Atlanta Falcons: Signing Mike Davis was a terrible decision

Mike Davis is the wrong guy for the Atlanta Falcons.

The Atlanta Falcons have made very little noise in free agency this season – though that should not come as a surprise to any of us, it was expected. They have added a few pieces but nothing spectacular and that includes Mike Davis.

Yes, Davis is an Atlanta native as he stared for Stephenson HS before playing collegiately at South Carolina. However, his 1,500 yards rushing and 11 touchdowns say this was a waste of $3 million and money that this franchise could have spent elsewhere.

No, he is not coming in to transform the rushing attack and this will not change any draft plans the Atlanta Falcons have but it is still head-scratching given the fact that his team has no money to spend.

When you add into the fact that he took to Twitter on February 4th and in a tweet that he has since deleted asked “how old is too old to gang bang”. It raises other red flags about this signing. Hopefully, new general manager Terry Fontenot did his job and made sure that this signing would not come back to haunt him from that perspective, but all in all, this was a nonsensical signing.

Mike Davis isn’t an upgrade over Ito Smith or Qadree Ollison and he will make more in 2021 than Smith, Ollison, and fullback Keith Smith combined. Matter of fact, Davis is currently the 15th highest-paid player on the Falcons roster and will make 4.5 times what Ito Smith will.

The Atlanta Falcons will add a running back at some point in the 2021 NFL Draft.

In the last few years, former head coach Dan Quinn kept four running backs on the active roster. The Falcons currently have four running backs signed – though Tony Brooks-James is likely headed back to the practice squad it becomes very interesting when you look at the $3 million Davis is guaranteed for 2021.

Trey Sermon out of Ohio State is a guy that should be available in the third round and would make a lot of sense for the Falcons given his limited wear and tear in college – just 455 total carries.

Adding Davis in free agency given his roster positioning, the guys already here, and the players that will be available in the draft simply makes this signing odd and does not significantly improve the roster moving forward.

This was a waste of $3 million a lot like Todd Gurley was a huge waste of $5 million a year ago.