Quote:Atlanta had [BAD WORD REMOVED] for talent on defense. He turned around a 4-12 atlanta team into an 11-5/12-4 team his first year there. Atlanta up until the last couple years had terrible drafts. Outside of ryan, julio, and roddy they didnt have a ton. Turner broke down in those later Mike Smith years.


I like Patricia, Shanahan, and co but we went that route with Gus and look where we are. We need a veteran coach whose had success with this young yeam. Young coach+young and inexperienced team whose never had success? Not a great recipe.

 

Just to be clear, I don't think Mike Smith is a terrible coach. I think he's a solid head coach, but I'd prefer to gamble on an offensive minded coach who I believe has higher upside than Smith.

 

I disagree with you on the overall talent of that team. Matt Ryan, Roddy White in his prime, Tony Gonzalez, four years of an ascending Julio Jones, and a couple years of Michael Turner is a damn good offensive unit and there was some okay talent on that defense over the years.

 

Mike Smith also won enough games in seven regular seasons with that talent that he should have managed more than one playoff victory. In fact, he completely blew their shot at a Super Bowl appearance by sitting on a 17 point halftime lead instead of continuing to beat down Seattle like they did in the first half. His clock mismanagement and failure to adjust their game plan cost Atlanta several games over the years.

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