Arthur Blank’s confidence in Falcons improvement has familiar ring
Credit: AP
FLOWERY BRANCH — Falcons owner Arthur Blank made his annual preseason remarks to the media Saturday, and he sounded like this is really the year his franchise finally ends its postseason drought. At seven seasons, it’s tied with Carolina for the second-longest in the NFL.
“I like where we are,” Blank said following the team’s second preseason practice. “But you’re probably going to get 31 owners who would probably say something similar to that. But I feel strongly that we’re in a different place than we’ve been the last few years.”
He touted rising-star quarterback Michael Penix Jr., talented skill players on offense, a solid offensive line, proven veterans on defense and a quality draft class. He said coach Raheem Morris and general manager Terry Fontenot and their staffs “have done an excellent job in getting us to this point.”
He spoke of having the necessary ingredients for consistent competitiveness — the right GM, coach and quarterback.
The only problem is that we’ve heard similar optimism from Blank.
To wit, his 2023 assessment of Fontenot and then-coach Arthur Smith’s shaping of the roster after their first two years together: “I think they’ve got us in a position now where I think our team is going to be even more competitive than it’s been in the last couple of years. I think they’d be disappointed if that was not the case, I would be disappointed, and our fans would be disappointed. So, I feel good about the direction of where we are.”
That was also the day when Blank said of Desmond Ridder that “we feel pretty strongly that he’s going to be our quarterback of the future.”
Narrator: He was not.
Blank in 2024: “So, am I optimistic? I’m definitely optimistic, certainly more optimistic than I’ve been in several years and have reason to feel that way.”
Blank’s forecasts for success are understandable even beyond the reality that he can’t tell fans to not bother showing up at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Penix’s franchise-quarterback potential, the brilliance of wide receiver Drake London and running back Bijan Robinson and the possibility that first-round draft picks Jalon Walker and James Pearce Jr. will be legitimate edge-rushing threats are enough to be hopeful that a team that was in playoff contention into the final week of the regular season (thanks to its membership in the supremely pedestrian NFC South) can make it into the postseason for the first time since 2017.
You’d like to think, or at least hope, that the Fontenot-Morris-Penix triumvirate will give Falcons fans the team that they’ve waited long enough for.
But those fans can also be excused for being highly skeptical. They’ve heard it all before.
No one would deserve a run of success more than Falcons fans, whose team has the third-lowest winning percentage of any team that was in existence at the time of the franchise’s inaugural season in 1966. And it would be great for Blank, now going into his 24th year as owner. Few of his colleagues have been as well-intentioned or as willing to invest. Along with many Falcons players, Fontenot and Morris are people whom it’s easy to want to succeed.
But the Falcons, on the heels of seven consecutive losing seasons, will have to earn trust. To wit, I asked Blank about his level of confidence in Morris and Fontenot.
“I definitely think we have the right people,” Blank said. “I think they continue to demonstrate that. I think during this offseason in how they built during free agency and particularly, the decisions they made during the draft.
“I think, continuing to reflect on the coaching staff, making some changes in our coaching staff. If the emperor has no clothes, you’ve got to say the emperor has no clothes. And I think our leadership team has done that.”
Maybe the signings of free agents such as safety Jordan Fuller, edge rusher Leonard Floyd and linebacker Divine Deablo will be wins for Fontenot in the way that wide receiver Darnell Mooney was last year.
But Fontenot also traded a third-round pick last August for edge rusher Matthew Judon, who was a complete disappointment. And the signing of safety Justin Simmons didn’t pan out, either.
And, while the draft class does look like it has potential, perhaps it’s wiser to let Walker, Pearce and safety Xavier Watts play a few downs before hailing Fontenot for his draft acumen, particularly since he hasn’t quite worked wonders to this point.
And citing Morris’ firing of defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake after one season as evidence that Morris is the right person for the job seems dubious given that Morris was the one who had hired him less than 12 months earlier and that the decision didn’t make a ton of sense to begin with, as Lake had never previously been an NFL coordinator.
So is this the year it actually happens?
Let’s just hope that, in 12 months’ time, Blank isn’t telling us (again) that he’s more confident than he’s been in a long time that the Falcons will finally make the playoffs.
About the Author
Ken Sugiura is a sports columnist at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Formerly the Georgia Tech beat reporter, Sugiura started at the AJC in 1998 and has covered a variety of beats, mostly within sports.
