Mike Smith, Falcons' HC

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It's been over 5 years since he's walked away from the game; his final three years spent being Tampa Bay's DC. A modest, unassuming persona, simply his name may cause him to be underrated and, perhaps, already forgotten.

A stud defensive player at East Tennessee State then dipping a toe in the CFL as a player before jumping straight back into the college game as an assistant coach for many years. Tennessee Tech was his main college stop, his final three years there as a DC.

Then off to the Ravens. He was their DL coach in esteemed 2000! He was Jacksonville's DC under Del Rio, putting up some stout numbers while assisting them to winning playoff seasons!

And then those 5-straight winning seasons as HC for the Falcons! Didn't lead them to a SB as Dan Reeves did and Quinn would end up doing as well (and sure-enough, neither season of his will ever be as revered in Falcon Nation as Leeman Bennett's 1980 installment - yeah, same may go with me, lol), but he WAS the first EVER to guide the franchise to back-to-back winning seasons - 43 and 44 seasons in, mind you; AGAIN, 43 and 44 seasons in!!

It looks, pretty much, like we never will see him come back to coaching. A shame. And sure-enough he won't even make HOVG. But quite an under-the-radar run he had as not only for what he did in Atl that was never done previously there, but as a coach overall since the early-'80s.

What are your takes?


PS - Atlanta/Baltimore Super Bowl, which almost did happen, not too un-intriguing at all to at least think of for a minute. Leeman didn't make it to a CCG, Mike Smith at least did (and almost won it).

It'd be pretty cool if he did make a comeback. He's definitely still young enough!

[SeahawkFever]

It's been over 5 years since he's walked away from the game; his final three years spent being Tampa Bay's DC. A modest, unassuming persona, simply his name may cause him to be underrated and, perhaps, already forgotten.

A stud defensive player at East Tennessee State then dipping a toe in the CFL as a player before jumping straight back into the college game as an assistant coach for many years. Tennessee Tech was his main college stop, his final three years there as a DC.

Then off to the Ravens. He was their DL coach in esteemed 2000! He was Jacksonville's DC under Del Rio, putting up some stout numbers while assisting them to winning playoff seasons!

And then those 5-straight winning seasons as HC for the Falcons! Didn't lead them to a SB as Dan Reeves did and Quinn would end up doing as well (and sure-enough, neither season of his will ever be as revered in Falcon Nation as Leeman Bennett's 1980 installment - yeah, same may go with me, lol), but he WAS the first EVER to guide the franchise to back-to-back winning seasons - 43 and 44 seasons in, mind you; AGAIN, 43 and 44 seasons in!!

It looks, pretty much, like we never will see him come back to coaching. A shame. And sure-enough he won't even make HOVG. But quite an under-the-radar run he had as not only for what he did in Atl that was never done previously there, but as a coach overall since the early-'80s.

What are your takes?


PS - Atlanta/Baltimore Super Bowl, which almost did happen, not too un-intriguing at all to at least think of for a minute. Leeman didn't make it to a CCG, Mike Smith at least did (and almost won it).

It'd be pretty cool if he did make a comeback. He's definitely still young enough!

Mike Smith from what I can tell seems like a good coach.

As for the 2012 Falcons he coached, I am not sure if they could have beaten the Ravens, but one thing they likely have over the 2016 team that made the Super Bowl and nearly won is that they were more well rounded than 2016 was on paper.

The 2016 Falcons had an amazing MVP season out of Matt Ryan; probably one of the best of that generation, and he had Julio Jones of course who was in prime form and also had an amazing season. They also had a good running game with Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman who combined for nearly 1,600 rushing yards on good efficiency. A number one offense needless to say.

However, after Julio Jones, the 2016 Falcons' second most common target Mohamed Sanu had only 653 yards.

On defense, the Falcons ranked only 27th by points, and 24th by my statistic on defense. To be fair, they did play pretty solid in the two playoff games before the Super Bowl; in particular in the NFC Championship Game they allowed no points to the Packers until the team had a 31-0 lead almost halfway into the third quarter. But still, that seems pretty underwhelming on defense for a team that got that far.

The 2012 team by contrast, was seventh by points on offense and fifth by points on defense. By my score percentage stat, the 2012 Falcons offense ranks second on offense, and 14th on defense.

In particular the 2012 team appears to have had a more balanced receiving corps. Not to argue that Roddy White is a better receiver than Julio Jones, but after his 1,351 yards, Julio Jones had 1,198 yards as a second highest receiver, and Tony Gonzalez had 930 yards as a third most common receiver; the latter two of whom have over 250 yards on the 2016 corps' second most common target.

The 2012 team also appears to have the better defense, not just by points, but they also collected nine more turnovers (31 vs 22).

The 2012 team on the downside appears to have a worse running game as Michael Turner had only about 800 yards, and 3.6 yards per carry, and the defense in the playoffs allowed 28 points in both playoff games and the points were not allowed while the other team was well behind.

Even so, the better worse component of the 2012 team appears to have been less of a liability than the 2016 team's worse component was in general.


As for the receiving yards distribution, one thing I notice is that in general, higher receiving yardage seasons don't happen for teams that win it all.

My theory is that if a receiver is getting too much yardage, then it could be a sign that the offense is a bit too predictable, and perhaps a bit too easy to disrupt. That's no knock on the talents or careers of top receivers, but it is to wonder how impactful their play could have been in more well rounded passing games.

I looked at the all time leaders in receiving yards per game in a season. There have been 83 instances of a player averaging at least 95 receiving yards per game. Only seven of those targets were on a team that won a title.

Those players are Elroy Hirsch for the 1951 Rams, Charley Hennigan for the 1961 Oilers, Don Maynard for the 1968 Jets, Michael Irvin for the 1995 Cowboys, Victor Cruz for the 2011 Giants, and most recently Cooper Kupp for the 2021 Rams.

Though looking at the top 83 seasons by rushing yards per game and passing yards per game will show similar rates of players at the top ended up with championships, so that might not be the best barometer, but still.