Steve Sarkisian will soon be replaced as the Falcons’ offensive coordinator. He won’t be an easy act to follow, no matter the perception.

According to Pro Football Focus, Atlanta ranked No. 4 in graded offense during Sarkisian’s two years calling the plays. They ranked first under Kyle Shanahan the previous two and just No. 13 under former offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter in his last two years.

#Falcons Offense 2-year grades:

'17-'18 w/ Sarkisian – 87.0 (4th)

'15-'16 w/ Shanahan – 93.1 (1st)

'13-'14 w/ Koetter – 82.3 (13th) — PFF ATL Falcons (@PFF_Falcons) January 2, 2019

PFF’s grades aren’t a perfect system for evaluation by any means, but they’re not meaningless, either. What they lack most is context.

For example, the Falcons offense was far from 100 percent healthy from 2013-2014 (Julio Jones missed 12 total games), so Koetter was not working with a full deck. In 2012, the team ranked No. 7 in scoring and No. 8 in yards under Koetter.

This is still interesting information right now because Koetter is going to interview for the vacancy opened up by Sarkisian’s firing on Saturday.

Sarkisian wasn’t a terrible play-caller. What may have doomed him was his inability to produce against above-average defenses.

This past season, the Falcons were held to 20 points or less seven times and they lost all of those games. Atlanta’s average was boosted by beating up on bad defenses like those of Tampa Bay (34 points twice), Arizona (40) and Cincinnati (36).

Sarkisian has taken a lot of unfair grief the last two seasons. It’s possible Koetter or Darell Bevell can do better, but odds are if either gets hired those same Falcons fans who have criticized Sark the most will miss him.