This was always going to be a longer-term project, no matter what anyone else might have said or how things might have been framed. That much was clear from the beginning no matter who took over for Dan Quinn and Thomas Dimitroff for the 2021 season for the Atlanta Falcons.
A roster needing a lot of players – both in talent and pure numbers – combined with major salary cap issues was always going to constrain the Falcons under first-year coach Arthur Smith and general manager Terry Fontenot.
It was a combination of young players being placed in bigger roles and a lot of veterans signing one-year contracts in free agency because that’s what Atlanta could work with.