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Arthur Smith was fired in the middle of the night, marking an end to three tumultuous seasons with the Atlanta Falcons that ended with another 7-10 finish. While Smith goes looking for his next job—and he’ll get one in relatively short order—the Falcons need to make their next hire.

Was this the right move? Who will the Falcons hire? Our staff roundtable weighs in on those two important questions.

I’ve written all of this somewhere before, but the Falcons under Smith were defined more by that they didn’t do than what they accomplished. They rarely scored more than 30 points (and too often didn’t sniff 20), regressed mightily in multiple areas on offense in 2023, and never won more than two games in a row. I know many players and Arthur Blank alike genuinely liked Smith, but that was true of Dan Quinn and Mike Smith, too.

We can and likely will argue over how much of this is at the feet of Smith versus Desmond Ridder or anyone else (Blank, Terry Fontenot) involved in cratering the team’s quarterback position in recent years, but in a results-based business and a year with heightened expectations, three straight 7-10 seasons will get most coaches fired. I was concerned Blank might not make this move; as much as I never enjoy coaches being fired, I think it was absolutely the right decision to take the franchise in a different direction.