The 2020 season is over. The Atlanta Falcons finished 4-12, last at NFC South, and fired general manager Thomas Dimitroff and coach Dan Quinn. It was a season to forget, and with the season officially over for the Falcons, it’s time to look to the future.
On Monday, team owner Arthur Blank and team president Rich McKay gave the press conference at the end of the season to shed some light on the next off season and where the team is in its search for the next manager general and main technician.
Don’t expect a quick hiring of head coach and GM
Arthur Blank says the interviews the team conducted for both HC and GM “went well”. He says the Falcons still have a long list of interviews this week.
– William McFadden (@willmcfadden) January 4, 2021
It has been reported that Falcons were scheduled to interview San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh and Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bienemey virtually on Monday morning, and it appears that the team has a list of other candidates with whom they hope to speak in the weeks ahead. Although no additional names have been provided, we expect them to speak with Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator Arthur Blank, Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense coordinator Todd Bowles and Los Angeles Rams defense coordinator Brandon Staley.
On the general manager’s side, no additional updates were provided. It appears that the new general manager will have a general word on the futures of Matt Ryan and Julio Jones, with Blank suggesting that he doesn’t want to tie his hands in making important decisions about the list. There was no clear conversation about who the next GM and trainer might be and how quickly we could expect them to be hired.
Falcons will not focus on an offensive-minded coach
McKay says the Falcons made the mistake of targeting an offensive coach with Petrino, a mistake he says he will have forever. He says the team will not qualify just by focusing on one side of the ball to search for the head coach
– The Falcoholic (@TheFalcoholic) January 4, 2021
The last time the Falcons hired an offensive-minded coach was in 2007 with Bobby Petrino, one of the biggest training disasters in NFL history. McKay, who takes responsibility for the hiring, hinted at Monday’s news conference that he learned from the situation not to focus on just one side of the ball when looking for a possible head coach.
Although I understand the hesitation, the NFL quickly switched to an attacking league and the Falcons followed the defensive path in their last two head coach hires. Mike Smith went 66-46 with the team, winning a playoff game, while Dan Quinn was 43-42 winning three playoff games. In my opinion, it is time for an offensive mind that will not be spared after a successful season.
Matt Schaub is retiring from the NFL
Without a doubt, the only real news of the day was Blank announcing that Matt Schaub, the longtime NFL quarterback, is retiring from professional football. Schaub was drafted by the Falcons in the third round of the 2004 draft and spent much of his first stint in Atlanta as a reserve for Michael Vick. He returned to Atlanta in 2016, after spending time with the Houston Texans, Oakland Raiders and Baltimore Ravens. Schaub will retire as the Texans’ biggest passer of all time in yards, touchdowns and wins.
Blank wants the team to be competitive every year
Blank says he doesn’t want this organization to be the Super Bowl or fail. It has to be competitive every year for the Falcons, it doesn’t want to go through three consecutive seasons without shine as they just did
– The Falcoholic (@TheFalcoholic) January 4, 2021
A very vague statement, considering what the owner does not want his team to be competitive every year, but that remains the goal in Atlanta. After reaching the 2016-2017 playoffs, the Falcons entered a playoff drought with three consecutive seasons of 7 or less wins. Whether the new regime will be able to fulfill that dream has yet to be determined, but Blank indicated that he thinks the team was closer to 0.500 than his 4-12 record in terms of talnt, but that is still not a good thing. enough.
That basically sums up the press conference at the end of Monday’s season. It’s not entirely exciting, but if you want to watch it for yourself, click here.