Re: Arthur Smith 

Post#7 » by Jamaaliver » Tue Oct 25, 2022 3:21 pm

A Smith has done a heckuva a job this season. I'm thoroughly impressed. Just imagine what he can do once he gets a real QB onboard.
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Re: Arthur Smith 

Post#8 » by HMFFL » Wed Nov 2, 2022 8:44 am

Jamaaliver wrote:A Smith has done a heckuva a job this season. I'm thoroughly impressed. Just imagine what he can do once he gets a real QB onboard.
I'm looking forward to the off-season when Matt Ryan and Julio Jones are off the books. We need flexibility.

For now, let's win the division.

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Re: Arthur Smith 

Post#9 » by Jamaaliver » Wed Nov 2, 2022 12:05 pm

Arthur Smith’s Run-Heavy Falcons Aren’t What You Think

Yes, Atlanta is running the football like almost no other team in football. But that may not be to the team’s detriment.

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Since joining the Falcons last season, head coach Arthur Smith has become known as much for his schematic acumen as he has for his gruff exchanges with the media.
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Smith’s stubborn attitude with the press has extended to the gridiron. While the Falcons got off to a surprisingly strong 3-3 start this year, they faltered during last Sunday’s 35-17 loss to the Bengals, in which Atlanta inexplicably passed just 13 times—the second-fewest attempts in a game this season—despite trailing by at least two scores for more than 81 percent of the contest. Even when the Falcons trailed by 18 in the fourth quarter, an aerial attack still wasn’t the answer, as Mariota threw just three times compared to the offense’s five rushes.

On the year, Atlanta is tied for first in early-down rush rate (64 percent), and they’re passing just 37 percent of the time in the second halves of games—the lowest rate of any team over the past 10 years. These numbers are shocking, especially when considering Atlanta enters the third quarter down by an average of four points per game.

It doesn’t take a machine-learning model to realize that Smith could call more pass plays, and it’s easy to pile on the coach for a gameplan that seemed designed to take football back to the leatherhead era. But Smith is no dummy, and it’s worth examining why he favors the run so heavily—even when trailing by three scores late in the game.

To his credit, Smith’s team is playing above its talent level for a second consecutive season after the coach led Atlanta to a better-than-expected 7-10 record in 2021. The offense has been particularly impressive, given the loss of franchise cornerstone Matt Ryan, and currently ranks ninth in DVOA after finishing 28th in the same category last year.

Kyle Pitts and Drake London fantasy football managers may hate to hear it, but Smith’s reliance on a high-volume run game is the product of production, not dogma. Through seven weeks, the Falcons’ points per drive (2.1), as well as their rushing (.04) and passing (.06) expected points added per play, rank among the NFL’s top 10, and their explosive play rate (11 percent) grades out right around league average. Atlanta’s also become much more efficient in the red zone under journeyman starting quarterback Marcus Mariota: a limited passer, but a player whose mobility gives the Falcons an added dimension near the goal line that they haven’t had since Michael Vick left town.

On the surface, Mariota has played well this season. He currently ranks among the league’s top 10 signal callers in passing and rushing EPA and rushing yards, and is extending drives with his feet in ways Falcons fans rarely saw from Ryan during his 14 years with the franchise. That said, the former no. 2 pick’s right arm has left a lot to be desired, as his inaccurate pass rate ranks 34th out of 35 qualified quarterbacks in the NFL, ahead of only Justin Fields.

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Mariota started the year strong, but Smith seems to have lost faith in his starting quarterback sometime over the past three weeks, as Atlanta has averaged just 17 passes per game during that stretch and is now on pace for the second-fewest pass attempts per game by a team since 1990. This isn’t strictly a vote of no confidence in Mariota, though, as the Falcons’ winning formula under Smith has always been rooted in commitment to a wide-zone run game that he’s been tweaking since his time as the Titans offensive coordinator. After Ryan’s departure, Smith and the Falcons’ offensive brass wisely crafted an even more rush-heavy offense tailored to Mariota—which includes plenty of rollouts, smoke-and-mirror run concepts out of the pistol formation, and a league-high play-action rate—that has kept their bottom-five roster competitive each week.

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The offense’s precipitous dropoff in early-down pass rate from 2021 to 2022 is the clearest evidence of the Falcons’ new blueprint in the post-Ryan era. And, on the whole, the plan is working. Though they’ve lost their best playmaker Cordarrelle Patterson to injury, and Pitts and London have become afterthoughts in the offense, three of the team’s four losses have come by a combined 11 points, and they sit atop a vulnerable NFC South at 3-4.

Atlanta’s coaching staff is also hamstrung by a defense that boasts just two former first-round picks as starters, which is tied for the fewest in football. Against the Bengals two weeks ago, the defense allowed 459 passing yards—the second-most by a team all season. Heading into their Week 8 matchup with the Panthers, Atlanta’s defense ranks bottom five in yards per play allowed, pressure rate, and opponent points per drive.

The NFL’s best teams can win multiple ways, often relying on late-game quarterback heroics or timely sacks and interceptions from big-play defenses. Atlanta can win in basically only one: by controlling the football and limiting what they ask their quarterback and defense to do. That their coach understands this makes him clever, not foolish.

...the Falcons typically win because of Smith’s tactical decisions, not in spite of them. Outside of Mike Vrabel and Mike Tomlin, there’s not a coach in football that’s achieved more with less talent than Smith has over the past two seasons since inheriting a fundamentally flawed roster and one of the league’s worst cap situations.

The NFC South is up for grabs, and if Smith continues to keep the Falcons competitive in games they have no business winning, his team may string together enough victories to host a playoff game come January.

A strong culture without talent may not win Super Bowls, but neither does talent without a strong culture—which is arguably more difficult to develop. Next offseason the Falcons will enter free agency with the financial flexibility to plug major roster holes after years of being in cap purgatory. Their defense should improve immediately, and they’ll likely be one step closer to finding the quarterback of the future—whether that’s through the draft, the trade market, or an in-house option like Desmond Ridder.
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Re: Arthur Smith 

Post#10 » by atlantabbq99 » Sun Oct 15, 2023 8:54 pm

Clearly Arthur Smith is incompetent and needs to be fired.

Horrible play calling, horrible team construction, and multiple guys on the field who are not prepared all point to a horrible coach with no leadership skills.

Instead of drafting and building a team around Justin Fields, Jalen Carter, and Kyle Hamilton, the Falcons have let this idiot coach drive the franchise into a ditch.
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Re: Arthur Smith 

Post#11 » by Jamaaliver » Mon Oct 16, 2023 1:39 pm

Yesterday wasn't great.

The criticism and skepticism is definitely warranted right now.

I will say, any issues with team construction should be laid at the feet of General Manager Terry Fontenot.
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Re: Arthur Smith 

Post#12 » by Jamaaliver » Mon Oct 16, 2023 1:40 pm

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Re: Arthur Smith 

Post#13 » by Jamaaliver » Tue Oct 17, 2023 11:48 am

For someone who is so stoic and short with the press, Arthur sure over emotes on the sideline.

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Re: Arthur Smith 

Post#14 » by atlantabbq99 » Mon Oct 23, 2023 4:21 pm

I'm still not a fan of Arthur Smith, but at least its good that he learned from his mistakes from last week and Field Goals Matter!
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Re: Arthur Smith 

Post#15 » by Jamaaliver » Mon Oct 30, 2023 2:49 am

It's really hard to defend some of this dude's decision-making.

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Re: Arthur Smith 

Post#16 » by Jamaaliver » Mon Nov 13, 2023 12:44 am

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Re: Arthur Smith 

Post#17 » by Jamaaliver » Tue Nov 14, 2023 2:55 am

I believe this is the right decision. Use the rest of the season to evaluate Arthur Smith and make a change in the offseason if necessary.

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Re: Arthur Smith 

Post#18 » by Jamaaliver » Wed Nov 15, 2023 6:14 pm

A picture is worth a thousand words...

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Re: Arthur Smith 

Post#19 » by Jamaaliver » Mon Dec 18, 2023 7:47 pm

Losing to the 1-win Panthers might be the breaking point.

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Re: Arthur Smith 

Post#20 » by atlantabbq99 » Mon Jan 8, 2024 3:27 pm

Did the Falcons fire Arthur Smith because they think they have a chance at Belicheick???

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