ATLANTA — No coach is handed a perfect team, though some teams are more imperfect than others. There are two ways to handle this. One is to shrug and say, “I need better players.” This generally leads to unemployment. The other is to do the best you can with what you have.
Arthur Smith inherited a team that had gone 18-30 over three seasons despite having spent big on high-profile talent. The almost-universal belief was that the Falcons would need to get worse — assuming that was possible — before getting better. Two months after Smith took the job, Julio Jones was traded to Tennessee. Todd Gurley wasn’t offered a new contract. Ricardo Allen was cut. Alex Mack and Keanu Neal left as free agents.
In his first season as a head coach, Smith had a 36-year-old quarterback and not much else. Desperation being the mother of position changes, he turned Cordarrelle Patterson, a 30-year-old wide receiver, into a feature back. When Calvin Ridley, a second-team All-Pro in 2020, stepped aside after five games to tend to his mental health, Matt Ryan was left with wideouts Russell Gage, a Round 6 draftee, and Olamide Zaccheaus, who wasn’t drafted.
