Arthur Blank’s mission should be to make John Harbaugh the next Falcons coach

Start running, Arthur Blank.

Lace up your running shoes and start running toward John Harbaugh as fast as your 83-year-old legs can carry you.

About as qualified and experienced a candidate whom the Falcons could ever hope to be on the open market is available just as they’re hiring for a head coach. An opportunity this golden may never come again.

Blank made the difficult decision to fire coach Raheem Morris after only two seasons because he wasn’t delivering the results. Harbaugh just finished 18 years of doing precisely that for the Baltimore Ravens.

A record of 180-113. In 18 seasons, 12 postseason trips, six AFC North titles. Only three losing seasons. One Super Bowl trophy.

Six of the 12 playoff appearances were with a quarterback who never made a Pro Bowl (Joe Flacco).

Blank is well aware of Harbaugh’s qualifications

“John has been one of the most successful coaches in the last 20 years in our league,” Blank said at his news conference Thursday. “He’s won at every level. So he would certainly be a candidate we would want to spend some time with.”

Blank went on to say that he intends to interview Harbaugh, assuming he is interested.

Blank’s job is to a) make sure he is interested; b) do whatever it takes to make sure Harbaugh doesn’t leave Flowery Branch.

Show him clips of running back Bijan Robinson running wild and edge rusher James Pearce Jr. tearing after quarterbacks. Present him with a graphic that points out that the average win total of the NFC South champion for the past four years is 8.8.

Talk up the potential of quarterback Michael Penix Jr. Introduce him to Matt Ryan, the presumed president of football, and explain that he will oversee an operation similar to the one where Harbaugh excelled in Baltimore.

Maybe try to change the subject if he asks about what the Falcons draft looks like.

Offer him the sun, moon and as many weeks on the Blank superyacht as he wants. Grab onto his leg and don’t let go.

Other teams undoubtedly will be interested, starting with the New York Giants. The Miami Dolphins fired Mike McDaniel on Thursday, prompting speculation that the move was made because Harbaugh was on the market. (Dolphins owner Stephen Ross has close ties to Harbaugh’s brother Jim.)

But who would want to be a Dolphin?

They’re in bad salary-cap shape, their quarterback situation is uncertain and it’s way too hot there.

The Giants have what looks like a franchise quarterback in Jaxson Dart and the No. 5 pick in the draft, but general manager Joe Schoen’s job security is so uncertain that the team had to issue a statement to confirm that he was returning.

Thumbs down.

The Falcons have a roster that can win and Harbaugh would be starting off with a new president and GM (input on the hire of the latter would be another carrot that Blank could dangle). According to Over The Cap, the Falcons rank 17th in the NFL in cap space going into 2026, which isn’t great, but is better than where the Giants are.

There are other options. There’s always the cast of hotshot coordinators, with Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak at the top of the list. It’s the path that Blank normally has gone down in the past. But the thing with first-time head coaches is that you don’t know how it’s going to turn out.

They could become Sean McVay (although that’s highly unlikely) or they could end up telling a sports talk radio station that their dream job is to coach at their college alma mater, an outcome Blank became familiar with when he hired Jim Mora.