Quote from lovelystyle100 on March 11, 2024, 8:23 AM

The 4-4 lead the NFC South, and they're doing it their way.Head coach Arthur Smith has banded together this roster to play a brand of football that can be described as "screw you, we're going to play our game and dictate terms to you." With a roster that probably has a dozen or so players who won't make a team in 2023 and nearly $80 Anthony Harris Jersey million in dead cap, the Falcons have zigged where everyone else zags in a season where they have a razor-thin margin for error."It's just we're confident in what we believe in and that's what makes this game fun," said one high-ranking Falcons source, granted anonymity to speak freely on the state of the team. "That's what makes this game fun. If everybody was doing the same shit, it'd be boring."The Falcons, who this week face the at home, have refurbished , made Cordarelle Patterson one A.J. Brown Jersey of the most dynamic weapons in the sport, all while grinding teams down to the final quarter the way they want.No team in the NFL rushes on first down more than Atlanta at 72 percent. Compare that to the league average of 51.9 percent, where teams are told constantly about the expected points added value of pa sing on first. Atlanta uses personnel groupings that include either two tight ends or two running backs are rates that rank top-three in a league where 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end and three wide receivers) dominate. In fact, the Falcons have three or more wide receivers on the field le s than 30 percent of their plays, second-fewest in the league.They rarely go three-and-out, have gotten points on all but two of their red zone drives, almost never go for it fourth down and have the fewest dropped pa ses in the NFL.A Falcons team in a terrible cap situation find it nece sary to have to play with the personnel it has, yes. But this is also central to Smith's belief as a head coach: bending your scheme to fit your players rather than the other way around. Avid NFL watchers would struggle to name a Falcons defender after and . Patterson went out in Week 4 and the Falcons have still rushed for the sixth-most yards in the NFL since Week 5. Mariota isn't landing on anyone's Jerome Brown Jersey top-10 lists, but he's making smart decisions with the football, including calculated deep shots."He's playing more freer," the source said, "and as you saw last week against the the way he was dialed in, it was like he was back at Oregon distributing the ball like a point guard."Is this sustainable? Perhaps. The team knows it can win these dogfights. They got more confidence after the Week 2 lo s to the , and then beat what we now know to be a legitimate team in Seattle in Week 3. They won a coin-flip game against the , were a bad roughing call away from a chance to come back and beat the in Tampa, dragged the and then won, lost, and won again an Josh Sweat Jersey overtime game against Carolina last week. The Falcons are doing it with one hand tied behind their back, at least from a roster standpoint. When Smith and general manager Terry Fontenot arrived following the 2020 season, they had to make tough decisions about the state of the franchise. Fontenot was able to deal for second- and sixth-round picks, and since then he's played just 13 games acro s two franchises for a combined 531 receiving yards.A similar decision was made this offseason with franchise quarterback . The team knew Ryan was in decline, and Smith's offensive system hid some of Ryan's deficiencies by reducing the number of deep sideline throws he once attempted. But the rush games teams would employ against them meant regular pre sure up the middle that Ryan couldn't avoid. Fontenot was able to get a DeVonta Smith Jersey third-round pick from Indianapolis for Ryan on the same day they signed Mariota to a two-year deal.Atlanta is carrying nearly $56 million in dead cap for the two players, but it's clear now it was worth it.