Whether they played in the NFL or not, Arthur Smith seems to have a bone to pick with the members of the media.
The Atlanta Falcons head coach is the same guy who lashed out at reporters, who “buried” the Falcons last season; he’s also the same guy who continues to defend his skirting the NFL injury report.
So when Smith is not upsetting fantasy owners with his usage of Kyle Pitts, Bijan Robinson, and Drake London, he’s also picking fights with Hall of Fame quarterbacks in the media. Right now, he’s doing nothing but proving why he should NOT be the head coach of this franchise moving forward.
The Falcons lost 28-23 to the Tennessee Titans in Week 8, and there was plenty of criticism to go around for Atlanta’s performance. Warner shared a quick video of the Falcons’ offense — and from his vantage point — it’s hard for him to place blame on the quarterback.
Warner explained that he “definitely” feels that Taylor Heinicke is a better quarterback at this point in his career than Desmond Ridder. And while that may very well be the case, Warner seemed to indicate that between the weapons and offensive line Ridder has available to him. the coaching staff is not putting the quarterback or the offense in a place to succeed.
“It’s really tough to play quarterback like this,” he said.
You guys know I don’t like saying anything without having evidence to back it up, so here’s a quick video in #Falcons stuff I was seeing that was hard for me to put on the QB… team sport, lots going on, but easy to see & blame QB (but I’m trying to see it all & be objective)! pic.twitter.com/CQswgGjQ8K
— Kurt Warner (@kurt13warner) November 2, 2023
As Smith has proven time and time again, he doesn’t handle criticism particularly well.
Smith was asked about Warner’s breakdown on Twitter/X and he admittedly had not spent a lot of time on social media, listening to what the former St. Louis Rams and Arizona Cardinals quarterback had to say about his team’s offensive struggles.
“I don’t care. I really don’t,” Smith said, via The Athletic.”Everybody has their opinions. He’s welcome to come down here to our meetings. I would actually embrace that. I’m sure he gets paid a lot of money. I could give a rat’s… whatever. Unless you’re in the building with our guys and know what is asked of them and know what is really going on…”
Smith did invite the NFL Network analyst to the team facility, but who knows if the invitation was actually genuine, especially with how critical Warner’s assessment of Atlanta’s offense was.
“You have guy’s who get a hot take when they look at something and that’s probably not what was intended to happen,” Smith said. “Maybe a mistake happened. I think sometimes people get a microphone and the further they are away (from the game), they feel they know everything. Maybe he can solve some of the world’s problems, too.”
Sure Warner is far removed from the game — having retired in January 2010 — however, it’s not like he isn’t an analyst for a league-sponsored network, in addition to being alongside Kevin Harlan on the radio broadcast of Monday Night Football. So, Warner may know what he’s talking about, as opposed to an offense that’s 28th in points/game (17.3), 18th in yards/play (5.1), 20th in third down conversion percentage (37.96%), 19th in Red Zone scoring percentage (50.00%), and 26th in TDs/game (1.6).
As the Falcons take on the Minnesota Vikings in Week 9, we’ll have to see who responds first, Warner or Smith.
