The nightmare is over, everyone. Arthur Smith was officially canned in the dead of the night just hours after suffering a colossal loss to the Saints, one that ended unceremoniously with Jameis Winston going rogue to do what any good fantasy football fan would have done to Smith had they been in his position. For the past three years, Smith has been the boogeyman of fantasy football thanks to his insistence on forcing the ball to RB Tyler Allgeier and TEs Jonnu Smith and MyCole Pruitt over his three top draft picks in each of the past three years. In that period of time, we’ve watched the fantasy value and productivity of star prospects in Kyle Pitts, Drake London, and Bijan Robinson rot away with no clear explanation as to why, the only link between all three peculiar cases being Arthur Smith. With him happily in the rearview, the team will seek to hire a new head coach – one who hopefully will use the best weapons in the Falcons’ arsenal – while also reckoning with the question mark at quarterback that has hung around since Matt Ryan left in 2020. It’s still a long road ahead, but the first step to getting better is admitting you made a mistake; in the Falcons’ case, that concession is just a year too late, but the future is undoubtedly brighter today for Bijan and co. than it was a few days ago.