Reminding Falcons owner Arthur Blank why Thomas Dimitroff has to go

The Atlanta Falcons front office finally decided to pull the trigger on trading Mohamed Sanu. The talented receiver was traded to the New England Patriots in exchange for a second-round draft pick.

Atlanta Falcons fans are furious. They traded away their favorite player on the team and didn’t get better. They didn’t trade Matt Ryan or Vic Beasley. This is far from the worst thing this front office has her done this might be one of the best moves they’ve made even if it does sting a bit.

There have been some questionable moves made the front office and trading Sanu isn’t one of them. The following front office moves will put the Sanu trade to shame and hopefully, Falcons fans will realize it could have been a lot worse.

Picking up Vic Beasley’s fifth-year option

Falcons fans everywhere grew tired of Vic Beasley just as fast as they fell in life with him during the 2016 season. He registered 15.5 sacks and made the All-Pro team, giving the impression that the Falcons had the edge rusher this team desperately needed.

Fast forward to now and there has not been any progress only regression. For some strange reason, the front office decided to pick up his fifth-year option worth

$12.8 million dollars, money that could have gone towards improving the team yet the Falcons decided to pay hoping he would ball out. He’s now on the trading block with little to no value.

Drafting Peter Konz

He was supposed to replace one of the greatest Falcon offensive lines ever in Todd McClure when he was drafted in the second round of the 2012 NFL draft. He did anything but that. Scout said he was the number one overall rated center coming out of Wisconsin but that game didn’t translate to the pros. He was out of the league by 2015.

Steven Jackson signing

Steven Jackson was one of the best running backs in the league during his NFL career. A dependable running back who consistently put up 1000 yards in his career, the Falcons took a flyer when they signed him to a three-year deal in 2013.

It was clear that he was past his prime and football took a toll on him. In two years, Jackson rushed for a grand total of 1,250 yards. Jackson was a consummate professional but the Falcons needed more on the ground to get over the top.

Resigning Sam Baker

Sam Baker was a three-time All American so it makes sense why the Falcons took him in the first round of the  2008 NFL draft. He battles a lot of injuries during his career and had his best season in 2012 which just so happened to be his contract year.

The Falcons resigned Baker to a 6 year, $41.1 million dollar contract extension with a $10 million dollar signing bonus. That proved to be a waste of money. He ended up playing nine games in his first two seasons after signing the contract and was cut by the team.

Replacing Mike Smith with Mike Smith 2.0

Most General Managers do not survive having to fire more than two head coaches that they hired. This usually signals to ownership that the general manager is incapable of evaluating head coaching talent

When the Falcons fired Mike Smith, they had a chance to make a splash and go out and get whomever they wanted. What coach in their right mind would not want to coach a young Matt Ryan and Julio Jones.

Instead, Thomas Dimitroff stuck with his blueprint that had already shown to not work. A defensive-minded assistant coach with no head coaching experience that won a Super Bowl with an all-time great defense.

This blueprint has now failed twice and so has Dimitroff. It is time for him to go so that he cannot set this franchise back even further with another Mike Smith type coach.

Trading Sanu was a tough pill to swallow but it was something that needed to be done and it was the right thing to do. For the first time in a while, the Falcons front office did the right thing. However, replacing Thomas Dimitroff along with Dan Quinn is the better thing to do in order to get this franchise back to respectability.