It is no secret that the Atlanta Falcons haven't made a good coaching hire since Dan Quinn 10 years ago.
The hires of Arthur Smith and Raheem Morris have blown up in the faces of Arthur Blank and Rich McKay; the duo has failed to make the correct pivotal decision.
On Sunday, the regret hit even harder as they watched their team blow up in the second half against an emerging head coach who has his team rolling.
Falcons' decision to pass on Mike MacDonald for Raheem Morris hurts even more
MacDonald is turning into an elite head coach for the Seattle Seahawks. In just one year, he has turned an alright team into one of the league's most dominant, with a defense that is suffocating—as the Falcons learned the hard way on Sunday.
And to think the Dirty Birds came close to hiring him...
The #Falcons requested to interview #Ravens DC Mike Macdonald and associate head coach and DL coach Anthony Weaver for second interviews for their vacant HC job, sources say.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 22, 2024
The first-time head coach was under strong consideration after landing a second interview. Unfortunately, the Falcons went with Blank's old pal, Morris.
There has been talk about the the franchise passing up numerous quality head coaches during the 2024 cycle. However, just because they interviewed them doesn't mean they would take the job.
Outside of MacDonald, three names have been commonly pointed to by fans: Mike Vrabel, Ben Johnson, and Jim Harbaugh.
Let's get something straight: those three weren't going to take this job. Vrabel was waiting for the Patriots' job, Johnson wanted to run it back for another year with the Lions, and Harbaugh was always going to the Chargers.
That is why not hiring MacDonald hurts so much—he would've taken the job had he been offered.
The then-36-year-old spent a significant amount of time in Georgia growing up. While he was born in Boston, he went to Centennial High School in Roswell, Georgia, and then graduated from the University of Georgia.
In addition, he coached for Cedar Shoals High School in Athens and was an assistant with the Bulldogs. While accepting the Seahawks job was probably one of the easiest decisions in his life, accepting the Falcons job would've been even easier.
This was a franchise-defining miss by Blank and company. Morris has proven to be anything but head coaching material, while MacDonald has gone 20-10 (including a 13-2 road record) with Seattle.
And it isn't even like Seattle is heads and shoulders more talented than Atlanta. Both teams have tremendous young talent on both sides of the ball. Right now, the Falcons' issues come down to coaching.
To think that one decision will waste even more precious years is painful.