FLOWERY BRANCH – Since the Falcons made the announcement about their front office shake-up on Jan. 7, no team official has addressed the moves publicly or taken any questions about their new structure from a non "media partner."
The moves have not been adequately explained as the officials have been unavailable to the media.
Credit: D. Orlando Ledbetter
Credit: D. Orlando Ledbetter
But Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff talked to one of the team's "media partners" Sirius XM NFL Radio (league-owned) and gave the first public response to the front-office moves while down in Mobile for the Senior Bowl on Tuesday.
The Falcons expanded the role of assistant general manager Scott Pioli and have the head coach report directly to the owner. Dimitroff retained final decision-making authority, but will hand over the day-to-day operation of pro and college scouting and NFL draft responsibilities to Pioli, a former general manager of the Kansas City Chiefs.
The new coach, Dan Quinn when it becomes official after the Super Bowl, will report directly to owner Arthur Blank. Since going back to Dan Reeves, he's met with the coach on Monday's to review games. Fran Tarkenton said on local radio they Blank also gets the game-plan on Friday.
Dimitroff clearly believes that he and Pioli can work well together.
“Scott and I have known each other forever in this league for sure and in this profession,” Dimitroff said. “We’ve been around it from. … from the very ground level working with the Browns at different times. We’ve followed each other’s careers and we’ve worked together.”
This will be a role reversal from their days in New England when Dimitroff reported to Pioli.
“He was my boss at one time and now I’m his,” Dimitroff said. “We have a really good working relationship. We understand that we are philosophically very similar in how we put together our scouting programs, our plans and (our) team-building elements."
Dimitroff noted that the two are very close personally and that Pioli was a pall bearer at his father’s funeral. If you read the book 'War Room' by Michael Holley, you know that Pioli went to visit Dimitroff’s father daily while he was sick before he died.
“This is the perfect person in the organization to have with me and with us,” Dimitroff said. “I’m real excited about the increased responsibility that we’re giving him on the personnel side of things.”
Dimitroff doesn’t think that their close personal relationship will get in the way of helping to re-stock the talent base after two losing seasons.
“We have a really, really deep relationship and I trust him,” Dimitroff said. “Everything that he brings to the table as far as his professional and scouting prowess is great...I think it’s a recipe for success. I’m excited to have him on board, kicking into this next gear going into to this next season.”
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