As the old saying goes, pressure bust pipes and while Atlanta Falcons’ head coach Arthur Smith has not been known to go have outburst when dealing with the media, his responses to questions at times can be considered a bit snarky. And as of recently, having to field questions in regards to the quarterback room and whether Desmond Ridder would be back as QB1 after he had been pulled after the first half on Sunday in their loss to the Titans, Smith’s response was viewed as uncalled for as he told a reporter, “I’ll just say, here’s who’s going to start against Minnesota. I’m not going to have like balloons and celebration,” Smith told a reporter.
Having listened to the response of Smith, 92-9 The Game’s Steak Shapiro and Rusty Mansell shared their thoughts on the reply for Smith as they discussed why the third year Falcons’ head coach seemed to be “so edgy or paranoid at times,” when dealing with routine media questioning. “Just talk straight. It’s not that complicated Arthur Smith, you make your life so much more complicated,” Shapiro said as he expressed his thoughts on Smith’s handling of the questioning surrounding the status of Ridder and if he would be this week’s starter.
Ultimately sharing the same sentiment as Shapiro, Mansell added that Smith should not be dealing with so much uncertainty in making his announcement between Ridder and Taylor Heinicke for the simple fact that despite Ridder being pulled for injury concern on Sunday, Heinicke’s performance seemingly proved that the second string quarterback appears to give the Falcons the best chance to win now. “This is one quarterback looked like you could win a game with him and the other one got sacked five times because he can’t go through progressions and his pre-snap read, he doesn’t know what defense you’re in,” Mansell told Shapiro.
Click link above to hear Shapiro and Mansell’s conversation in its entirety: