The news of Bryan Cox’s firing was surprising in the extreme, given its timing. It also flew under the radar a bit, considering that the Falcons parted ways with defensive coordinator Richard Smith the same day, and we were also sort of still in a stage of deep mourning over the Super Bowl. You know, that stuff.
It also wasn’t immediately clear why he was fired. The impetus behind Smith was that Dan Quinn had begun calling plays and the team clearly wanted to put Marquand Manuel into the defensive coordinator role, least in hindsight.