Atlanta Falcons Need To Make Some Tough Decisions

The Atlanta Falcons are a very interesting football team indeed. Bobby Petrino has resigned to take the head coaching job at Arkansas and now Emmitt Smith is the interim coach of the Falcons. This franchise has fallen a long way down and I guess that blame can be passed around to many different people. If you listen to people it's Arthur Blank the owners fault, toss in Michael Vick and maybe even poor draft choices can be to blame. After looking over the situation though this franchise lacks direction and that starts at the top.

The Falcons hired Rich McKay away from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers thinking he was the General Manager to turn around this franchise and get them to greater heights. The truth now as people in Atlanta are finding out it wasn't Rich Mckay who built Tampa Bay it was Tony Dungy. Thus the Falcons are stuck with him and right now no direction. The coaching carousel hasn't helped either and hiring Bobby Petrino was a big mistake that the Falcon fans are paying for right now. Is their a way out? Of course, but many Falcon fans may not like it though.

Let's digress a little bit before we get to the way out of this mess. The Atlanta Falcons weren't a very good team in reality to begin with. Michael Vick carried that team and love him or hate him that is the fact. With him on the field he gave the Falcons a chance to win and almost took them to the Super Bowl. That's the talent level he has. Now as far as rest of the team their are some good players on the team, but nothing that will make you say wow. The owner of the Atlanta Falcons has three choices he must make in the off season and that is the following.

1. Get A Good Head Coach

2. Decide What To Do With Michael Vick

3. What Direction he Wants For His Team

Now these are the three things that must be decided, but not in that order. The first decision will have to be about Michael Vick. When he gets out of prison he will be around 29 years old and does he want him back. Outcry will come from both sides and that is understandable, but he needs to stand up and decide that. My opinion is bring him back. Yes, he made mistakes but the bottom line is he packs the Dome and he can play football and make plays.

If Vick isn't your option than drafting a quarterback in the first round is crucial and build a offense around the new quarterback. If Vick is in the plans than draft defense. Defense wins championships and the bottom line is Atlanta's defense needs overhauled. With Vick you have two years to build an offense as he won't be able to play until than.

Last get a coach and tell him what you want to do and the direction you think the Falcons should go. Don't hire just any coach, hire someone the Atlanta fans can relate to. This is crucial to the coaches success and Atlanta's success. If Arthur Blank does these things Atlanta could have a contender in a few years if not back to where they are right now losing games and having dissatisfied fans.