When the Falcons had their final press conference of the 2020 season, team owner Arthur Blank and president Rich McKay preached that Atlanta needed to find a way to create sustainable success. The pair went on a quest to bring in a general manager that shared this vision and have succeeded with the hiring of Terry Fontenot.
At Tuesday afternoon’s introductory press conference, Fontenot strongly emphasized the concept of sustainability.
“We’re going to make decisions to have sustained success, we’re not going to be prisoners of the moment,” said Fontenot. “We’re not going to make decisions that help us in 2021 and hurt us in [2022 and 2023].”
With 42 players currently on a roster that is $32 million over the cap, you can expect a lot of roster movement to occur before the league year begins. However, Fontenot and Smith both stated that the assessment of the roster will be an extensive and lengthy process that could go deep into next season.
“I need to really drill down the details and do it along with Arthur Smith and once the coaches are in, we need to have extensive meetings with them and really look at this roster and really determine how we feel about each player on the roster,” Fontenot continued. “Where they are in their careers, what’s their plan for development, or what’s their plan for maintaining them.”
To really drive home the idea of sustainability, Atlanta may have to part ways with some fan-favorites in order to free up some much-needed cap space.
Both candidates are coming off of playoff appearances and have had little time to assess the Falcons’ current roster. The Titans were eliminated in the wild-card round over a week ago and the Saints were eliminated this past Sunday.
There’s a lot of work to be done in Atlanta, but the team’s new hires are up to the task.
