The battle between Arthur Smith and fantasy football managers serves no purpose for either party

Perhaps the most pointless controversy persisting in the NFL is the ongoing battle between the fantasy football community and Atlanta Falcons head coach Arthur Smith.

The ongoing frustration with fantasy football managers and the way Smith uses his offensive personnel dates back to last season as 2021 first-round tight end Kyle Pitts saw a dramatic drop in production from his stellar rookie season.

Pitts went from a 1,026-yard, 1-touchdown rookie campaign to a 356-yard, 2-touchdown sophomore season that was cut short by seven games because of injury.

The complaints are easy to see from a fantasy perspective: Pitts has not developed into a red zone threat for Smith’s traditionally rush-heavy Falcons, and his yardage fell drastically after the team swapped out Matt Ryan for Marcus Mariota at quarterback.

Smith argued in 2022 that the NFL is “not fantasy football.” Basically, he was trying to emphasize in a roundabout way that games where good players don’t rack up the yardage don’t come from a lack of desire for said player to produce.

While Pitts’ 2022 production can be reasonably justified because of spotty quarterback play and not playing for a third of the season, the ire continued to build into 2023.

When 2022 first-round wide receiver Drake London didn’t haul in a catch during Week 1 after a 866-yard, 4-touchdown rookie campaign, Smith deflected any criticism of his lack of targets to fantasy football rabble-rabble.

Pitts and London have seen an uptick in production as the season has gone on as quarterback Desmond Ridder has gotten more comfortable in the passing game, and 2023 first-round running back Bijan Robinson started off hot before missing most of Sunday’s game with a controversial last-minute illness.

We say controversial because of the intense backlash the Falcons have faced for Robinson not popping up on the injury report Sunday morning after it was reported he fell ill on Saturday night. Robinson was technically active for the game and got on the field, but he wasn’t given an actual carry until the game’s final drive.

It led to widespread anger for fantasy football players and NFL bettors who had a stake in Robinson playing in the game. DraftKings refunded all of the bets on Robinson after the absence in play. The NFL is investigating the situation, which could lead to a fine for how the Falcons handled Robinson’s last-minute illness.

Smith brushed off concern over the Robinson situation, saying it was largely overblown. He also brought back up fantasy football when talking about how he utilizes his three-man running back group of Robinson, Tyler Allgeier and Cordarrelle Patterson.

I mean c’mon dude pic.twitter.com/1LqDHRtyEE

— The Coachspeak Index (@CoachspeakIndex) October 25, 2023

Trying to break through the noise in this ongoing controversy can be a bit tricky.

Fantasy football folks and those not enamored with how Smith uses his personnel at times ignore contextual realities about the Falcons. The Falcons struggled with passing the ball in 2022 and relied heavily on the run game to generate offense.

Pitts, London and Robinson have all been integral parts of the team’s offense since arriving to Atlanta, but Smith enjoys spreading the ball around to other targets because of the depth he has at his disposal.

It might mean that those three players might not always go off for outrageous production lines on Sundays, but it’s not out of spite. It might mean that Falcons players aren’t the most reliable for fantasy managers and sports bettors on Sundays, but it’s not an abdication of utilizing roster talent.

The Ringer’s Ben Solak counts himself as a fan of Smith’s overall offensive scheme and pointed out its strengths this season even when the touchdowns haven’t been rolling in as expected:

The Falcons are 12th in offensive success rate this season; they’ve done well to control the ball and stay ahead of the sticks.

They are 14th in explosive designed run rate (gains of at least 10 yards). Their explosive pass rate (gains of at least 20 yards) is only 19th, but they tend to work intermediate a lot more than they do deep—27 percent of their pass attempts go for at least 10 yards, which is eighth in the NFL.

The Falcons’ passing attack has widened since Ridder has gotten more comfortable, and that’s gotten more production out of players like Pitts, London and tight end Jonnu Smith, Ridder’s favored targets in the passing game. In the last three starts, Ridder has thrown for 886 yards.

If the team cuts down on turnovers, it’ll rise in game-by-game point production, too.

There needs to be more of a good-faith effort to analyze Smith’s offense without fantasy football gripes filtered into the discussion. Criticizing scheme is one thing, but trying to delineate usage without context (like Ridder’s struggles in the passing game this season at times and Mariota’s overall struggles in the passing game in 2022) feels unfair to Smith and Atlanta.

However, fantasy football managers are entitled to their opinions, and Smith needs to stop goading the fantasy football conversation and using it as reasoning for why things are the way they are with his offense.

It’s a tool of deflection, which is common in press conference situations. However, Smith doesn’t need to defend something that’s not necessarily needing defense.

He’s a good coach who is punching below his weight by trying to engage with fantasy football consternation. There has been very legitimate criticism of Smith’s offense at times, and it’s right for him to be asked about it. However, the good-faith critiques haven’t always come from people pointing out how productive Pitts, London and Robinson are from a fantasy perspective.

If Smith would just drop the whole fantasy football shtick from his press conferences and just focus on explaining why production issues aren’t as big a problem as they at times appear, the conversation would probably stay on the internet where it belongs.

Fantasy football managers will likely never get the kinds of explosive performances week-to-week with the Falcons’ offensive players, and the team shouldn’t at all be concerned with how their players impact fantasy and betting.

Then again, every time Smith courts the fantasy football conversation in trying to explain how his offense works, he’s pouring gas on the tire fire. Smith will make his life easier by just ignoring the empty heat, and fantasy football managers and sports bettors will save themselves the grief by just not drafting and betting on Falcons players.

It’s the win-win we all deserve.