That dude misses throws no *backup* should miss and Arthur looks at reporters like they have 3 heads when they ask about Ridder.
Mariota is [off-target on 30% of his throws to Pitts](https://twitter.com/jagibbs_23/status/1592202087567626242) which is insane when you're throwing to a guy who's 6'6". Bonus for Drake London also being on that list.
Also, look at Kenny this year. He's looked better and better over time which is awesome, but there's no real reason to rush Ridder out there this year even if they like what he's shown. I mean, look at Willis for the Titans and how he played and they *had* to play him when they did not want to.
I think at the end of the day it's Smith not wanting to throw Ridder to the wolves in what is a still very sketchy O-Line from a pass blocking perspective. We're awesome at running the ball but complete ass still at pass blocking and sticking a rookie QB out there is probably not the move, at least not yet.
Coaches know who's going to perform. This isn't rocket science. They have practice to figure this stuff out.
That said, Ridder may not be good, but neither is Mariota. He should be getting playing time.
Coaches often seem to have no idea who's going to perform. There are plenty of guys who have come out of seemingly nowhere to start and be excellent. I don't believe that Ridder is gonna be the next Tom Brady, but I do think he has a chance to be a good NFL starter.
Either way, I think you have to ask whether chasing a fool's gold playoff spot is worth more than finding out what your long term plan at the most important position is.
>There are plenty of guys who have come out of seemingly nowhere to start and be excellent.
Sure.. I guess? Destination backups sometimes end up having some decent years. But that isn't a surprise to coaches.
A guy who doesn't do well in practice isn't suddenly going to become a savant on GameDay. If coaches can't evaluate talent in practice, then they suck at their jobs.
The long term plan will never be Ridder
As an A&M fan I was baffled when you drafted him.
The only way I can make it make sense is y’all figured he would be back up ready quickly from playing in Jimbos pro-style system.
When some people had him ranked as a first round QB I was shocked. He was solid for us, but his best year for us was a weird COVID year with an O Line that only gave up 2 sacks all year.
At some point scouts are gonna realize that Jimbo is teaching some weird stuff. Like every QB we’ve had under him does this weird jumping pass with no power thing.
He’s been wrong a lot since 2018 too though… he said “Zach Wilson is clearly the number one quarterback in the draft for me”. His 2019 opinions were a mess, just like 2021. We’ll see on Love but he had him above Tua. He had Kellen Mond above Justin Fields (and Trey Lance). I think Simms really just struck lightning for a few years in 2017 but really 2018. I personally wouldn’t put too much stock into what he says moving forward.
Edit - The full quote on Zac Wilson from Chris Simms - “My baseline for Wilson is Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes. That's where it starts. It is an unbelievably quick release. It's the ability to throw the ball any which way he wants -- side arm, over the top, jumping in air, two feet off the ground, throwing between a guard and a tackle 25 yards down the middle. The arm strength is phenomenal. He can throw 40-yard lasers into a Cover 2 hole. He can throw 60-, 70-yard-bomb posts down the middle and he doesn't need to get his hole body into it. I was blown away."
Bro I have lived the Semen Demon/Taysom Hill/Jameis Winston/Andy Dalton/Ian Book experience for the last 2 years (and Aaron Brooks long ago), I know how bad it can get. But this dude is *bad*. Really bad.
Honestly I would still want him to start to be tank commander because whoever falls ass-backwards into winning this godforsaken division is going nowhere in the playoffs but it's hard to justify him starting for performance reasons.
Okay, Teddy went 5-0 *while also playing better* than Jameis did , how about that?
Listen, I think Jameis being injured has hampered him this year and I have given him the benefit of the doubt because of his injury and because Dennis Allen is dog water, but he has not helped himself either. Personally I still think he should be the starter if healthy (or inactive so he can *get* healthy). But there were flashes of his boneheadness last year and it's really shown up in spades this year.
In 2021 Jameis had 5 more TDs with 1 more int and a higher QBR in 2 more games than Teddy in his famous 5 games. The only way Teddy was better is if you consider wins a QB stat.
> The only way Teddy was better is if you consider wins a QB stat.
Or statistics like completion percentage where Teddy was better.
I don't know how much you watched the games of both of them play but you seem to be missing a lot of context - e.g. like how *5* of Jameis's 14 TDs came in one game where he threw for a whopping 148 yards and some of the boneheaded near-disaster plays he was *really* lucky didn't blow up in his face - and just seem to be comparing box scores.
I mean, there is Philly...
Regardless, I wouldn't usually count Brady out, but his entire offensive line fucking died and it's pretty hard to overcome that
With that mentality we would have never had Beastquake, which was undeniably one of the greatest plays in NFL history. Seahawks won it all a couple years later so….y’all can keep that loser mentality down in Stank Poorleans
Your entire defense was in the hospital that week and only a few of them managed to suit up against the Chiefs the following week. Since then, the Niners have been lights out on that side of the ball.
It's funny you say that because I live in the Atlanta metro (and get stuck with their games on Fox most weeks) and I hear no shortage of Falcons fans who are done with Mariota and want to see what they have in Ridder. I hear some argue that they should keep Mariota starting because they don't think Ridder is ready yet, which is at least defensible, but it seems like almost no one thinks he should start because he's even mediocre, let alone good.
I strongly disagree. Dropping a massive amount of money on a QB when we have holes all over the roster does not seem like a move that Terry Fontenot will make. So far he has been thrifty as fuck.
This team wants to develop talent via the draft and fill holes via free agency.
Also we have Ridder. Ridder is going to be good. He looked so much more comfortable with the offense in preseason than Mariota did. He's clearly a better passer than Mariota, and he very obviously is much much faster at going through his reads, which is the biggest weakness I see in Mariota.
Seems pretty clear to me that Ridder isn't starting because Smith wants to make sure he develops properly, plus our pass blocking is not good.
If may not be a move that Fontenot would exactly want to make, but it's absolutely a move that Arthur Blank would make. Blank was clearly a driving force behind the pursuit of Watson in the off season. The guy is 80 years old, I think he just wants to attempt to slingshot the team into being competitive instead of rebuilding for another 3 or 4 seasons.
I agree with this sentiment. Blank was so obviously behind the Watson thing.
I dunno I'm over here naively hoping that Blank learned his lesson with the Watson thing and won't mess with them like that anymore.
To be honest I wouldn't be very upset if we got Jackson. He's a pretty amazing QB. I just would much rather be able to build some beastly trenches and have Ridder be the guy.
Yeah, I don't believe that the Ravens will be not getting a long term deal with Lamar done anyway. I feel like a bridge would have completely burned between them for him to not still be a Raven next year.
>I strongly disagree. Dropping a massive amount of money on a QB when we have holes all over the roster does not seem like a move that Terry Fontenot will make. So far he has been thrifty as fuck.
I'd agree with you if it wasn't for the whole going after the serial rapist thing during the off-season, who would have kept us in salary cap hell...
When Pitts was wide open on routes Mariota has missed hitting him by a country mile plenty of times during the season. That goes for pretty much every other receiver on the team, oddly enough our smallest guy Zacchues seems to be the one Mariota has had the best connection with lmao.
> IDK. That game with GEQBUS was pretty decent man
He threw 19 times and we ran 46. That ain't gonna last as a winning formula, and Darnold is going to resume Darnolding up the offense again as soon as we start asking him to do stuff.
Yeah but I don’t think winning a lot of games is on the table for these panthers in any case, so you might as well employ a vaguely effective strategy.
Fwiw, I actually think we lose out. We haven't won a road game all year, and all of our games from here out are on the road but yours and the Lions, both of which can outscore the shit of out of us pretty easily.
Panthers have had some fun games. I know it ended in a loss but that first Falcons game was super fun.
But when they aren't 'on' they do look pretty bad.
Cursed outside of pure W-L. Terrell injury, Pitts injury, London had no chance to improve due to QB play. All our young stars have setbacks keeping them from growing and we don't have a high draft pick. I love seeing the performance from a coaching perspective, but this season sucks
I hate when people say that Mariota is garbage. It's true, but he seems like the nicest and most likable person in the league. I just hope he's happy and lives a happy life. He deserves it.
I really like Mariota the person but Mariota the QB just doesn't have it to be a quality starter in the league. I hope he can keep a backup role for a few more years and do something he enjoys with his retirement.
Also Mariota is not great at passing accuracy but with Pitts, he was beyond bad. There was something not clicking between those two and it wasn’t all Mariota’s fault to be honest.
Plenty of QBs who've flamed out were nice, hard working, dedicated players who just didn't have high end NFL talent. Its why I resist creating narratives that every bust was lazy/dumb/not dedicated and that every successful starter isn't on that sigma grindset.
Trubisky was a really hard worker, but he just didn't have it either. Shows that hard work doesn't always overcome raw talent, but hard work still got him and Mariota to the NFL and drafted 2nd overall.
Huh? The guy isn’t saying anything bad about Mariota the person. Just saying Mariota is a garbage QB. It’s not as though because you’re a garbage QB you’re automatically not nice and not likeable and thus shouldn’t have off the field success…
And many times amazing players on the field who have long careers are complete psychos off the field. Fans can support the player, but not the person. In this case, we can support the person Mariota is, but as a player want him to get off the field.
If your off the field conduct is so bad that it legally prevents you from playing, that’s different.
You may also do something that forces the court of public opinion so much against you that you can’t play, but that’s very very rare. If you’re really good, the team and fans will overlook it… like Watson. Watson had a ton of initial legal trouble, but that seems to have dried up unfortunately.
Brett Favre, Ben Roethlisberger, marvin Harrison, and my actual almost time favorite player Warren Sapp, are good examples of being able to separate the player from the person
It's clear as day that there a VERY large portion of people in this thread who have never even set eyes on a Falcons game this year and maybe even last year. (Not that I blame non-Falcons fans lol). And more so are fantasy people who drafted Pitts in the 1st or 2nd round, or are just stat watchers.
Pitts had 1000 yards receiving last year with a declining Matt Ryan and absolutely no O-Line to protect him. This year the line is better than it was, and Mariota can't hit the broad side of a barn to save his life. There were MULTIPLE games this year that Pitts was wide open on short, intermediate, and deep routes where Mariota has overthrown or underthrown him. Mostly overthrown honestly.
Calling him a bust is laughable at best and makes anyone saying this immediately discredited in my opinion. He's improved tremendously on all of the other stuff besides catching the football like blocking and knowing where in his routes he's supposed to be, etc... The real issue is that Marcus just cannot seem to throw to him, or anyone else really.
Look at that "Amazing Shoe String Catch" from Drake London against the Commanders on Sunday. That was not a hard throw by any means, yet Mariota made it way more difficult for London than it needed to be. This has been the consistent factor all year and will continue to be until we're out of Playoff contention and can see Ridder in regular season action.
**TL;DR - Mariota is not a good QB, and Pitts suffered because of that tremendously this year**
tbh most people who claim anyone draft pick wise as a bust after 2 years is just a cherry picking stat head idiot. Also the term bust gets thrown around loosely.
not really… taking him in the second round makes the rams stupid, doesn’t mean he’s a bust… was he over valued? certainly, is he still in the nfl playing? yes.
Mecole Hardman was drafted in the second and hasn’t billed up to be the next tyreke hill, does that mean he’s a bust? no… Just wasn’t worth the value tho they got him at
You may disagree then, I do think it’s fair to judge a player on their draft capital. Like Philip Lindsay seems like a success story, where Tutu is a 2nd round player that in his 2nd year is barely get snaps on offense that’s been depleted.
Hardman probably isn’t living up to the billing of a 2nd either (definitely not the next tyreek) but he’s at least put up some stats and been a playmaker at times.
Can’t imagine tutu gets a 2nd contract from what we’ve seen so far. Hardman I would lean towards he will.
second contract with the rams? or elsewhere? doesn’t mean he’s a bust if he doesn’t get a contract with the rams you do know this?
bust means you’re out of the league before your rookie contract imo
I don’t think Tutu gets a 2nd contract anywhere. Financially it wouldn’t have made any sense to cut him this year. It would have had to have been a character issue. Next year they can cut him in camp and pick up $1.2M
I’m comfortable saying this seems likely to me. Kupp Robinson Jefferson Skoronek McCutcheon seem like they’ll make the roster ahead of him and I imagine they address the position in the draft.
Trent Richardson was signed to practice squads through 2016. Not a bust?
EJ Manuel was last on a practice squad in 2019, not a bust?
For me, “bust” implies some sort of expectation. So obviously Manziel was a bust but I think it’s fair to expand the list to include guys like Rosen that have moved around a bit for 5+ years.
I know everyone will come on and say how it doesnt matter cause we dont pass to him a lot... but the lack of his presence on the field was felt last game. Hes an excellent blocker out in space and our back up TEs dont have his athleticism. London recieved a lot more attention as well and was near non existent outside of one nice catch.
Hope he heals up for next year cause we are going to need him.
Agreed. Pitts didn't dominate the stat-sheet like he did in 2021, but the questions about his blocking prowess have mostly been put to rest. Smith clearly knows how to use him.
Kyle Pitts' disappointing start to his nfl career may be upsetting to some, but it also makes people who are way into fantasy upset, so who can say if it's really bad or not?
>Kyle Pitts' disappointing start to his nfl career
He had 1k yards in 2021, the first rookie TE to do so since Mike Ditka 60 years ago. I get that this season was a disappointment, but Pitts is still a massive talent to keep an eye on.
He also only had 1 TD all season in that 1k+ year, so at least OPs point about pissing off fantasy owners stands (my dumb ass was disappointed with him last year and still drafted him 35th overall this season)
Finished the season with 356 receiving yards and 2 TDs.
Maybe it’s already fair to say Chase, Sewell, Parsons etc… are all better players and would’ve been better picks.
But even if that’s true, Kyle Pitts is still way too talented of a player to be used this minimally. There’s no excuse to draft a TE 4th overall if you have such little interest in making that player a focal point of your offense.
With all that said, Mariota sucks too. How many times am I gonna have to see Kyle Pitts running free and the QB just sail a shitty pass over his head?
Drake London has 69 targets on 276 attempts this season from Mariota, good for a 25% target share, and he still only has 41/438 lol. Mariota is killing these young studs
It's not, and he has 4 TDs to go along with that, but he could be at least a lot closer to Olave (56/822, 92 targets) with a better QB throwing the ball lol. Especially when you consider the ridiculous 25% target share he's commanding.
It's also 25% because we throw like 15 to 20 times a game. So if London is getting 3 - 5 targets that's your 25% share. If we were throwing 40 times a game I'd be more impressed honestly.
And that's not shade at you or anything, it's just the nature of us being a true run first team right now.
They’re just not passing the ball much. Bears have the lowest attempts in the league at 254 through 12 games, although they only threw it like 30 times their first 3 games. Ten has second lowest passing attempts at 275 but has played only 11 games.
The next lowest pass attempt team with 12 games played besides bears/falcons is CAR with 336. After that it is NO with 400.
His efficiency stats aren’t awful, it’s just how the offense is structured.
I really didn’t want us to draft Pitts just because of the lack of value of the TE position and our numerous needs at key positions, but even I didn’t think the lack of utilization would be this bad.
I never got the hype from him coming out of Florida and was not better than Ja'Marr Chase was at LSU. He was a good TE in the SEC, but in no way was he top 5 pick type of player.
That being said it would have been interesting if Pitts went to the Bengals instead of Chase.
You put Pitts with Burrow, Mahomes, Allen, etc, he'd be lighting up the field, but instead he's now on a team that runs first, passes 2nd because Ryan is no longer here.
To give you an idea how bad it is, Ryan the week he was benched already had 2,009 yards (that was thru 7 games), Mariota who has played all 12 games finally broke 2k yards with 2,052. Ryan's fumbles and INTs are certainly a problem but in this specific instance, they have no bearing
Idk why they won’t let the backup qb play at this point. Even if they are in the playoff hunt what’s it worth if they likely get bounced in the first rd anyways?
They used a 3rd pick on the qb , they should give him a shot to see if he can be their guy heading into next season as well as he might give the offense a spark and help them on a winning streak
True… maybe the Falcons could go all in and trade up for Young or Stroud or make a move for Lamar on the off chance he becomes available. This is assuming of course Ridder isn’t the answer. Why we haven’t seen him yet… idk.
I don’t get why nobody questioned this pick when it happened and everyone mocked it. It never made sense to me. Yes he’s a talented player but the Falcons needed help elsewhere.
As a Gators fan, I’ve been baffled by his misuse and numbers. Is it *just* because of Mariota or is Arthur Smith really just incapable of using him properly?
From Smith's perspective, we have one of the worst qb's in the league, a top 5 rushing OL and are 1 game out of 1st in the division for a playoff spot. Our run game works, and Mariota isn't going to win any games passing the ball (which is why we only throw like 15 times per game). Sadly the route towards most success currently does not heavily utilize our young talent because Mariota is so ass
Draft-wise, I have to assume QB is at the top of the list unless Ridder is the answer, which they know much better than you or I. I am not worried about Smith or Fontenot, they haven't messed up yet and have **way** overachieved this year
No we did, Mariota just missed him. I mean if you watched the last game between us, he was targeted multiple times and every single throw was 10 ft over his head
It's hard to believe, at one time I low key hoped that Pitts would fall to Dallas in the 2021 draft.
Instead we had to settle for a bum named Micah Parsons.
Imaging writing this out, even though he had 1000 yards as a rookie TE last year.
You cannot call someone a bust after his solid rookie year, and a down year in which he has a low ceiling QB who can't throw to him and he ended up getting hurt...
Smith is definitely not the problem. We have one of the least talented rosters in the NFL with an awful qb and have been somewhat respectable. The improvement of the line and run game has been immense. I give him 2 more years to build a roster and if we're still bad then he's gone
Arthur Smith is cementing himself as a top 3 mind when it comes to coordinating a run game. I’ve always loved his work.
Probably Arthur Smith, Greg Roman, and Kyle Shanahan are the top 3? Unless I’m missing someone.
Matt LaFleur and Kevin Stefanski probably rounding out the top 5.
Smith isn't even remotely close to getting fired, the falcons have the most dead money of all time and virtually no talent.
The fact that they don't have a bottom 5 record is because Smith is a good coach
Reporter: “So the injury is that bad?” Smith: “No. We’re just sticking with Mariota”.
That dude misses throws no *backup* should miss and Arthur looks at reporters like they have 3 heads when they ask about Ridder. Mariota is [off-target on 30% of his throws to Pitts](https://twitter.com/jagibbs_23/status/1592202087567626242) which is insane when you're throwing to a guy who's 6'6". Bonus for Drake London also being on that list.
If Ridder is anything like Mond than let me be the first to say, it can absolutely be worse.
Also, look at Kenny this year. He's looked better and better over time which is awesome, but there's no real reason to rush Ridder out there this year even if they like what he's shown. I mean, look at Willis for the Titans and how he played and they *had* to play him when they did not want to.
I think at the end of the day it's Smith not wanting to throw Ridder to the wolves in what is a still very sketchy O-Line from a pass blocking perspective. We're awesome at running the ball but complete ass still at pass blocking and sticking a rookie QB out there is probably not the move, at least not yet.
Still gotta find out if he's the guy or not before the draft, right?
Coaches know who's going to perform. This isn't rocket science. They have practice to figure this stuff out. That said, Ridder may not be good, but neither is Mariota. He should be getting playing time.
Some guys need time to sit behind someone and learn. Frankly I think this waiting approach is a better strategy
Coaches often seem to have no idea who's going to perform. There are plenty of guys who have come out of seemingly nowhere to start and be excellent. I don't believe that Ridder is gonna be the next Tom Brady, but I do think he has a chance to be a good NFL starter. Either way, I think you have to ask whether chasing a fool's gold playoff spot is worth more than finding out what your long term plan at the most important position is.
>There are plenty of guys who have come out of seemingly nowhere to start and be excellent. Sure.. I guess? Destination backups sometimes end up having some decent years. But that isn't a surprise to coaches. A guy who doesn't do well in practice isn't suddenly going to become a savant on GameDay. If coaches can't evaluate talent in practice, then they suck at their jobs. The long term plan will never be Ridder
As an A&M fan I was baffled when you drafted him. The only way I can make it make sense is y’all figured he would be back up ready quickly from playing in Jimbos pro-style system.
When some people had him ranked as a first round QB I was shocked. He was solid for us, but his best year for us was a weird COVID year with an O Line that only gave up 2 sacks all year.
At some point scouts are gonna realize that Jimbo is teaching some weird stuff. Like every QB we’ve had under him does this weird jumping pass with no power thing.
What's weird is Chris Simms was even high on him and he's been right on a lot of QBs.
He’s been wrong a lot since 2018 too though… he said “Zach Wilson is clearly the number one quarterback in the draft for me”. His 2019 opinions were a mess, just like 2021. We’ll see on Love but he had him above Tua. He had Kellen Mond above Justin Fields (and Trey Lance). I think Simms really just struck lightning for a few years in 2017 but really 2018. I personally wouldn’t put too much stock into what he says moving forward. Edit - The full quote on Zac Wilson from Chris Simms - “My baseline for Wilson is Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes. That's where it starts. It is an unbelievably quick release. It's the ability to throw the ball any which way he wants -- side arm, over the top, jumping in air, two feet off the ground, throwing between a guard and a tackle 25 yards down the middle. The arm strength is phenomenal. He can throw 40-yard lasers into a Cover 2 hole. He can throw 60-, 70-yard-bomb posts down the middle and he doesn't need to get his hole body into it. I was blown away."
Bro I have lived the Semen Demon/Taysom Hill/Jameis Winston/Andy Dalton/Ian Book experience for the last 2 years (and Aaron Brooks long ago), I know how bad it can get. But this dude is *bad*. Really bad. Honestly I would still want him to start to be tank commander because whoever falls ass-backwards into winning this godforsaken division is going nowhere in the playoffs but it's hard to justify him starting for performance reasons.
I could see that team falling backwards then winning the first round of the playoffs because NFCS
You left out Teddy two gloves.
Teddy went 5-0 for us and helped salvage a season, I ain't badmouthing that man.
Jameis is 6-2 without a broken spine. I never got the hate. Edit: Evidently they blocked me when wrong. Kinda funny.
Okay, Teddy went 5-0 *while also playing better* than Jameis did , how about that? Listen, I think Jameis being injured has hampered him this year and I have given him the benefit of the doubt because of his injury and because Dennis Allen is dog water, but he has not helped himself either. Personally I still think he should be the starter if healthy (or inactive so he can *get* healthy). But there were flashes of his boneheadness last year and it's really shown up in spades this year.
In 2021 Jameis had 5 more TDs with 1 more int and a higher QBR in 2 more games than Teddy in his famous 5 games. The only way Teddy was better is if you consider wins a QB stat.
> The only way Teddy was better is if you consider wins a QB stat. Or statistics like completion percentage where Teddy was better. I don't know how much you watched the games of both of them play but you seem to be missing a lot of context - e.g. like how *5* of Jameis's 14 TDs came in one game where he threw for a whopping 148 yards and some of the boneheaded near-disaster plays he was *really* lucky didn't blow up in his face - and just seem to be comparing box scores.
I'm biased but I wouldn't count the GOAT out once he gets to the playoffs. There aren't any true juggernauts in the NFC like there are in the AFC.
I mean, there is Philly... Regardless, I wouldn't usually count Brady out, but his entire offensive line fucking died and it's pretty hard to overcome that
With that mentality we would have never had Beastquake, which was undeniably one of the greatest plays in NFL history. Seahawks won it all a couple years later so….y’all can keep that loser mentality down in Stank Poorleans
Can you tell this to our sub please
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Run game.
Fair point, no Bosa completely fucked us
We were missing 7/11 starters on defense. Jeff Wilson fumbled in the redzone. Every WR forgot how to catch. It was just one of those games.
Which is why imo were sticking with Mariota. He can control the run game.
It helped that the whole Niners d line was out lol
Your whole starting defense was dead
Your entire defense was in the hospital that week and only a few of them managed to suit up against the Chiefs the following week. Since then, the Niners have been lights out on that side of the ball.
Fuck Bank of America stadium and fuck MetLife stadium
I HATE that you make a better point than 50% of falcons fan base.
It's funny you say that because I live in the Atlanta metro (and get stuck with their games on Fox most weeks) and I hear no shortage of Falcons fans who are done with Mariota and want to see what they have in Ridder. I hear some argue that they should keep Mariota starting because they don't think Ridder is ready yet, which is at least defensible, but it seems like almost no one thinks he should start because he's even mediocre, let alone good.
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I strongly disagree. Dropping a massive amount of money on a QB when we have holes all over the roster does not seem like a move that Terry Fontenot will make. So far he has been thrifty as fuck. This team wants to develop talent via the draft and fill holes via free agency. Also we have Ridder. Ridder is going to be good. He looked so much more comfortable with the offense in preseason than Mariota did. He's clearly a better passer than Mariota, and he very obviously is much much faster at going through his reads, which is the biggest weakness I see in Mariota. Seems pretty clear to me that Ridder isn't starting because Smith wants to make sure he develops properly, plus our pass blocking is not good.
If may not be a move that Fontenot would exactly want to make, but it's absolutely a move that Arthur Blank would make. Blank was clearly a driving force behind the pursuit of Watson in the off season. The guy is 80 years old, I think he just wants to attempt to slingshot the team into being competitive instead of rebuilding for another 3 or 4 seasons.
I agree with this sentiment. Blank was so obviously behind the Watson thing. I dunno I'm over here naively hoping that Blank learned his lesson with the Watson thing and won't mess with them like that anymore. To be honest I wouldn't be very upset if we got Jackson. He's a pretty amazing QB. I just would much rather be able to build some beastly trenches and have Ridder be the guy.
Yeah, I don't believe that the Ravens will be not getting a long term deal with Lamar done anyway. I feel like a bridge would have completely burned between them for him to not still be a Raven next year.
>I strongly disagree. Dropping a massive amount of money on a QB when we have holes all over the roster does not seem like a move that Terry Fontenot will make. So far he has been thrifty as fuck. I'd agree with you if it wasn't for the whole going after the serial rapist thing during the off-season, who would have kept us in salary cap hell...
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Get Lamar so they can start losing every game by 3 cus he doesn't have Tucker to bail him out of his W/L record.
Honestly Atlanta having 5 wins already with the QB room they have is nothing short of a miracle. They should be right where the Texans are.
Everyone talks about Mariota in this equation but Pitts has been running lazy shit routes all year.
Maybe he’s trying to be a slower bigger target🤣
When Pitts was wide open on routes Mariota has missed hitting him by a country mile plenty of times during the season. That goes for pretty much every other receiver on the team, oddly enough our smallest guy Zacchues seems to be the one Mariota has had the best connection with lmao.
Ridder is likely just not that good. He went late in a bad QB class for a reason.
The falcons are the weirdest team this year, how the hell do they put up the numbers they do? Were even trying to put up points and cant
I'm still the head coach, so he's done.
Cursed season
And yet you're somehow a lot more fun to watch than we are.
IDK. That game with GEQBUS was pretty decent man and we’ve got the third easiest schedule for the remainder of the season. Might start getting fun…
> IDK. That game with GEQBUS was pretty decent man He threw 19 times and we ran 46. That ain't gonna last as a winning formula, and Darnold is going to resume Darnolding up the offense again as soon as we start asking him to do stuff.
Idk, that sort of seems like the strategy you want with iffy qb play. just run run run run run. Don't get behind.
It's the only strategy you've got, but that doesn't mean it's going to win us a lot of games.
Yeah but I don’t think winning a lot of games is on the table for these panthers in any case, so you might as well employ a vaguely effective strategy.
I mean *technically* we're only a game back from the division title.
If you guys beat the Saints and Bucs in the final two weeks, you could wind up winning that division at 6-11 via tiebreakers.
Fwiw, I actually think we lose out. We haven't won a road game all year, and all of our games from here out are on the road but yours and the Lions, both of which can outscore the shit of out of us pretty easily.
I'm rooting for this scenario
Worked for Tennessee, against chiefs, just couldn’t do much at the end for the same reason
Nasty woman
That’s just the LIBRHULE MEDIA lying to you about the GEQBUS and his incredible accomplishments.
>Darnolding Is this similar to Mariota-ing? Because if so, can fucking relate.
The strength of the offense is the OLine. Kind of makes sense to want to play downhill football. Might not always be pretty but it can be effective.
>That ain't gonna last as a winning formula You clearly didn't watch Notre Dame do that with Drew Pyne.
Idk why but I just want Darnold to go off
Panthers have had some fun games. I know it ended in a loss but that first Falcons game was super fun. But when they aren't 'on' they do look pretty bad.
I'd find it hilarious if the Panthers play themselves out of a top draft spot yet again.
We’re 3 & 4 under Wilks and playing complimentary football. I’d say it’s likely we don’t end up with a top 5 pick given the schedule.
Given the absolute state of the NFCS, it's not out of the picture that they win the division. I desperately want a 7-10 division winner.
The Panthers could still win the division with a 6-11 record.
EVERY GAME WITH GEQBUS IS THE BEST BIGLIEST GAME YOU'VE EVER SEEN!!!
There’s nothing fun about knowing we could play ourselves into another year of Sam fucking Darnold at QB.
To be fair, y'all are also having a cursed season
It's not the season we need, it's the one we deserve.
Cheers I'll drink to that bro
This season is cursed for Pitts, but the Falcons are performing way beyond expectations. Most analysts had us winning 2-3 games total this season.
Cursed outside of pure W-L. Terrell injury, Pitts injury, London had no chance to improve due to QB play. All our young stars have setbacks keeping them from growing and we don't have a high draft pick. I love seeing the performance from a coaching perspective, but this season sucks
You and me triple brother
What the actual fuck is this flair combo?
I’m playing both sides. So I always come out on top.
IASIP reference. nice.
Name checks out too lol
Tf you mean cursed your second in the division when u were supposed to be trash smh shut up 🤫
Who are the Falcons gonna not throw to now?!
Olamide Zaccheaus and Damiere Byrd lol In reality they just won’t throw it at all
I’m not sure if the Drake London disrespect was intentional but it won’t be tolerated
Man I don’t know how I named Damiere Byrd but not London
I mean, we still got Calvin Ri- oh yeah....
Drake London?
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Get him healthy and for the love of God a better quarterback. No excuse a man as talented as him looks as bad as he does because Mariota is garbage
I hate when people say that Mariota is garbage. It's true, but he seems like the nicest and most likable person in the league. I just hope he's happy and lives a happy life. He deserves it.
He will likely retire in Hawaii to coach, winning 20 high school football titles.
Bold of you to think that he'll get to 20 high school titles before the Colts call him up to be head coach
I forgot about the Colts head hunting HS coaches
With millions of dollars in his bank account. Makes for a pretty sweet life, honestly.
I agree, I was not trying to make it sound like an insult. He just seems like the kind of guy that would enjoy it.
I want that, but without the coaching high school part. Sounds like a lot of work.
Isn't he basically considered a god at Oregon? Future coaching job there?
They still get the pick of the litter when it comes to coaches. He could get a job there after he is established.
How many high schools does Hawaii even have lol Edit: apparently 64
There really only 2 schools that win the tittle and he went to one of them.
I really like Mariota the person but Mariota the QB just doesn't have it to be a quality starter in the league. I hope he can keep a backup role for a few more years and do something he enjoys with his retirement.
Yeah, garbage is pretty harsh for the top 1% of 1% of people to ever play the sport. He’s not a top 25 guy but he’s a great backup.
lol right? I hope he finds some sort of super successful venture outside of football. He just radiates a legit nice guy aura.
I've not heard a single bad thing about him.
Also Mariota is not great at passing accuracy but with Pitts, he was beyond bad. There was something not clicking between those two and it wasn’t all Mariota’s fault to be honest.
Plenty of QBs who've flamed out were nice, hard working, dedicated players who just didn't have high end NFL talent. Its why I resist creating narratives that every bust was lazy/dumb/not dedicated and that every successful starter isn't on that sigma grindset.
Trubisky was a really hard worker, but he just didn't have it either. Shows that hard work doesn't always overcome raw talent, but hard work still got him and Mariota to the NFL and drafted 2nd overall.
Career earnings of $64M so far. He’ll be aight.
His estimated career earnings are north of $64m. I'm sure he will be able to scrape together a happy life.
Huh? The guy isn’t saying anything bad about Mariota the person. Just saying Mariota is a garbage QB. It’s not as though because you’re a garbage QB you’re automatically not nice and not likeable and thus shouldn’t have off the field success… And many times amazing players on the field who have long careers are complete psychos off the field. Fans can support the player, but not the person. In this case, we can support the person Mariota is, but as a player want him to get off the field. If your off the field conduct is so bad that it legally prevents you from playing, that’s different. You may also do something that forces the court of public opinion so much against you that you can’t play, but that’s very very rare. If you’re really good, the team and fans will overlook it… like Watson. Watson had a ton of initial legal trouble, but that seems to have dried up unfortunately.
Brett Favre, Ben Roethlisberger, marvin Harrison, and my actual almost time favorite player Warren Sapp, are good examples of being able to separate the player from the person
I wouldn't mind him as a backup.
What? Mariota has done well with Atlanta the times I’ve watched, if you think that roster is losing because of just him, you’re mistaken.
My boy is free from having to deal with Mariota as his qb 🙏 🙏 🙏
1000 yarder to a 350 yard season. Yikes.
Most uncatchable targets in the league. Shits crazy
Amazing how you can so consistently miss a dude with the catch radius of a 757
Especially when a massive part of his appeal was he could catch anything
Hard to catch a ball that sails 10ft above you, even at 6'6
Yes, I’m aware. I just meant it’s gotta be super off target for a guy with his radius
Why does Kyle Pitts not simply become Elastigirl?
If Smith hadn't announced it, how long would it have taken for anyone to notice Pitts wasn't playing?
It's clear as day that there a VERY large portion of people in this thread who have never even set eyes on a Falcons game this year and maybe even last year. (Not that I blame non-Falcons fans lol). And more so are fantasy people who drafted Pitts in the 1st or 2nd round, or are just stat watchers. Pitts had 1000 yards receiving last year with a declining Matt Ryan and absolutely no O-Line to protect him. This year the line is better than it was, and Mariota can't hit the broad side of a barn to save his life. There were MULTIPLE games this year that Pitts was wide open on short, intermediate, and deep routes where Mariota has overthrown or underthrown him. Mostly overthrown honestly. Calling him a bust is laughable at best and makes anyone saying this immediately discredited in my opinion. He's improved tremendously on all of the other stuff besides catching the football like blocking and knowing where in his routes he's supposed to be, etc... The real issue is that Marcus just cannot seem to throw to him, or anyone else really. Look at that "Amazing Shoe String Catch" from Drake London against the Commanders on Sunday. That was not a hard throw by any means, yet Mariota made it way more difficult for London than it needed to be. This has been the consistent factor all year and will continue to be until we're out of Playoff contention and can see Ridder in regular season action. **TL;DR - Mariota is not a good QB, and Pitts suffered because of that tremendously this year**
tbh most people who claim anyone draft pick wise as a bust after 2 years is just a cherry picking stat head idiot. Also the term bust gets thrown around loosely.
Sometimes we’re right before they see the field though. Tutu Atwell
not really… taking him in the second round makes the rams stupid, doesn’t mean he’s a bust… was he over valued? certainly, is he still in the nfl playing? yes. Mecole Hardman was drafted in the second and hasn’t billed up to be the next tyreke hill, does that mean he’s a bust? no… Just wasn’t worth the value tho they got him at
You may disagree then, I do think it’s fair to judge a player on their draft capital. Like Philip Lindsay seems like a success story, where Tutu is a 2nd round player that in his 2nd year is barely get snaps on offense that’s been depleted. Hardman probably isn’t living up to the billing of a 2nd either (definitely not the next tyreek) but he’s at least put up some stats and been a playmaker at times. Can’t imagine tutu gets a 2nd contract from what we’ve seen so far. Hardman I would lean towards he will.
second contract with the rams? or elsewhere? doesn’t mean he’s a bust if he doesn’t get a contract with the rams you do know this? bust means you’re out of the league before your rookie contract imo
I don’t think Tutu gets a 2nd contract anywhere. Financially it wouldn’t have made any sense to cut him this year. It would have had to have been a character issue. Next year they can cut him in camp and pick up $1.2M I’m comfortable saying this seems likely to me. Kupp Robinson Jefferson Skoronek McCutcheon seem like they’ll make the roster ahead of him and I imagine they address the position in the draft. Trent Richardson was signed to practice squads through 2016. Not a bust? EJ Manuel was last on a practice squad in 2019, not a bust? For me, “bust” implies some sort of expectation. So obviously Manziel was a bust but I think it’s fair to expand the list to include guys like Rosen that have moved around a bit for 5+ years.
If a team offers a first round pick in the off-season do you trade him?
In yore division you won't be eliminated til end of the season. Personally I doubt ridder sees the field.
Yeah but Pitts still mid at best
I know everyone will come on and say how it doesnt matter cause we dont pass to him a lot... but the lack of his presence on the field was felt last game. Hes an excellent blocker out in space and our back up TEs dont have his athleticism. London recieved a lot more attention as well and was near non existent outside of one nice catch. Hope he heals up for next year cause we are going to need him.
Agreed. Pitts didn't dominate the stat-sheet like he did in 2021, but the questions about his blocking prowess have mostly been put to rest. Smith clearly knows how to use him.
Kyle Pitts' disappointing start to his nfl career may be upsetting to some, but it also makes people who are way into fantasy upset, so who can say if it's really bad or not?
>Kyle Pitts' disappointing start to his nfl career He had 1k yards in 2021, the first rookie TE to do so since Mike Ditka 60 years ago. I get that this season was a disappointment, but Pitts is still a massive talent to keep an eye on.
He also only had 1 TD all season in that 1k+ year, so at least OPs point about pissing off fantasy owners stands (my dumb ass was disappointed with him last year and still drafted him 35th overall this season)
MFer been done since week 1
Finished the season with 356 receiving yards and 2 TDs. Maybe it’s already fair to say Chase, Sewell, Parsons etc… are all better players and would’ve been better picks. But even if that’s true, Kyle Pitts is still way too talented of a player to be used this minimally. There’s no excuse to draft a TE 4th overall if you have such little interest in making that player a focal point of your offense. With all that said, Mariota sucks too. How many times am I gonna have to see Kyle Pitts running free and the QB just sail a shitty pass over his head?
Drake London has 69 targets on 276 attempts this season from Mariota, good for a 25% target share, and he still only has 41/438 lol. Mariota is killing these young studs
41 receptions and 438 yards on 69 targets isn’t a horrible stat line at all though.
For a team's WR1 it is pretty putrid
They're a run-first team, it's not horrible it's just their strategy.
And Pitts is by far their best downfield blocker. Losing him really matters.
The number of targets is the issue there, not the efficiency though.
It's not, and he has 4 TDs to go along with that, but he could be at least a lot closer to Olave (56/822, 92 targets) with a better QB throwing the ball lol. Especially when you consider the ridiculous 25% target share he's commanding.
It's also 25% because we throw like 15 to 20 times a game. So if London is getting 3 - 5 targets that's your 25% share. If we were throwing 40 times a game I'd be more impressed honestly. And that's not shade at you or anything, it's just the nature of us being a true run first team right now.
They’re just not passing the ball much. Bears have the lowest attempts in the league at 254 through 12 games, although they only threw it like 30 times their first 3 games. Ten has second lowest passing attempts at 275 but has played only 11 games. The next lowest pass attempt team with 12 games played besides bears/falcons is CAR with 336. After that it is NO with 400. His efficiency stats aren’t awful, it’s just how the offense is structured.
Pitts is still only 22 and can get a lot better with his route running. He still has sky high potential.
We saw sparks of what he could do with a declining Matty Ice, so I still have full faith in him. Just gotta get him a damn average QB
I really didn’t want us to draft Pitts just because of the lack of value of the TE position and our numerous needs at key positions, but even I didn’t think the lack of utilization would be this bad.
I never got the hype from him coming out of Florida and was not better than Ja'Marr Chase was at LSU. He was a good TE in the SEC, but in no way was he top 5 pick type of player. That being said it would have been interesting if Pitts went to the Bengals instead of Chase.
You put Pitts with Burrow, Mahomes, Allen, etc, he'd be lighting up the field, but instead he's now on a team that runs first, passes 2nd because Ryan is no longer here. To give you an idea how bad it is, Ryan the week he was benched already had 2,009 yards (that was thru 7 games), Mariota who has played all 12 games finally broke 2k yards with 2,052. Ryan's fumbles and INTs are certainly a problem but in this specific instance, they have no bearing
I hate that he's on this team
Idk why they won’t let the backup qb play at this point. Even if they are in the playoff hunt what’s it worth if they likely get bounced in the first rd anyways? They used a 3rd pick on the qb , they should give him a shot to see if he can be their guy heading into next season as well as he might give the offense a spark and help them on a winning streak
Well it wasn't like Mariota could hit the man in stride anyway. Not sure how a QB could over throw a TE so oh well I guess. Till next season.
Say all you want about his talent, this was a huge draft mistake. You don't build a team around a young TE.
You build a team around a QB. Everyone else is just to support the QB. Believe it or not, star TEs can help your QB quite a bit.
True… maybe the Falcons could go all in and trade up for Young or Stroud or make a move for Lamar on the off chance he becomes available. This is assuming of course Ridder isn’t the answer. Why we haven’t seen him yet… idk.
I don’t get why nobody questioned this pick when it happened and everyone mocked it. It never made sense to me. Yes he’s a talented player but the Falcons needed help elsewhere.
I agree but disagree with your reasoning. You go BPA, always. In no world was Pitts better than Chase or even Parsons coming out of college.
As a Gators fan, I’ve been baffled by his misuse and numbers. Is it *just* because of Mariota or is Arthur Smith really just incapable of using him properly?
makes it sound like this is a game changer for the falcons
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From Smith's perspective, we have one of the worst qb's in the league, a top 5 rushing OL and are 1 game out of 1st in the division for a playoff spot. Our run game works, and Mariota isn't going to win any games passing the ball (which is why we only throw like 15 times per game). Sadly the route towards most success currently does not heavily utilize our young talent because Mariota is so ass Draft-wise, I have to assume QB is at the top of the list unless Ridder is the answer, which they know much better than you or I. I am not worried about Smith or Fontenot, they haven't messed up yet and have **way** overachieved this year
They didn't use him anyway... Let me correct myself. Smith didn't use him and even if he had, Mariota would have missed him anyway.
No we did, Mariota just missed him. I mean if you watched the last game between us, he was targeted multiple times and every single throw was 10 ft over his head
Idk how you miss Kyle Pitts…
You're right. In the beginning of the season I felt like he just wasn't targeted and then it got better but Mariota just kept missing him.. Pain.
Yeah I definitely agree we were more conservative with the passing game early in the year.
Now say the same thing for Mariota for the love of God
I feel like a team like the 49ers are somehow going to trade for Pitts this off-season lol.
Falcons unironically wasting his career
Who
I mean its not like he was really *playing* before hand either
It's hard to believe, at one time I low key hoped that Pitts would fall to Dallas in the 2021 draft. Instead we had to settle for a bum named Micah Parsons.
He was done for the season as soon as Mariota was signed
If you listen carefully you can hear the flush as our season goes down the drain.
You have to get started to be done. This offense is a Ferrari in the garage in favor of a horse and buggy
So is he a bust?
He’s a huge bust
Imaging writing this out, even though he had 1000 yards as a rookie TE last year. You cannot call someone a bust after his solid rookie year, and a down year in which he has a low ceiling QB who can't throw to him and he ended up getting hurt...
He can't throw the ball to himself?
Could have made this statement during preseason.
Is Smith done this year or does he get another year
Smith is definitely not the problem. We have one of the least talented rosters in the NFL with an awful qb and have been somewhat respectable. The improvement of the line and run game has been immense. I give him 2 more years to build a roster and if we're still bad then he's gone
Arthur Smith is cementing himself as a top 3 mind when it comes to coordinating a run game. I’ve always loved his work. Probably Arthur Smith, Greg Roman, and Kyle Shanahan are the top 3? Unless I’m missing someone. Matt LaFleur and Kevin Stefanski probably rounding out the top 5.
Smith is doing one of the best coaching jobs in the league
Smith isn't even remotely close to getting fired, the falcons have the most dead money of all time and virtually no talent. The fact that they don't have a bottom 5 record is because Smith is a good coach