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Marc Raimondi
ATLANTA — The Falcons will interview former franchise quarterback Matt Ryan, among others, for a new role entitled the «president of football,» owner Arthur Blank said Thursday at a news conference.
The president of football position will be hired first, and Blank has interviews with several candidates in the next few days. Whomever gets hired as president of football will lead the interviews for the head coach and general manager candidates, Blank said. The Falcons fired head coach Raheem Morris and GM Terry Fontenot on Sunday night.
One of those coaching candidates could be John Harbaugh, who was fired earlier this week by the Baltimore Ravens.
«John has been one of the most successful coaches in the last 20 years in our league,» Blank said. «He has won at every level. And so, he would certainly be a candidate who we’d want to spend some time with. Whether or not [he has] an interest in Atlanta, I don’t know.»
The firm Sportsology is assisting in the general manager search and the firm JRZ Partners will assist in the coaching search. But the president of football will ultimately be leading those searches, Blank said, and will oversee both the coach and general manager once both are hired.
Kirk Cousins in 2024, followed by the drafting of Michael Penix Jr. six weeks later with the No. 8 overall pick did not play a part in his decision.
«There were a lot of peaks and valleys — too many peaks and valleys — [and] too many levels that were not consistent throughout our play,» Blank said. «So, it’s a combination of things over a period of time, but nothing to do with the decisions that we collaboratively made.»
During the news conference, Blank was asked whether or not he felt like Penix was still the team’s franchise quarterback. Penix tore his left ACL in Week 11, missing the rest of the season, and he’ll be out for at least nine months. It was Penix’s third ACL surgery in eight seasons; he tore the ACL in his right knee twice in college. Penix had been inconsistent in 12 career starts before the injury. But Blank affirmed that he remains steadfast in Penix as Atlanta’s franchise QB.
«The injury he sustained was on his other knee,» Blank said. «The surgeon felt 1,000% secure in the medical procedure that he went through, and they felt his knee was going to be better than it was before. … He’s committed mentally, physically, and he feels good.»
Sportsology was hired months ago by the Falcons to do an internal evaluation of their football infrastructure. Blank said the thing that most surprised about the firm’s findings was a lack of clarity when it came to the vision of how the team was supposed to play. That is one of the reasons why the president of football role was added. That person will be the one who sets and leads the vision of the product on the field, Blank said.
«In any industry, if you don’t have clarity around vision, but you’re trying to establish and trying to build, you would end up with a lot of disparate parts that are moving in different directions,» Blank said. «And that means you’re not only unsuccessful or partially unsuccessful, but you can be very inefficient. [You must be] as laser focused as you can be in terms of exactly what you want to do. You can make better selections of players, coaches, coaching staff and hold that kind of consistency in place. And then you modify it all the time depending on what’s happening in the game.»
