Consulting firm did not like health, structure of Falcons football operation

Falcons owner Arthur Blank relied on two firms to help him make the decision to fire general manger Terry Fontenot and coach Raheem Morris and to restructure the football operation.

The Falcons hired the Sportsology Group, a consulting firm out of New York, several months ago, Blank said. They also hired ZRG, an executive search firm.

Sportsology was hired to look at the health of the football operations. ZRG was used to help with the interviewing process and gather information on potential candidates.

The Falcons’ lack of success on the field was the driving force behind the reviews and the conclusions to move in a new direction.

“As we all go through life, we all have life experiences and hopefully you grow from them, you learn from them,” Blank said Thursday. “Then when you have the same opportunity to make another decision, you make it a little bit differently from the mistake previously.”

The Falcons have struggled since reaching the playoffs after the 2017 season. Coach Dan Quinn was fired five games into the 2020 season. They hired Arthur Smith on Jan. 15, 2021, and then Fontenot four days later and asked them to collaborate. Smith was fired after three 7-10 seasons.

The Falcons then hired Morris, who was on Quinn’s staff and took over as the interim coach in 2020. He was interviewed after the 2020 season, but the team hired Smith.

After Smith was fired, the Falcons, after interviewing 14 people, went back to Morris.

After two 8-9 seasons, a controversial quarterback situation and turmoil in the locker room, Morris was fired.

“I think we’ve learned, the sequencing of things will probably be a little bit differently in terms of points of emphasis,” Blank said. “Sportsology, which we retained several months ago to do a deep dive on the health if you will of the football operations. … They’ve got great experience in multiple sports in that regard, including the NFL. They pointed out some things to us.

“ZRG is one of the leading search firms in the world, in the world of sports, the NFL and football,” Blank said. “So, we’ll be using their talents as well to help screen and filter and ask the right kinds of questions.”

Blank said the team’s search committee would be structured differently than it has been in the past.

“Still be made up of a component of people that represent our leadership and all areas of our businesses, but we are going to put heavy emphasis on hiring this president of football first,” Blank said. “That’s the goal. We have series of meetings set up (for Thursday).”

After the new president of football is hired, they’ll move on to the other two positions.

“We’re going to get that person seated in their seat,” Blank said. “Have them lead the interviews for the head coach and general manager positions.”

Blank was asked what will his role be.

“I’ll be doing the same thing that I’ll always do, which is being available, providing not only financial resources, which is the easiest part of my job,” Blank said. “But creating a mixture, making sure the culture is maintained. Giving them a share of any wisdom, making sure people (are) working cohesively together with the same goals in mind. Doing whatever I can do to support. That’s my job to support (and be) a servant leader.”

What was in the health of the football team report?

“The pointed out certain areas, without going into any details, that from a support standpoint, building a roster, the quality of the analytics is another area that we definitely can improve upon,” Blank said. “They felt areas of communication and accountability could be tighten up a little bit.”

The firm did a deep dive into the team, but didn’t interview the coaching staff.

“They interviewed close to 30 people, all one-on-one interviews,” Blank said. “Essentially with everybody in the building, but not with the coaching staff. With Raheem they did and Terry they did and a lot of other folks.”

The Sportsology Group shared a very detailed report that was written with quality, according to Blank.

“Drew certain conclusions which I had a sensibility about myself before, but it was good to hear it confirmed as well,” Blank said. “But that was all part of the process. At the end of the day the decisions were mine to make. Just was all a part of the input that was important for me.”

Blank’s major takeaway was one of alignment of football philosophy.

“We have to have a consistent vision that everybody in the organization understands in terms of how we want to play the game consistently,” Blank said. “We need to have a clearer vision on offense, defense and teams and how we are going to play. Have a coaching staff that understands that clearly. A GM who understands clearly. How do you build players, bring them into the roster that match that system and that philosophy, and hold people accountable for their results and their decision-making and their performance.”

With renewed focus on football and alignment, the Falcons are hoping to return to winning and competing for the Super Bowl.

“It’s a performance-based business,” Blank said. “It’s high-risk, high-reward kind of nature. That is the industry that we’re in. That’s what we’ve chose to be in.”