Breaking up is hard to do ... except when your team is 10-22 over the last two seasons. When that's the case, breaking up is easy and even welcomed. As such, it appears as if the Atlanta Falcons are preparing to move on from head coach Mike Smith sometime today.
"Per a league source with knowledge of the situation, Smith is 'absolutely done' after seven seasons with the team," wrote Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.
A Smith firing is hardly a surprise at this point. Falcons owner Arthur Blank has already hired a company to help him with his search for a new head coaching candidate. While Smith helped lead the team to its first back-to-back winning seasons in franchise history when he took over, the Falcons have gone just 1-4 in the postseason since 2008.
"Some will think that Smith lost his job once he lost Sunday's NFC South championship game," Florio wrote. "But he likely was gone even if the Falcons had won on Sunday. He likely would have been gone even if the Falcons had won in the wild-card round."
The Falcons were bad on both sides of the ball this season, ranking in the bottom half in rushing yards per game (93.6) and dead last in opposing passing yards per game (279.9). Consecutive losing seasons that began with playoff aspirations all but guaranteed an exit for Smith.