The drumbeat of reporting across the Atlanta Falcons is that they’ll contemplate changes to soccer operations on the finish of the 12 months, however after all, you don’t begin making that call after your Week 18 sport. You mull it properly earlier than, and should you’re good, you attempt to weight the whole lot you’ll be able to earlier than you make an enormous resolution on whether or not Terry Fontenot, Raheem Morris, and/or others keep and go.
We need the Falcons to provide that call cautious consideration and hoped they had been doing so. Now, we have now some reporting from Sports Illustrated insider Albert Breer that signifies that they’re not going to place that call totally on the group’s normal solid of energy brokers, as they’re working with an outside consulting firm.
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From Breer:
Owner Arthur Blank’s group has introduced the consulting agency Sportology, with whom they’ve partnered with for some time, in to work with them on the Falcons, as properly as the MLS’ Atlanta United and the brand new NWSL growth group he was awarded (they’ve labored with Blank on constructing the NWSL membership for a short time). For the Falcons’ particularly, it’s an total well being test on the group’s operations. And it’s not been a secret inside the partitions of the soccer facility that the analysis is ongoing.
Time will inform what this implies for GM Terry Fontenot and coach Raheem Morris, however there’s loads of buzz that some degree of change is coming, with the group at 6–9, assured of its eighth consecutive season underneath .500 and residential for the playoffs.
Mike Forde, a former govt for the Premier League’s Chelsea F.C., is Sportlogy’s founder, and former Texans GM Rick Smith is among the many agency’s companions.
This is fascinating on a number of ranges. The first is the “overall health check on the team’s operations” piece. If an outside agency decides that the Falcons have been operationally sound regardless of the poor outcomes for a few years operating, however discover hassle spots within the govt suite, entrance workplace, or teaching workers, Arthur Blank is more likely to weigh that suggestions fastidiously. If Sportology finds the Falcons are a whole mess prime to backside, it would transfer Blank to make the sorts of sweeping changes he’s prevented since 2020, with shakeups even increased than the final supervisor potential if unlikely for Rich McKay and others. That work will presumably mix with the group’s impressions of the previous two seasons for Raheem Morris and 5 seasons for Terry Fontenot, the way in which this season has advanced, and the perceived state of the roster and the franchise’s team-building strategy to assist them work out whether or not Fontenot, Morris, and others are going to be right here subsequent 12 months or not.
The second degree is the involvement of Smith, who was one of some reported candidates on the team’s shortlist for general manager and one in all their handful of interviews again in 2021; he misplaced the job to Fontenot. I’m not suggesting Smith goes to be inclined to attempt to get Fontenot fired or something like that, however it’s fascinating to see somebody who interviewed for a prime job in Atlanta now concerned in turning a vital eye towards soccer operations.
This is in the end nonetheless Blank’s resolution, and to the chagrin of many, I’d count on Rich McKay to nonetheless be round when that is throughout and a part of the decision-making course of, as properly. But I do respect that the group, which has confirmed to be less-than-stellar at auditing itself through the years, is prepared to usher in consultants who may need a special perspective as they look to make a collection of vital selections popping out of the 2026 season. We’ll speak extra about elements in that call tomorrow, however suffice to say I hope Sportology helps steer Blank and firm towards the very best consequence, no matter which will show to be.