Arthur Smith is a dawg

He certainly has a different demeanor than Coach Bro.

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I like that he's come out and said that there are no entitlements with the Falcons players this year

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I think this is a big reason Julio was traded. Dimitroff and Quinn coddled and babied him to the point where he never practiced and no one cared.

I don't think Arthur Smith is the type to tolerate that kind of bullshite.

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The Falcons really came out on top on that Julio trade after all. I don't even think Julio is signed with a team and pretty sure his career is over.

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So much better to cut ties with a player a year too soon than a year too late. Ole Billy B in NE has made a nice career out of pulling head over heart moves like that.

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So much better to cut ties with a player a year too soon than a year too late. Ole Billy B in NE has made a nice career out of pulling head over heart moves like that.

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Hindsight is 20/20 but Julio should have been traded the day he came in whining about his contract.

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You just don't pay WRs/RBs the massive contracts, period. If you can just convince yourself to never pay either of these groups no matter who the player is, you are already well ahead of half the league.

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It'll get really interesting when teams finally learn that giving QBs these ungodly salaries basically closes your contention window. There is a direct correlation between QB salaries and Super Bowl wins since the rookie wage scale was introduced.

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It'll get really interesting when teams finally learn that giving QBs these ungodly salaries basically closes your contention window. There is a direct correlation between QB salaries and Super Bowl wins since the rookie wage scale was introduced.

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Agree.

As previous poster said, it's basically all playnaking positions at this point. Try to get value free agents and rookie contracts at QB, WR, RB.

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You just don't pay WRs/RBs the massive contracts, period.

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Yup, dime a dozen to replace them with a serviceable player.

Just key to always draft those positions well and use those 4-5 years under a more team friendly deal.

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The falcons had done such a shitty job in the past of developing strength and depth on both lines of scrimmage that they've been forced to overcompensate by relying on pricey skill players.

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That's why I nearly had a stroke with the Drake selection.

I can't recall who was available on the OL/DL at that moment, so I can't truly gauge the grade on that pick, but I physically shut down from the classic "Draft a WR Top 10" move.

The outside to inside draft strategy needs to DIAF

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I can't recall who was available on the OL/DL at that moment

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Jordan Davis was sitting there waiting to fix the run defense problems that the Falcons have had for the last 25 years. Instead they drafted a WR who isn't much faster than Davis.

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You get your franchise QB, you keep your franchise QB. Period.

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This is an archaic way of thinking that has cost many GMs and coaches their jobs and has closed way too many championship windows. The term franchise QB is thrown around way, way, way too loosely. Like it or not, there is damn near a direct correlation between QB salaries and Super Bowl wins since the rookie wage scale was introduced. That correlation is that none of the high paid QBs are winning it.

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You couldn't be my GM.

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If you're an owner who wants to hand out fully guaranteed contracts to someone like Kirk Cousins, I wouldn't want to be your GM. In fact, I'd leave your office laughing as you have just signed your team to 8-8/9-7 hell for the foreseeable future. If that's the "consistency" you're looking for, then you can have it.

The fastest way to football mediocrity is to pay a decent QB like an elite one. Once you pay big bucks to the QB, other key parts of your roster will go elsewhere. At that point, the QB needs to be good enough to carry a team by himself. Most of them aren't.

Fun thought exercise: I'm going to pose two scenarios and you tell me which one you think is better. This will probably explain why our lines of thinking are different. Both scenarios will be hypothetical 10 year windows for a franchise that has never before won a Super Bowl.

Scenario 1: In 10 years, you have 8 playoff appearances, 4 conference championship appearances, 2 Super Bowl appearances and lose them both.

Scenario 2: In 10 years, you have 8 seasons with a losing record, 2 playoff appearances resulting in one loss in the wild card round and a Super Bowl win.

I know my answer. I suspect I know yours too and I think they're different.