Preseason top-10 team Auburn fell to 6-4 on the year with a non-threatening http://www.atlantafalconsteamonline.com/ryan-schraeder-jersey , 17-point loss at Georgia on Saturday. Late in the game, ESPNr17;s cameras caught Gus Malzahn talking r12; maybe into his headset, maybe to himself, or maybe to both: It sure looked to a lot of people (including me) that Malzahn was saying out loud: r0;Theyr17;re probably gonna fire me,r1; or something quite close to that. The most plausible alternative Ir17;ve seen is that Malzahnr17;s saying theyr17;re probably gonna r0;finer1; him, and that her17;d been in an officialr17;s face shortly before that moment. Auburn probably would fire Malzahn under most circumstances. Since he won 12 games and came a hair from a national championship in 2013, his first year in charge, Malzahnr17;s Tigers have failed to hang among the sportr17;s elite. Theyr17;ve lost between four and six games every year after 2013. Theyr17;ve only contended for a Playoff berth once, and that year, they lost to Georgia in the SEC Championship Game and then lost to the AACr17;s UCF in the Peach Bowl. Malzahnr17;s reached some pretty high highs at Auburn, but her17;s been stuck on the wrong side of the hump for a long time. The complicating factor is Malzahnr17;s egregiously large buyout. It will cost Auburn $32 million and change to fire him this year: That half the buyout has to come with 30 days is an additional difficult factor. Auburn might want some kind of cash infusion to help pay the huge up-front cost.But the buyout isnr17;t guaranteed to save Malzahn. Not by a long shot.Malzahn was close to being fired earlier this year Womens Brian Poole Jersey , a source told SB Nationr17;s Jason Kirk, and might have been coaching for his job the week his team beat Ole Miss: The Falcons made a calculated gamble in the 2018 offseason. Instead of adding significant resources to either of the lines, Atlanta banked on significant improvement from the 2017 draft class and a return-to-form from several injured starters. Some of those moves worked out OK: Jack Crawford had a very good season after recovering from a season-ending injury. Takk McKinley had a strong start to the year before the injuries piled up around him. Wes Schweitzer proved that her17;s, at worst, a capable backupr12;which is pretty impressive for a sixth round pick.Unfortunately, the big ticket players the Falcons were depending on failed to come through. Andy Levitre played poorly to start the season before aggravating his injury and returning to IR. Ryan Schraeder proved that his down 2017 wasnr17;t just a product of poor guard play, ending the 2018 season on the bench behind Ty Sambrailo.But the one guy that the Falcons absolutely needed to come through was Vic Beasley. Quinnr17;s defense relies on rushing 4 and getting pressure so that the aggressive secondary can make plays. Beasley repaid that dependence by completely disappearing, putting together an utterly forgettable 2018 season that will likely end his career in Atlanta.What, exactly, do you do here?Beasleyr17;s stats pretty much tell the story of how ineffective he was. Sure, his 5.0 sacks arenr17;t exactly nothing Womens Grady Jarrett Jersey , but when you see that he only managed 8 QB hits all season, your17;ll understand that those sacks were mostly anomalous. Beasleyr17;s bread-and-butter, his speed rush, is goodr12;but opposing teams had seen it for three seasons. You have to add a counter move to be successful long-term in the NFL, and Beasley has failed to do so over four seasons.What about his play as a run defender? Well, in summary, it was downright awful. Beasley is a very poor tackler, putting together only 20 combined tackles over sixteen games. That is abysmal for someone who is on the field as much as he was. We all saw plenty of highlight reel runs which featured a RB simply bouncing off Beasleyr17;s poor tackling attempt. Ir17;m not sure if itr17;s a lack of strength, poor technique, or simply not caringr12;Vic simply doesnr17;t tackle well.Thatr17;s a shame, because although Beasley doesnr17;t appear to have a future as anything more than a situational pass rusher in the NFL Authentic Takkarist McKinley Jersey , I have long thought he couldr17;ve been an excellent SAM LB. Beasley is very athletic, and honestly he looks pretty natural in coverage against TEs. His burst, bend, and speed would all be huge in a stand-up LB role. However, as mentioned above: Beasley cannot tackle. And guess what? You canr17;t play LB if you canr17;t tackle.Where does Beasley go from here?Some NFL team will definitely give Beasley a $3-4M one-year deal to see if they can salvage something from him. Despite his poor play over two seasons, he did have that greatr12;anomalous, but still greatr12;2016 season where he posted an incredible 15.5 sacks. Heck, I wouldnr17;t even have a big problem if the Falcons were to do thatr12;maybe the pressure of that deal would unlock something mentally, and I think thatr17;s a reasonable cap hit to trade for his r0;potentialr1;. But Atlanta simply canr17;t keep Beasley at his $12.9M fifth-year option, even if it means that they may lose him to another team in free agency.Itr17;s really quite sad that things have come to this with Beasley. Her17;s genuinely a very nice person and I donr17;t have anything negative to say about him off-the-field. I sincerely hope he finds a way to get his career together, even if it isnr17;t in Atlanta. But in the NFL http://www.atlantafalconsteamonline.com/matt-bosher-jersey , what you do on-the-field is by far the most important thing. 2018 was Beasleyr17;s big chance to prove that he was indeed capable of carrying the load as a premier pass rusher. Heck, it was his chance to prove that he was anything more than just a third or fourth EDGE that functions as a situational pass rusher. Instead, Beasley failed to show any improvement to his game as a pass rusher or run defender.What do you think, Falcons fans? Was Vic Beasley the biggest let down of the 2018 season? If not, who do you think it was? Do you see the Falcons bringing back Beasley, either at his fifth-year option or on a more modest one-year r0;prove-itr1; deal?
