Watch: The Heat Under Dimitroff’s Seat Should Equal Quinn’s After This Season
All the attention to what has gone wrong with the Atlanta Falcons in 2019 has centered around head coach Dan Quinn. Much of that for good reason. Except for their two games following the bye week, the Falcons have been regularly beaten in all phases of the game by every opponent they’ve faced. Also, Dan Quinn’s reputation as a defensive genius has been called into question. The unit he took full responsibility for heading into 2019 is thirtieth in points allowed.
What has flown under the radar this season is that general manager Thomas Dimitroff has failed miserably at the one task handed down to him publicly by team owner Arthur Blank this season. He’s botched the job to build an offensive line that could keep Matt Ryan protected.
Ryan was sacked 42 times last season and that was considered excessive. For 2019, he’s currently on pace to be sacked 54 times, most for a season in his career.
The two guards Dimitroff signed in free agency, James Carpenter and Jamon Brown just can’t be released after this season either. Both would cost the Falcons as much in dead cap as it would to keep them and their salaries on the roster. Both have underperformed when they haven’t been injured but the team has no choice but to bring both back for 2020.
Then there are the two offensive linemen Dimitroff drafted. Chris Lindstrom gets an incomplete grade after breaking his foot in Week 1. Kaleb McGary doesn’t get off so easily. Dimitroff traded back into the first round to get McGary, seeing him as the right tackle of the present and future.
Problem is, McGary is playing more to his NFL.com scouting report than the reports Dimitroff must have been looking at on draft day. McGary has trouble moving his feet to sustain blocks. He gets whipped at the point of attack. McGary lacks lateral foot quickness and he can’t recover when beaten. All pointed out before the draft by Lance Zierlein of NFL.com.
All of that isn’t to say that McGary can’t overcome those weaknesses. What it is saying is that, as a first-round pick, we should be seeing improvement in his play but McGary is still showing the same weaknesses in his game that he had when coming into the league.
When a team has an elite, franchise quarterback, like the Falcons do in Ryan, it’s the general manager’s top priority to make sure that quarterback stays healthy. The team can’t realistically expect to play January football without him. Because Thomas Dimitroff has failed at that task, he should be facing just as much heat under his seat as Dan Quinn will when the season is over.
