What sucks the most is the fact that it got worse and worse after '16. It took three seasons for everything to finally fall apart.
'17 was ok but the issues that we have right now starting surfacing. '18 was a scapegoat year for DQ with the coordinator firings and injuries even though you saw more issues surfacing. '19 has been a culmination of everything and the issues are all in plain sight
It sucks because it was death by a thousand knife cuts instead of a headshot.
We're probably somewhere around a 3 - 4 win team at this point.
I've never been a tanker. I don't think we have to tank. We'll lose trying our hardest.
Chase Young....come on down!
We're probably somewhere around a 3 - 4 win team at this point.
I've never been a tanker. I don't think we have to tank. We'll lose trying our hardest.
Chase Young....come on down!
There are good players in the back half of every round. We even found some. See Grady, Debo, Hoop...
The bottom line is NFL players and coaches will not tank. For many reasons.
Only TATF Tanker Boys, Mocker Fockers, Draftgeeks and losers will. Which are you?
LMAO at tanking for Chase Young. Bout like TATF Tanker Boys tanking for Quinnen Williams last year. Buddy got zero sacks, zero hits and was the 70th ranked interior DLineman coming into this week..
Got an email from my season ticket manager thursday. The Seahawk game is "Fan Appreciation Day" .She is asking ALL Psl/Season Holders who are going to the game to get together before kickoff. Meet us all at the Waffle House at North Druid Hills, the two tables by the window should suffice.
Ryan rump huggers? You got problems.
I have literally seen noone make any excuses.
Everyone who believes Schaub and the falcons will win tommorow please stand up....
See? Noone. Shut up and sit down.
He and his family member agent demanding a contract the week of the Super Bowl and the Falcons caving set an ugly precedent. Then dude flat out denied he missed the blitz on Hightower. Gutless.
Even if Baldinger wasn't interested in the DC job bring him in as a "consultant". Have him breaking down the film in front of the players that are on the film exactly like he is doing here.
We are so, so bad on 3rd down defense. It's become predictable. It'll be 3rd and 12 for the opponent. And every Falcons fan in their head KNOWS the conversion is happening.
Baldy is just outright getting mad now at these guys lol
Really tees off on Campbell and Bailey...but also speaks to the overall confusion and poor effort on this defense. Mentions how historically bad we are and how terrible we are on 3rd down.
Its too early to worry about McGary. A rookie RT is going to struggle. And he will only learn by getting roasted by pro bowl caliber players. If he sucks next year then I'll have issues.
For the fifth consecutive week, the Falcons were forced to walk off the field Sunday on the losing end. The players trudged into the tunnel, down the hallway and into their postgame locker room. Some walked silently by themselves. Some talked about the aftermath of another devastating defeat with one another. Others only could shake their heads knowing the early-year slide continued.
Once the team was inside the locker room, head coach Dan Quinn gave his postgame address. He went over the usual talking points following a loss. But as Quinn wrapped up his postgame talk, receiver Julio Jones raised his hand to speak.
Quinn ceded the floor to Jones, who doesn’t do such a thing often. Jones has long been a lead-by-example type of player. But as one of Atlanta’s primary team leaders, he felt like it was time to speak his mind about how the season has gone.
For the next two minutes or so, Jones delivered what can be described as a passionate speech, which was first reported by WSB-TV’s Zach Klein on Tuesday. Jones looked at his teammates and told them this 1-6 start was strictly the players’ fault. He told everyone, the other 52 players on the roster and 10 on the practice squad, that Quinn and his coaching staff weren’t to blame for the poor performances the team has put forth.
This was a moment that grabbed everyone’s attention in the room.
“Everyone just sat there and watched,” safety Ricardo Allen said. “When he speaks — he doesn’t speak very often — everyone is going to listen. You see him and how much he was hurting, and how frustrated he is, and how confused he is. That’s when you know it’s serious. We need it from everybody around.”
Allen said that in his six years with the franchise, he has seen Jones do such a thing only two or three times previously.
Various teammates mentioned that Jones’ message resonated throughout the locker room after the 37-10 loss Atlanta suffered against the Los Angeles Rams. Some admitted they were caught off guard about Jones’ deciding to speak up. But that’s what leaders do during the tough moments. If anything, Jones certainly grabbed the attention and focus of his teammates when he took command of the floor.
“He was coming from the heart as far as how he felt,” fullback Keith Smith said. “I think a lot of guys feel that way. We’ve got to turn this ship around. It really starts with us because we’re on the field. We have to ignore the outside noise and continue to stay on each other to do the right thing and continue to get better, so we can start turning these losses to wins.”
Said receiver Russell Gage: “He’s a man of few words. Julio, his actions speak a lot louder than words. When he came in and had his way of speaking to us that way — for me, personally, it hit home. He’s somebody that’s been in the league so long, who has played so hard and is so passionate about the way he plays. He expressed it to us like that. It was different.”
Said quarterback Matt Schaub: “A guy like Julio, who doesn’t say a whole lot — he’s pretty quiet, mild-mannered like that. You definitely take notice. But when your teammates speak, it doesn’t matter who it is, you have to take notice and pay attention. It’s in the purpose of the team in what you can do to be better.”
Said linebackers coach Jeff Ulbrich: “It’s who he is, the guy I’ve always seen. He’s a guy who loves the game, who loves this team. He loves this organization. He gives it everything he has. For him to reveal that vulnerable side of himself, I thought, was a powerful message to the team, just with how important it needs to be to get us out of this rut.”
It’s one thing for Jones to step up and assert his leadership over a team that has underperformed through seven games. In this instance, his message was clear from the majority of his short speech. He wanted to make it clear to his teammates that no one in the locker room would blame Quinn and the coaching staff for the season’s shortcomings.
Throughout the history of football at all levels, there are countless examples of a head coach losing the trust and faith of his players during a bad year. The somewhat odd nature of Atlanta’s season is that Quinn hasn’t seen his players quit on him. This is a locker room that is still very much in Quinn’s corner. For a lot of these players, the notion he could be let go at any point during or after the season is troubling.
Of course, that doesn’t excuse the reasons that have played a part in Atlanta’s 1-6 season. After all, when a team fails, the head coach is responsible. Still, it’s worth noting that Quinn has been able to maintain a positive presence in a locker room full of professional football players in the midst of another disappointing season.
Take for instance what these players had to say about playing for Quinn.
Gage: “Coach Quinn has done so much for me and several players here. We understand he’s a great coach and an even better person. When you have that combination, you just want to do more for the person has you here, who has given you an opportunity to be the best player you are. (Jones’ speech) definitely hit home.”
Allen: “It’s not that the coaches aren’t getting it done. We’re not getting it done. We got to be accountable to that. We have to be accountable for our play. We have to be accountable to each other. To me, it just shows he’s stepping up. He’s telling other people it’s time for other people to step up and be accountable to what’s going on.”
Quarterback Matt Ryan: “His message is always different, but it’s fresh. It hits home to where we’re at as a team. He’s done that the entire time that I’ve been with him and he’s been here. He’s been great. Day in and day out he’s high energy, focused on the opponent and what we need to do that week to get the win. I think the guys really appreciate that about him.”
Receiver Calvin Ridley: “He’s definitely a players’ coach. He’s a great coach. He has a lot of energy. He’s not boring, he’s fun. He makes football fun and wants us to get after it. That’s why I like him so much. He loves the game and coaches it the right way.”
Allen: “I’m always fighting for Coach. Coach Q gave me a chance to take care of my family forever. He was the one who got me off of the (practice) squad to come up and be a fighter for him. I’m going to fight to the end forever for him. I know he deserves better.”
Linebacker Foye Oluokun: “That’s out of my control, his future. I’m trying to keep him here. I love him as a coach. He’s really made my time here as a Falcon everything I could dream about. I feel like it’s our duty to keep him here. Other organizations, you hear it’s not the same. It’s our duty to keep him here so we can keep playing how we want to play.”
Owner Arthur Blank was in the postgame locker room when Jones delivered his short speech. It’s easy to believe Blank was impressed with what he saw out of his star receiver.
In the end, however, it comes down to wins and losses in professional sports. If this team remains unable to win games, Blank will be forced to make a decision about a coach he very much admires and respects.
And if the end result is Quinn’s ouster, there will be a lot of assistants and players who probably will feel responsible.
Ulbrich: “I don’t know if there’s a harder working human being on this earth. He probably works 23 and a half hours a day to try to find ways to help the team, to help the coaching staff, to help the organization, to help the fans. He’s tireless. He’s a guy who always points the finger at himself in every circumstance when things go wrong. The players, they see it, they understand how much he loves them and respects them. They want to do right by him. The fact that our record is what it is and we’re playing the way we’re playing, we all feel like we’re letting him down a little bit.”
Smith: “Every game is about Coach Quinn. We’re always playing for him. I don’t think this situation changes anything. It’s just we have to step up to the plate.”
Gage: “A lot of people don’t understand how (Quinn’s mentorship) plays a role as far as coaching, as a player, a team and an organization, and what that bond does. He’s all of that. For us, fighting for him is just so important and so big.”
Ridley: “He’s been trying to motivate us to win games, to be better. We haven’t been playing our best ball. We got to play better for him.”
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