The Atlanta Falcons Epic Fall and Why It’s Happened

The Atlanta Falcons have had an epic fall from NFL grace, but how could it have happened so quickly?

What if I told you the Atlanta Falcons were less than 10 yards away from going to the Super Bowl at the end of the 2012 season, and were coming back the following season with some of the most dangerous offensive players in the league…but yet finished 4-12 the following season, and sit at a disappointing 2-5 in 2014?

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Well, if you’re an NFL fan, and in particular a Falcons fan, you probably already know all that.

But how could a team who was so good — and not just in 2012, but four years prior as well — suddenly plummet to the bottom of the league, and look like the Falcons of old, setting ghastly records for futility?

From 2008-2012, the Falcons were one of the top teams in the NFC, either winning their division or going to the playoffs as a wild card team every season except 2009, which was a 9-7 second place finish and just shy of making the postseason.

In 2013, the team experienced a rash of injuries that would bring practically any team to its knees, and were just unable to win those close games that seemed to magically fall their way in 2012. But the track record of head coach Mike Smith and his staff spoke for itself, and no panic was needed…or so it seemed.

But seven games into the 2014 season, things don’t look any better, and while Atlanta is having another bout with season-ending afflictions, there is something else troubling going on when you watch this team — and where it takes root is not entirely evident — but the Falcons are a team who have lost confidence, and lost their identity.

Everyone seems to have an opinion on what’s wrong with the Falcons and how to fix it. Some theories are tired and almost cliché, while others have little merit at all. Atlanta can’t run the ball. Matt Ryan has no protection. The defense gives up everything the offense gains in terms of points. The Falcons can’t win on the road (OK, well, that one is true).

Even FOX Sports analyst Brian Billick chimed in, saying the problem with the Falcons springs from their lack of talent, especially on defense.

“I can’t think of another team in the league that has less quantifiable talent on it defensively,” Billick told 92.9 The Game in Atlanta, via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, adding that defensive coordinator Mike Nolan had been getting the job done with “smoke and mirrors” for quite some time and that he was out of “mirrors.”

A fair enough assessment, I suppose, if you just look at it from a perspective of “stars” on the unit.

But the argument hardly holds water when you look at the 2013 Seattle Seahawks defense, arguably one of the best of all time. Their starting defensive unit contained four 4th round, two 5th round, and one 7th round pick. The only two starters taken in the first round were OLB Bruce Irvin and FS Earl Thomas.

Seattle’s unquestioned leader on defense, CB Richard Sherman, was one of those 5th rounders.

So it’s apparent that talent doesn’t necessarily come with high draft picks or recognizable names, but it is nurtured and developed by the coaching staff, and that is where the crux of the problems in Atlanta seem to begin.

For his part, Mike Smith should be commended for what he’s done in Atlanta. He took a franchise that had been decimated and left in rubble by the likes of Bobby Petrino, Michael Vick and anyone else who led owner Arthur Blank around by the nose. He stepped into an impossible situation, in his first NFL head coaching job, and brought a franchise to life.

Bravo, Mr. Smith…but…

Pulling all the pieces together, and making a harmonious existence between fans and team possible was only part of the job. And as exceptionally well as Smith has done at that part, he and his staff have failed miserably at the next step…bringing toughness and physicality (much different from undisciplined headhunting) to his team.

The Falcons have spent a huge portion of their draft picks in the Mike Smith-Thomas Dimitroff era (the ones that weren’t given away for wide receiver Julio Jones) on offensive and defensive line, and a few running backs sprinkled in. They’ve taken some players who were “can’t miss” on both sides of the line, but who have simply fizzled out – from injury or just lack of performance.

My suspicion is that if you handed the linemen, defensive backs, and running backs that Atlanta has drafted since 2008 over to Pete Carroll, he’d put together another Super Bowl winner.

Mike Smith is far too diplomatic a coach in most respects, and his staff — OC Dirk Koetter and DC Mike Nolan — got in over their depth when they signed on with Atlanta. They came on board in 2012 to replace Mike Mularkey and Brian VanGorder, respectively, but things haven’t necessarily improved.

Koetter has a slew of offensive weapons at his disposal, and most of what the players have accomplished has been more through their own talent and ability to improvise on the field, rather than through careful scheming to utilize their talents. For Nolan’s part, it seems perhaps the game has passed him by. The Falcons defense, even when loaded with Pro Bowl players, underperformed regularly, and was generally the undoing of the team’s postseason aspirations.

No, the fall of the Falcons isn’t about players, or talent, its about the kind of coaching that is desperately needed, especially for the infusion of youth Atlanta has had over the past two seasons.

But it doesn’t stop with the coach. Those who sit on high should shoulder a big share of the blame as well. General Manager Thomas Dimitroff has made some questionable deals, and let several experienced players walk (John Abraham, Brent Grimes, Todd McClure, and Curtis Lofton, just to name a few) who could have had big contributions to Atlanta’s future success.

Since the disastrous 2013 season, experts and analysts around the country have said words to the familiar tune of “Atlanta has too much talent to be a 4-win team. This season was an anomaly,” and if you glance at a roster containing Matt Ryan, Roddy White, Julio Jones, Steven Jackson, and until this season, Tony Gonzalez, you’d have to agree.

But talent isn’t going to win games in the NFL, not for long. It takes coaching, and that coaching has to siphon through the veteran players and become a mindset and an identity.

Right now Atlanta’s veterans are being fed the indifferent type of mantra that my friend and veteran Atlanta sports journalist Beau Bock absolutely despises and loves to use as a needle to the eye…

“We’re gonna review the tape and make the necessary corrections.”

Sad to say, those corrections may need to start with the coaching staff.

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