Steve Sarkisian, Marquand Manuel firings likely imminent, per yet another NFL insider

It’s nothing we haven’t heard before, but with the Falcons’ 2018 season mercifully over, it appears we’re just waiting for the team to move on from its incumbent offensive and defensive coordinators.

The latest to weigh in is ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio, in a series of rapid fire answers to fan questions as firings kick off around the league.

Quinn’s under pressure to move on from both Sarkisian and Manuel, one would suspect, but it’s still a logical outcome. The Falcons were a contender and a playoff team in 2017, but one with evident flaws. In 2018, they suffered game-changing injuries but also were a nightmarishly bad defense and surprisingly tepid offense for long stretches of the season, and even the most patient owner, front office and head coach in the NFL aren’t going to give coaches a pass for that. This was supposed to be the year both units took a leap, and while the reasons that didn’t happen truly are multi-faceted, you can hang enough on coaching that Manuel and Sark are probably toast.

At this point, it would be a genuine surprise if the team retained either, and the Falcons will likely want to release them into the wild as soon as possible so they can start lining up their next gigs among the exodus of coaches taking place right now. If and when it happens, we’ll wish both well, and we’ll hope the next coordinators for Atlanta are capable of finding another gear for both the offense and defense.