Falcons owner Arthur Blank said a couple of weeks ago that the team is committed to head coach Arthur Smith, but added that they would assess things at the end of the season.
Blank passed on an opportunity to share any more thoughts on Smith or anything else about the team after Sunday’s 37-17 loss in Chicago. The loss drops them to 7-9 and they will need to beat the Saints in Week 18 while the Buccaneers lose to the Panthers in order to win the division.
D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said that media covering the team requested a chance to speak with Blank and that a team spokesperson said “he’s not going to talk.”
There may not have been much reason for Blank to talk right now. If he wasn’t going to make a change after losses to the Bucs and Panthers pushed the team to the fringes of the playoff race, there’s no reason to believe he’ll make one with one week left to go in the season. Whatever happens next week, Blank will have a decision to make about running things back with a coach who is now 21-29 and guaranteed to have a third-straight losing season in a division that has been there for the taking in each of the last two seasons.
