A pair of former Tennessee Titans are reuniting with the Atlanta Falcons after the team traded for tight end Jonnu Smith recently.
Jonnu will be joining his former tight ends coach and offensive coordinator with the Titans, Arthur Smith, who has been the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons for the past two seasons.
More importantly for Jonnu, Arthur is someone who knows how to get the most out of him.
Prior to his disastrous tenure with the New England Patriots, Jonnu had his two most productive seasons in Tennessee, tallying 887 yards and 11 scores in that span.
“[If] I’ve got to answer these questions all day, I’ll keep answering them, man, because you know that [Arthur Smith] means so much to me and what he’s done and helped me get to my career,” he said of Arthur, per D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“[He’s] just a wonderful, wonderful human being. It’s an honor to be playing with him. Art believed in me for all of my NFL career,” he added. “It’s a blessing to be reunited with him, a guy who knows how to take advantage of my abilities… I’m just grateful.”
After signing a massive four-year, $50 million deal that certainly raised eyebrows at the time, Jonnu was unable to live up to the contract and ended up finishing with just 539 yards and one touchdown over two seasons.
Despite his struggles with the Pats, Jonnu was able to draw a positive from his time under head coach Bill Belichick.
“Bill is kind of defensive-minded, but he knows offense just as well,” Jonnu said, per Ashton Edmunds of the Falcons’ official website. “Just being able to see it from a defensive side and kind of get into a mind of a coordinator and see what they’re thinking — he gave me a heads up and a few nuggets here and there to help my game that much more.”
It won’t be long before Arthur and Jonnu are reunited with more of their old friends from Tennessee, as the Falcons are set to visit the Titans in 2023.
