Unpopular Opinion: You will waste your premium 1st round pick on Kyle Pitts.

[Prison_Mike]

Who is the dream replacement for Arthur Smith in 2024 of those that would presumably be available?

[mild]

Who is the dream replacement for Arthur Smith in 2024 of those that would presumably be available?

I'd take Bobby Slowik / PFF_Bobby in a heartbeat.

[JoeJoe88]

Who is the dream replacement for Arthur Smith in 2024 of those that would presumably be available?

I'd take Bobby Slowik / PFF_Bobby in a heartbeat.

I’d take Bobby Boucher over The FedEx Man.

[Cameron Giles]

Who is the dream replacement for Arthur Smith in 2024 of those that would presumably be available?

I think Ben Johnson and Eric Bienemy will be in high demand in the offseason.

That said, it doesn't seem like Arthur Smith is at risk of losing his job.

[CGW]

Who is the dream replacement for Arthur Smith in 2024 of those that would presumably be available?

I think Ben Johnson and Eric Bienemy will be in high demand in the offseason.

That said, it doesn't seem like Arthur Smith is at risk of losing his job.

Probably not unless they are completely terrible the rest of the season. They still play Carolina and the Bears, which are two they should absolutely win. Could easily see them finding another win in that schedule and end 7-10. Good enough for Smith to get another year to figure out the QB situation.

[MacDaddy123]

Who is the dream replacement for Arthur Smith in 2024 of those that would presumably be available?

I think Ben Johnson and Eric Bienemy will be in high demand in the offseason.

That said, it doesn't seem like Arthur Smith is at risk of losing his job.

I was going to say Ben Johnson too.
Bienemy is another option, but I think he will get the HC job in Washington.

That is the Arthur Smith problem, he never will be good enough to be taken seriously, as he has no clue how to run a present day NFL offense.
However, he may not be bad enough to get fired.

He has agonizingly average competence as an NFL head coach, he just hates your fantasy team.
He will never win anything substantial, but never be embarrassingly bad either.
So many wasted top 10 picks in the NFL Draft.

[kmbryant09]

Has he? As a head coach, his NFL record is 18-25. He's been ok. I'd say his defense has out performed, but his offense has been quite bad.

25th in 2023 in scoring
15th in 2022 in scoring
26th in 2021 in scoring

Mind you, this is despite spending a very early first on a TE in 2021, a WR in 2022, and a RB in 2023. But here we are watching Tyler Allgeier, Mack Hollins, and Jonnu Smith featured. I won't say incompetence, but gross misuse of capital is certainly in play.

Often, when high draft picks fail to produce as expected, we say they were bad picks. It seems very odd that so many are so quick to say these were great picks, but the coaching staff has mismanaged all three top skill positions.

I'm not saying Arthur Smith is Andy Reid. I'm just saying he's a competent coach and schemer. If Pitts/London/Bijan aren't producing as we expected them to, perhaps some of the blames falls on the players themselves? Maybe?

I mean, I've seen Smith use players to good effect other times. Do we think he's completely forgotten how to coach football?

When Bijan is on the field - ATL = 6 yards/play
When Bijan is off the field - ATL = 4.9 yards/play

Bijan has 1 carry from inside the five yard line on the entire season and 2 from inside the ten yard line. Allgeier has 10 carries from inside the ten yard line. Jonnu Smith has 6 targets inside the 20, while Kyle Pitts has 4.

Atlanta is currently the 30th best team at converting red zone trips to Touchdowns.

In what universe can you try to defend the coaching? How is that competent? It's not even like Bijan/Pitts/London aren't producing - they aren't even being given a chance to produce when it matters most. Arthur Smith is actually using the players you suggest he should be based on merit, while that merit has resulted in the 3rd worst redzone success rate in the entire league. Anybody with 2 eyes can see that Bijan and Pitts give the team a better chance at succeeding than Allgeier and Jonnu Smith.

This isn't even a fantasy football opinion. An NFL team using the #4 pick on a Tight End and the #8 pick on a Running Back to utilize them in committees (and frankly on the wrong end of a committee) is a gross misuse of resources and talent.

To expand a bit on the above, Bijan has the 7th highest snap rate inside the red zone on the Falcons behind London/Pitts/Van Jefferson (!) / MyCole Pruitt (!) / Tyler Allgeier / Jonnu Smith.

He has the 10th highest snap rate on the team from inside the 5 yard line.

Arthur Smith is a f*****g joke.

[wickerkat1212]

IDK how they can do this, why they are doing this. WTF? Pissing me off. I have three Bijan shares.

[MacDaddy123]

IDK how they can do this, why they are doing this. WTF? Pissing me off. I have three Bijan shares.

I've already sold 2 of my 3 Bijan shares.
One before season started, and one after week 3.

Still have Bijan in one league, but have good RB depth in that league too.

[Oddball456]

With Kelce on bye, thinking I will fire up Pitts this week. Ready for a 2 for 20 line.

[CGW]

With Kelce on bye, thinking I will fire up Pitts this week. Ready for a 2 for 20 line.

Jonnu Smith on waivers?

[abloom]

With Kelce on bye, thinking I will fire up Pitts this week. Ready for a 2 for 20 line.

I'm right there with you.

[Cameron Giles]

Who is the dream replacement for Arthur Smith in 2024 of those that would presumably be available?

I think Ben Johnson and Eric Bienemy will be in high demand in the offseason.

That said, it doesn't seem like Arthur Smith is at risk of losing his job.

I was going to say Ben Johnson too.
Bienemy is another option, but I think he will get the HC job in Washington.

That is the Arthur Smith problem, he never will be good enough to be taken seriously, as he has no clue how to run a present day NFL offense.
However, he may not be bad enough to get fired.

He has agonizingly average competence as an NFL head coach, he just hates your fantasy team.
He will never win anything substantial, but never be embarrassingly bad either.
So many wasted top 10 picks in the NFL Draft.

Smith's ace is that he can always say that "he's never been given a QB" to really work with and he'd be right. The Falcons have been competitive overall the last couple of seasons

[jenkins.math]

I think Ben Johnson and Eric Bienemy will be in high demand in the offseason.

That said, it doesn't seem like Arthur Smith is at risk of losing his job.

I was going to say Ben Johnson too.
Bienemy is another option, but I think he will get the HC job in Washington.

That is the Arthur Smith problem, he never will be good enough to be taken seriously, as he has no clue how to run a present day NFL offense.
However, he may not be bad enough to get fired.

He has agonizingly average competence as an NFL head coach, he just hates your fantasy team.
He will never win anything substantial, but never be embarrassingly bad either.
So many wasted top 10 picks in the NFL Draft.

Smith's ace is that he can always say that "he's never been given a QB" to really work with and he'd be right. The Falcons have been competitive overall the last couple of seasons

Give him a QB just so he can bring in Ridder once they reach the red zone sounds about right.

[Sriracha]

Has he? As a head coach, his NFL record is 18-25. He's been ok. I'd say his defense has out performed, but his offense has been quite bad.

25th in 2023 in scoring
15th in 2022 in scoring
26th in 2021 in scoring

Mind you, this is despite spending a very early first on a TE in 2021, a WR in 2022, and a RB in 2023. But here we are watching Tyler Allgeier, Mack Hollins, and Jonnu Smith featured. I won't say incompetence, but gross misuse of capital is certainly in play.

Often, when high draft picks fail to produce as expected, we say they were bad picks. It seems very odd that so many are so quick to say these were great picks, but the coaching staff has mismanaged all three top skill positions.

I'm not saying Arthur Smith is Andy Reid. I'm just saying he's a competent coach and schemer. If Pitts/London/Bijan aren't producing as we expected them to, perhaps some of the blames falls on the players themselves? Maybe?

I mean, I've seen Smith use players to good effect other times. Do we think he's completely forgotten how to coach football?

Part of the hate Smith has received from the fantasy community is self-inflicted but I agree... it's interesting that people assume he's an idiot for not using the highly drafted skill position players as much as they want him to; especially when he's proven to utilize truly elite talent like AJB and Derrick Henry at TEN.

Is it so hard for people to understand that even talented players have strengths and weaknesses? Jonnu Smith is #3 in the NFL in YPRR for a TE and is a significantly better YAC TE than Pitts.. the fact that he's being used closer to the line of scrimmage is just the optimal usage of their current talents. Giving those touches to Pitts because he was drafted at #4 overall would be coaching malpractice. Pitts strengths as a down field threat and man beater are worth signifcantly more than Jonnu's strengths -- which is why he was picked so highly but their QBs just can't get him the ball where he wins -- downfield.

Drake London is a solid young WR but he's far from the elite talent people are propping him up as. You'd think he wasn't using AJB or Justin Jefferson or Jamarr Chase with the way people are talking about him not getting targets.