Should have gone 100% full rebuild last year

[tbhawksfan]

Authur Smith declared defiantly at the beginning of last season, his first as a HC, that the Falcons were not rebuilding. Carried by the corpse of Matt Ryan he was able to produce a 7-10 record. Not bad given the pitiful roster/cap situation. Unfortunately in their attempt to not rebuild despite absolute necessity, they extended some players in an attempt to not rebuild. Most noteably Ryan

Fast forward to now and we are more than half way through Smith's second season and things are in shambles. 4-6 and free falling. Moves that could have been / should have been made were not in the effort to not rebuild. Unfortunately the Falcons were a team in absolute need of a rebuild.

I 100% wanted to go full Miami Dolphins rebuild in Smith / TF first season. Trade everything of value and bite the salary cap bullet immediately to go all in on a complete rebuild. Ryan, gone. Jake, gone. Grady, gone. Not by desire, but by necessity. Instead of that we got Arthur Smith and his defiant strategy.

I am relunctant to say that I forsee big problems going into next season. Where are we going to get a competant NFL QB? Is it Ridder? Even if, by miracle, he is that, it will take him time and given Smith's decision to play lost cause Mariota for a full season, Ridder has gotten no time. If it's not Ridder, then we have a longterm problem. We are not going to find a good QB in free agency. So if it's not Ridder we will eventually have to draft one. How long until all this happens and we can develop that QB into a winner?

I fully expect to see some improvement in the team next year talent wise. We have cap and new regime will have had three drafts. Problem is that these improvements likely won't lead to a truely competitive team next season. QB will remain a huge problem even if the rest of the team is vastly improved. Either Ridder finally gets his chance and blows up or we're in for a long rebuild.

Is there another avenue to find our next viable QB? Are we going to draft one ? Still need to develop. Smith has made a fatal error for the team and for himself as HC. He has neglected the most important position in football now two years into his tenure.

[JDaveG]

[DonDaLuvMaker]

 

AS spent year 1 evaluating what he had on the roster.

 

He then decided to move on from Ryan and made a few moves that was possible with a strapped salary cap.

[DonDaLuvMaker]

 

Also can't go into full rebuild mode when you don't have enough cap to do so and players under bad contracts year 1.

[hjerry]

With the Cap lowered as it was last season, restructuring Ryan was about our only choice to get under. 

Had it been a normal Cap year, we very well may have done that 

[tbhawksfan]

3 minutes ago, DonGonnaFindTFOut said:

 

AS spent year 1 evaluating what he had on the roster.

 

He then decided to move on from Ryan and made a few moves that was possible with a strapped salary cap.

Do you really think that he needed that year to evaluate the dire situation the team was in? I don't. As a qualified NFL man it should have been obvious. Man some of you are just ready to throw years away.

[tbhawksfan]

1 minute ago, DonGonnaFindTFOut said:

 

Also can't go into full rebuild mode when you don't have enough cap to do so and players under bad contracts year 1.

Right. Just push the bad situation back more. Great solution

[JDaveG]

Just now, tbhawksfan said:

Right. Just push the bad situation back more. Great solution

As opposed to you thinking a new HC and GM is going to get us on the fast track?

[DonDaLuvMaker]

2 minutes ago, tbhawksfan said:

Do you really think that he needed that year to evaluate the dire situation the team was in? I don't. As a qualified NFL man it should have been obvious. Man some of you are just ready to throw years away.

 

How can you go into full rebuild with a strapped salary cap and players tied into bad contracts?

 

Also, AS isn't the only HC to come in and spent year 1 evaluating the roster they had. Pete Carrol and Andy Reid did the same thing.

 

Also wasting years? To who? You? Lol. Only time that matters is how long Blank gives AS and TF. They could have been given a good time frame to build this team.

 

Like I've said, patience.

[oSI7ENT]

12 minutes ago, DonGonnaFindTFOut said:

 

AS spent year 1 evaluating what he had on the roster.

 

He then decided to move on from Ryan and made a few moves that was possible with a strapped salary cap.

[tbhawksfan]

5 minutes ago, JDaveG said:

As opposed to you thinking a new HC and GM is going to get us on the fast track?

Fast track would be great. Right track would be good. What track are we on? Mariota is going to be out there again and the team looks to be ready for a free fall.

[DonDaLuvMaker]

6 minutes ago, tbhawksfan said:

Right. Just push the bad situation back more. Great solution

 

This ain't Madden.

 

Way more things go into building a team based on the situation they inherited from the previous regime.

[Jesus]

The biggest weakness on the team is under center. A competent QB who makes the simple throws and this team is 7-3 or better. He evaluated and chose Marcus to be his guy. Take that for what it is...

[dirtybirds233]

In what world was last year not a rebuild?

[JDaveG]

Just now, tbhawksfan said:

Fast track would be great. Right track would be good. What track are we on? Mariota is going to be out there again and the team looks to be ready for a free fall.

We're on the right track for sure.  We did this year exactly what you say you wanted us to do last year, only without the silly part about getting rid of Matthews and Grady.  We're sitting on a ton of cap space next year so we can be players in free agency for the first time since TF and Smith got here (that would not be the case this year if we'd blown it up last year, by the way -- just getting rid of Ryan alone would require spreading his hit over 2 seasons where this year we got to do it in 1).  

If you're right and we're about to free fall, we'll have a high draft pick and we're already stocked with picks so we can make a move up if we want a QB or a game changer at edge or whatever.  Not to mention the team is playing above its head given the dead cap and lack of talent on the roster.  The arrow is pointing up.  Why you're expecting more than we're getting now is something only you can answer, but realistically, this is a 7-8 win team at best this season, and maybe a 4-6 win team at worst.  When you get rid of your best players and take huge dead cap hits without any resources to replace them, that's to be expected.  It's what most reasonable people expected.

[Swayzee]

14 minutes ago, hjerry said:

With the Cap lowered as it was last season, restructuring Ryan was about our only choice to get under. 

Had it been a normal Cap year, we very well may have done that 

That goes 100% the narrative that TF and AS took the job because of Ryan. That was certainly posted about 500x last season, from the Ryan crew.

So confused...

[tbhawksfan]

1 minute ago, DonGonnaFindTFOut said:

 

This ain't Madden.

 

Way more things go into building a team based on the situation they inherited from the previous regime.

And as paid pros they shouldn't need a year to know that. A bunch of people on here talking about Smith being more intelligent than everybody. I don't see it. Marcus freakin Mariota....

Didn't even inherent him, actually went out and gave him money to the detriment of developping Ridder. And don't talk to me about the OL. Coach's job to put the OL in a position to secceed. Coach's job to make put everyone in position to succeed

[DonDaLuvMaker]

2 minutes ago, dirtybirds233 said:

In what world was last year not a rebuild?

 

Exactly. Especially if you can't do much cap wise.

 

Year 1 evaluating the roster is the biggest step for most coaches with a highly paid QB already on the roster.

[tbhawksfan]

4 minutes ago, dirtybirds233 said:

In what world was last year not a rebuild?

In the world where we re-signed and extended instead of trading for picks. In the world where Mariots is signed to play in front of Ridder

[tbhawksfan]

5 minutes ago, JDaveG said:

We're on the right track for sure.  We did this year exactly what you say you wanted us to do last year, only without the silly part about getting rid of Matthews and Grady.  We're sitting on a ton of cap space next year so we can be players in free agency for the first time since TF and Smith got here (that would not be the case this year if we'd blown it up last year, by the way -- just getting rid of Ryan alone would require spreading his hit over 2 seasons where this year we got to do it in 1).  

If you're right and we're about to free fall, we'll have a high draft pick and we're already stocked with picks so we can make a move up if we want a QB or a game changer at edge or whatever.  Not to mention the team is playing above its head given the dead cap and lack of talent on the roster.  The arrow is pointing up.  Why you're expecting more than we're getting now is something only you can answer, but realistically, this is a 7-8 win team at best this season, and maybe a 4-6 win team at worst.  When you get rid of your best players and take huge dead cap hits without any resources to replace them, that's to be expected.  It's what most reasonable people expected.

I predicted 6-7 wins. That's not the issue. Delaying necessary moves to ensure those 6-7 wins is

[DonDaLuvMaker]

Just now, tbhawksfan said:

And as paid pros they shouldn't need a year to know that. A bunch of people on here talking about Smith being more intelligent than everybody. I don't see it. Marcus freakin Mariota....

Didn't even inherent him, actually went out and gave him money to the detriment of developping Ridder. And don't talk to me about the OL. Coach's job to put the OL in a position to secceed. Coach's job to make put everyone in position to succeed

 

Mariota was signed year 2 because he already knew the system. He's the bridge QB to the future of the franchise.

 

Mariota's deal is basically a 1 year deal if they cut him. Ridder is developing behind him.

 

You expected AS to make this team a contender by year 2?

[Lethal]

16 minutes ago, tbhawksfan said:

Right. Just push the bad situation back more. Great solution

Huh?  TF did the opposite of what you are describing.  TF said so himself they were taking it on the chin this year to accelerate the process in the coming years.  Pushing the bad situation back more would have been doing what TD would have done and continued restructuring and extending and restructuring and extending.

[DonDaLuvMaker]

1 minute ago, tbhawksfan said:

I predicted 6-7 wins. That's not the issue. Delaying necessary moves to ensure those 6-7 wins is

 

What nessary moves is he delaying exactly with no cap?

[Tribal Chief]

This will be fun to read later

[DonDaLuvMaker]

Just now, Lethal said:

Huh?  TF did the opposite of what you are describing.  TF said so himself they were taking it on the chin this year to accelerate the process in the coming years.  Pushing the bad situation back more would have been doing what TD would have done and continued restructuring and extending and restructuring and extending.

 

Exactly!!!!

 

People are impatient and don't understand the plan.