Atlanta Falcons head coach Arthur Smith appeared on the Pat McAfee show this week and answered a host of questions about taking over the reigns in Atlanta.
McAfee and Smith had a laugh about how quickly March prognostications can go sour.
Is it a bit scary looking around the NFC South and seeing the Super Bowl Champs and a dominant New Orleans Saints team?
“You always look at things on paper, it’s like when the schedule comes out,” said Smith “It never works out the way it looks on paper. In April whenever they have that release show, or whatever they do now and hype it up. There’s so many things that change. One injury to a quarterback can change the whole dynamic of a team.”
Smith had some fun on the show with the always charismatic McAfee.
“Pat, you were obviously part of that in ’11. You go from having Peyton Manning, and then you line up, no offense to Curtis Painter or Dan Orlovsky, it wasn’t like you were playing Peyton.”
McAfee deadpanned, “Seems like you took quite a shot there. It seems like you took quite a shot at Curtis Painter and Dan Orlovsky.”
The members of the show and Smith got a good chuckle.
“We almost lost [Andrew] Luck because Dan Orlovsky was so good at football,” said McAfee. Orlovsky led the Colts to a 2-3 record after Painter was 0-8, nearly costing the Colts the No. 1 overall draft pick which was used on Andrew Luck.
After a laugh about Orlovsky and the Colts making the playoffs, Smith got serious again about prognosticating the schedule in March.
“That’s what happens. You get a couple key injuries and it changes. But yeah, this division is tough. Obviously New Orleans has had a lot of sustained success since Sean Payton has been there.
Tampa, like you guys just said, they came off the Super Bowl. We played them two years ago. They’ve got a lot of good players on defense. And then Carolina. Matt Rhule has done a good job wherever he’s been and building that thing the right way.”
“They’re all tough. Every week is tough. You know that.”
