Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank officially fired head coach Arthur Smith early Monday morning and spoke with reporters later in the day about the club passing on a chance to acquire Baltimore Ravens star quarterback Lamar Jackson last offseason.
“Was it a mistake to not pursue? You’re asking me that? . . . I don’t think so,” Blank said about Jackson, per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. “I’m mean, it’s easy to say ‘yes’ given his year, and he’s obviously an incredible player. You know, we did not have the cap space. I think the coaching staff felt — coach and personnel, all of us felt collectively, with certainly coach and (general manager Terry Fontenot) that we felt we had an answer in (2022 third-round draft pick Desmond Ridder), a younger player without that kind of contract that would’ve kept us from actually building the team we wanted to build.”
The Falcons were repeatedly linked with Jackson both before and after the Ravens retained his rights for 2023 via the non-exclusive franchise tag, but Smith confirmed in late March that Ridder would remain his QB1 through the spring. Smith later benched Ridder for a time during this past season, while Jackson became the presumed Most Valuable Player for the campaign.
Jackson ultimately signed a five-year contract reportedly worth up to $260M with $185M guaranteed to stay with Baltimore.
“I think the result of that thinking was let’s stay the course,” Blank added on Monday. “Let’s continue to pursue the vision that we have now. And go from there. It’s not a criticism of Lamar. You can debate whether or not he would’ve been available or not. Who knows if they were able to match whatever offers were on the table? I don’t know that. I’m not sure. But certainly a great player. He certainly had a great year.”
According to ESPN stats, Ridder ended the season ranked 26th among qualified players with a 39.9 adjusted QBR and 28th with an 83.4 passer rating. Across 15 games, he tossed 12 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions.
Meanwhile, Jackson guided the 13-4 Ravens to the No. 1 seed for the AFC portion of the postseason tournament.
