Atlanta Falcons Staying the Course With Dimitroff and Smith

Hey Falcons fans, do you remember last year?  Do you remember the Falcons hiring a general manager that nobody ever heard of? A GM that looked like he should have been on a surfboard instead of running an NFL franchise? 

Do you remember asking "Mike who?" when the Falcons announced their head coach.  Do you remember that feeling of despair when the Falcons rid themselves of four Pro Bowl players in the offseason?

Most of all, do you remember everybody, and I do mean EVERYBODY, picking the Atlanta Falcons to be the worst team in the NFL?

Apparently alot of Falcons fans and Atlanta media have short memories, because I see a lot of second guessing going on with regards to the Falcons offseason.  Based on the improbable season that just took place for the Birds, I think I am going to give Thomas Dimitroff and Mike Smith the benefit of the doubt.

When Dimitroff hired Smith, we were told that building a champion would be a process.  Mike Smith used the word process so many times you would have thought he had a bonus clause in his contract for saying the word. 

The Falcons brain trust set out to transform the Falcons into a young team built for sustained success, and an absolutely incredible thing happened in the first year of this process—the Falcons won football games. 

Winning has made Falcons fans and media forget "the process", and now Dimitroff is being criticized for not being more active in free agency. 

If the Falcons are going to achieve the sustained success that all Falcons fans crave, Dimitroff and Smith have to stick to the plan, the same plan that produced the best draft in the NFL last year by a wide margin. 

They have to stay the course even if it means taking a small step back this year.  Hopefully, the Falcons faithful will be able to give them the benefit of the doubt.

I think they have earned that much.