Ex-Falcon WR Roddy White Trashes Atlanta OC Kyle Shanahan

during the first half against the Minnesota Vikings at the Georgia Dome on November 29, 20
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On March 2, the Atlanta Falcons released wide receiver Roddy White. On March 5, White blamed Falcons offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan for his demise.

White experienced one of his worst seasons in 2015.

“What [Shanahan] expected from me and what I expected from him was totally different,” White said Saturday at the UAB alumni football game. “I expected to play a bigger role in the offense, and that’s what I wanted to do. But he didn’t have that in his desires. He had other people that he wanted to play my role, so he wanted me to be out of the [offense]. That was the whole thing.”

White thinks Shanahan’s play-calling cost Atlanta games last year.

“It was just episodes throughout the game where I think he mismanaged things and screwed up and we didn’t have the opportunity to win the game, which, I thought, was on him as the offensive coordinator,” White said. “It wasn’t sound football, but it was things that he was used to doing and things we weren’t used to doing as an offense, and it literally cost us like two games.”

Not only does White think Shanahan cost the Falcons games, his camp thinks the offensive coordinator got him released.

“There is one reason Roddy is no longer with the Falcons and it is Kyle Shanahan,” White’s agent Jonathan Feinsod told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Kyle forced the Falcons to choose between him or Roddy. This was not Roddy’s choice.”

You always need to take agent quotes with a grain of salt. They are bought and paid for by the player.

Falcons coach Dan Quinn dubbed Feinsod’s contention patently untrue.

“I did not consult or confer with any of the assistant coaches,” Quinn said. “I know often times you want to have everybody forever. I did not confer with Kyle in any way regarding this decision.”

Perhaps Shanahan didn’t do the best job calling plays last year. But White and Feinsod need to deal with reality. The receiver was released due to his age (34) and salary (3.76 million).

Don’t kill the messenger.

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