NFL insider predicts Falcons next head coach and quarterback

The Falcons find themselves on the outside looking in of the playoff hunt following an inexcusably embarrassing loss to the 1-12 Panthers.

It’s the kind of loss that causes heads to roll. One already has and more could come after the season. Desmond Ridder has been benched, which likely ends his chances of ever starting in the NFL again unless an injury arises. Meanwhile, Arthur Smith is seemingly coaching for his job over the next three weeks.

It’s difficult to gauge the temperature inside the building, but I think that Arthur Blank is looking for any reason not to fire Smith. If he’s brought back in 2024, there will be immense pressure to find a franchise quarterback this offseason and provide tangible improvements.

There’s still the possibility that Smith fails to prove he’s capable over these next three games, which would force Arthur Blank back into the hiring pool. Your guess is as good as mine, though I believe Smith will be back in 2024.

Albert Breer was asked in his mailbag who he thinks will be in Atlanta as the head coach and quarterback next year.

Initially, he gave context to a situation that needed it because Falcons fans seem to forget where the club was a couple of years ago!

One, the first two years for Smith and GM Terry Fontenot were dedicated to laying a new, younger foundation and cleaning up the salary cap—the Falcons carried over $60 million in dead money in 2022, meaning more than a quarter of their cap space was dedicated to guys who weren’t playing for them. So this is the first real year in which Atlanta is clear of that retooling.

Second, it does feel like this team is a quarterback away, and I don’t conceptually disagree with how Smith and Fontenot have approached it, which is to say they’d rather tread water at quarterback than go all in on a guy they’re not all in on (that was the case with quarterbacks in the draft, and Lamar Jackson last year). Basically, they didn’t want to manufacture strong feelings for a quarterback, and risk winding up with Christian Ponder in the first round.

I couldn’t agree more with Breer’s assessment and opinion on the Falcons process of finding a quarterback because too often clubs reach for one in the draft due to pressure from ownership. It happens all of the time.

But now the regime finds themselves in the same spot. If Smith is retained, there will be pressure to find a franchise quarterback, which may force a decision that Fontenot and Smith aren’t 100% behind.

The roster is in a position to compete; it just needs a signal caller. After a lengthy rant about the circumstances and reasonable questions Blank is asking himself, Breer gave his prediction of who the Falcons head coach and quarterback will be in 2024.

(To answer your question, I’ll go with Smith and a trade up for LSU’s Jayden Daniels.)

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