The day after the Falcons fired coach Arthur Smith, franchise owner Arthur Blank and CEO Rich McKay explained how they would go about hiring the next one. It was a surreal scene. The duo sounded as if they had it all figured out. You’d think they were running a winning organization that hit a speed bump instead of one that just finished its sixth straight losing season.
Now, here it is a year later, and the Falcons are losers again. The 44-38 loss to the Panthers on Sunday sent them into the offseason with an 8-9 record. Their playoff fate was sealed before the overtime period because the Bucs (10-7) had already beaten the Saints to win the NFC South for a fourth straight year.
“We did not come out to play defense today and they got us,” Falcons coach Raheem Morris said.
That was the story from Sunday for the Falcons. The story of their season was the ill-fated decision to sign quarterback Kirk Cousins for $100 million guaranteed. The story for the franchise is seven straight losing seasons.
Blank hired Morris and signed Cousins to end the futility. Both player and coach failed to make the Falcons winners. Blank’s teams have been losers for all but two seasons over the past 12.
The Falcons finished 7-10 in all three seasons with Smith as coach. The first two were spent climbing out of their deep salary-cap hole. Blank hired Morris with the goal of an instant turnaround. He got a one-game improvement and another losing season. That’s after the Falcons were 6-3 with a two-game lead over the Bucs in the South.
Morris said he wasn’t ready to talk about what went wrong in the aftermath of his team’s sixth loss in the last eight games.
“We’ll talk about those things as we move forward and we go into the offseason and find out what’s necessary to get ready to compete at the highest level,” Morris said.
Once Morris gets around to cataloging the failures of this season, it’s not hard to guess what will be at the top of the list. The four-game losing streak in the middle of the season coincided with Cousins’ declining play. He was among the NFL’s least effective starters for a month. Morris finally benched Cousins after the Falcons overcame his poor play to win at Las Vegas in Week 15.
Morris should look at his own mistakes, too. He bungled the clock management near the end of regulation during the OT loss at Washington in Week 17. After that loss, Morris cited rookie quarterback Michael Penix’s inexperience in late-game situations. Penix played in just one exhibition game and Morris didn’t play him late during a blowout loss at Minnesota in Week 14.
Penix was among the bright spots for the Falcons during their late-season slide. He was solid in his first start against the Giants, better at Washington and finished with a great performance against the Panthers. Penix passed for 312 yards on 38 attempts with two passing touchdowns, one rushing touchdown and one interception that wasn’t his fault.
“As an organization, that was our big-time plan was to have him come in and hold he clipboard (this season) and be able to learn from a veteran like Kirk,” Morris said. “Obviously, that process got sped up a little but for him. But him being able to do the things he’s done and has shown (is) realistically he light at the end of the tunnel for us.”
The Falcons may have found their quarterback. The challenge will be improving the rest of the roster once the Falcons inevitably part ways with Cousins.
Releasing Cousins will leave a huge charge on their salary-cap sheet. Trading Cousins would be less financially painful, but the Falcons aren’t likely to find any takers. Blank praised general manager Terry Fontenot for fixing the cap after the Falcons traded Matt Ryan. Fontenot will end up damaging it again by gambling on a quarterback who turned 36-years old in August and had Achilles surgery on Nov. 1, 2023.
Fontenot must figure out to improve the team’s defense with limited resources. The Falcons are set to pick in the mid-teens in the first round of this year’s draft. They don’t have many key players to re-sign or contracts to extend. But the cap space figures to be tight with at least $40 million in “dead money” on the books for 2025 if they release Cousins.
Blank’s Falcons have become losers again after he elevated the franchise. The Falcons were 398-511-6 all-time when he bought the team in 2002. From then through 2012 the Falcons were 101-75 with six playoff appearances. The high point was making the 2012 NFC title game. The Falcons had 24-14 halftime lead over the 49ers but blew it.
Since 2012, Blank’s Falcons are 187-185-1 with just two playoff berths. The high point of that period was advancing to the Super Bowl in the 2016 season. You know what happened in Houston. The Falcons made it back to the playoffs the next year. They haven’t been there since.
After Blank fired Smith, he went searching for a coach who would end that drought. He picked Morris. The drought continues.
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