Atlanta Falcons: CBS writer misses the mark in description of the franchise

There are a lot of mixed feelings 24 hours after the Atlanta Falcons announced the trade of Julio Jones to the Tennessee Titans. Some are happy, most are sad and some are just wrong.

Earlier Monday, Jason La Canfora from CBS, released a full-on blitz of the Atlanta Falcons and what owner Arthur Blank has allowed to transpire over the last five year,s and while he was absolutely dead-on in regards to most of his well-meaning anger, he is absolutely wrong about the core of which the Falcons will rebuild around.

Of what Jason got right was his description of the Atlanta Falcons under Blank after the stunning Super Bowl collapse in 2016.

"“They fell into the brutal wasteland of overestimating their own players based on how much they had overpaid them (Jerry Jones specializes in this), and rather than admit defeat as their Super Bowl losing team quickly unraveled and view their team the way the rest of the league did – misguided pretender – they doubled down on their veteran core and continued with a top-heavy roster lacking in-depth and youthful production (particularly on defense).”"

Nothing to argue here, fans have said this for the last four years.

The unexpected Super Bowl run in 2016 gave the former regime an arrogance to them that Arthur Smith and Terry Fontenot are now paying for as they are being held responsible by a large portion of the fan base for a mess that they did not create.

Where Jason La Canfora went wrong with the Atlanta Falcons

Part of La Canfora’s job at CBS is to get a reaction, so using phrases like “rock bottom, half-assed, and maleficent in its dereliction” are going to be adjectives he uses to get a rise out of his readers/listeners – he is great at his job and is very entertaining but that doesn’t make him correct.

To say that the Atlanta Falcons don’t have a young core to build around is simply incorrect.

The young core in Atlanta is ridiculously talented – Kyle Pitts, Calvin Ridley, Chris Lindstrom, Grady Jarrett, Deion Jones, Foye Oluokun, and AJ Terrell are young talented pieces on both sides of the ball that a lot of teams wish that they had.

To say the Falcons lack young talent is insane and misleading. You don’t have to like Matt Ryan, Arthur Blank, the city of Atlanta, or the franchise but to say they don’t have young talent to build around, to use La Canfora’s own vernacular, is half-assed at best.

Are Terry Fontenot, Arthur Smith, Grady Jarrett, and Matt Ryan wrong for thinking this team is closer to competing than most “experts” believe? No, just like those experts aren’t wrong for thinking the exact opposite.

Everyone involved within the Atlanta Falcons franchise is well aware that all eyes are on them after trading away Julio Jones, but let’s stop antics and acting as if this is the first time in NFL history a franchise has traded away an over the hill Hall of Fame player.

Will they win a Super Bowl in 2021? No, and no one expects them to. Can they compete for a playoff spot in the NFC? Of course, they can, and the expectations are that they will.

Every year experts pick playoff teams based on the previous year’s accomplishments despite the fact that we know more than 50 percent of the teams from last year’s playoffs won’t be in them the next year.

With all the changes that have been made around the NFC, the Atlanta Falcons have as good a chance to be a playoff team in 2021 as anyone else in the conference.