NFL Black Monday: Smith and Rivera fired as speculation swirls over Belichick
Arthur Smith, who inherited a rebuilding project in his first NFL head coaching job and failed to lift Atlanta from their playoff drought hours after completing his third straight losing season with the Falcons. The Washington Commanders made the next move hours later, firing Ron Rivera. The fate of others, including Bill Belichick, on Black Monday remains unclear with the New England Patriots head coach saying that “I’m under contract. I’m going to do what I always do, which is every day I come in, work as hard as I can to help the team in whatever way I can.”
The Commanders’ firing of Rivera is the first move of many expected by the team’s new owners as they put their stamp on the franchise they bought last year.
The decision came a day after the Commanders’ season-ending 38-10 home loss to division-rival Dallas.
“As we look ahead, we recognize the results this season were not good enough and a strategic shift in leadership and approach is necessary,” controlling owner Josh Harris said in a statement.
Harris said he has asked co-owners Mitch Rales, Magic Johnson and David Blitzer as well as former NBA executive Bob Myers and ex-Minnesota GM Rick Spielman to work with him in the searches for a head of football personnel and coach. After Dan Snyder four years ago hired Rivera to do both jobs, ownership is now splitting those responsibilities.
Myers served as president of basketball operations and GM of the Golden State Warriors as they won four championships, and he was named the league’s executive of the year twice. General manager Martin Mayhew and a majority of the front office and coaching staff are also expected to go, as Harris and his fellow owners begin shaping the organization less than six months after buying the team from Snyder.
Washington made one playoff appearance, winning an uncharacteristically weak NFC East at 7-9 in 2020, during Rivera’s four seasons in charge of Washington’s football operations. He never had a winning season.
Smith, the 41-year-old son of FedEx founder Fred Smith, finished with a record of 21-30 for the Falcons. He went 7-10 each year.
Smith was dismissed after a 48-17 loss at New Orleans – the second-worst setback of his tenure, topped only by a 43-3 rout at Dallas in 2021. The Falcons dropped four of their last five games and were blown out in Smith’s final two contests, losing 37-17 at Chicago a week ago.
The Falcons have posted six straight losing seasons since their last playoff appearance in 2017.
After the team arrived back in Atlanta, Smith met with owner Arthur Blank and CEO Rich McKay. The firing was announced shortly after midnight, the first of what is expected to be several coaching changes around the NFL on Black Monday.
“Decisions like this are never easy and they never feel good,” said Blank, the 81-year-old owner who now begins the search for the the sixth full-time head coach of his two-plus decades as the Falcons’ owner.
Smith was hired by the Falcons in 2021 after a decade-long stint as an assistant with the Tennessee Titans in which he moved up to become their offensive coordinator. Smith didn’t feel much heat after his first two losing seasons as Atlanta dealt with major salary cap issues, the result of trading away two franchise stalwarts: quarterback Matt Ryan and receiver Julio Jones.
The expectations on Smith grew immensely this season, with Blank making it clear he expected nothing less than the team’s first trip to the playoffs since 2017 after a free-agent spending spree to improve the defense and using three straight top-10 draft picks on offensive playmakers Kyle Pitts, Drake London and Bijan Robinson.
But Smith never got reliable quarterback play, switching back and forth between Desmond Ridder and Taylor Heinicke this season.
Smith was hired largely based on his offensive success with the Titans. But he never developed a dynamic unit in Atlanta.
He was heavily criticized for conservative play-calling and failure to take advantage of Pitts, London and Robinson. Most telling, the team produced more than 30 points only once during his tenure. Atlanta were 26th in the league in scoring this season, averaging 18.9 points per game.
No matter who comes in, the biggest issue facing the Falcons remains the quarterback position. They struck out in their attempts to trade for Deshaun Watson and didn’t pursue a deal for Lamar Jackson because of concerns about his injury history, leaving largely the same predicament that they were in when Smith arrived with an aging Ryan as his quarterback. Now, it falls to the next coach.
Meanwhile Belichick, the most successful coach in Super Bowl history, may leave the New England Patriots after 24 seasons. The Patriots’ season ended with a defeat to the New York Jets, a team they had beaten in their 15 previous meetings. Their 4-13 record this season was by far the worst of Belichick’s tenure and they have not found a replacement at quarterback after Tom Brady’s departure to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
On Monday, Belichick said his future with the franchise he has led to six Super Bowl titles is undecided.
“I learned [a] lesson from my dad growing up – you work for the team that you’re working for and do the best you can for it, until somebody tells you different. So that’s not going to change,” he said.
The 71-year-old said he still enjoys his job despite a miserable season.
“It was obviously a very disappointing season all the way around. Players, coaches, staff, organization, everybody is not anywhere close to what our standard and expectations are. So, obviously, things need to be fixed,” he said. “We’ll start putting the pieces back together in terms of setting things up to go through a good, detailed analysis and to kind of start a reconstruction, if you will.”