Falcons’ Rich McKay on GM candidates Rick Smith, Anthony Robinson

Former Houston general manager Rick Smith and Falcons director of college scouting Anthony Robinson were interviewed for the vacant general manager position Friday.

Falcons president Rich McKay said he thinks the virtual interviews went well. He noted that the Falcons can’t interview any candidates that work for another team until the season is over.

The Falcons are seeking to replace general manager Thomas Dimitroff, who was fired Oct. 11.

Meet the Falcons GM Candidate: Director of college scouting Anthony Robinson - pros, cons

“I know Rick,” McKay told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday. “I’ve worked with Rick for a lot of years. He was on the competition committee with me for a lot of years. So, I knew Rick. Rick is a very qualified candidate. Rick is going to get interviewed by every team and he should.”

Robinson has worked his way up from being a scouring intern to director of college scouting.

“Anthony Robinson is an example of a guy that literally has worked it up to go all the way in this process to get the director of college scouting,” McKay said. “He’s someone that we have a lot of respect for and think has a lot of runway.”

Meet Atlanta Falcons GM Candidate: Ex-Houston GM Rick Smith pros, cons

The Falcons also got a chance to test their technology.

“So, those are just two that we wanted to do,” McKay said. “It gave us an opportunity to figure out as we are doing today, how does this all work virtually. Giving them an opportunity to interview. It was a really good experience for us.

“Those are two really good candidates so we were happy to do. … It was very productive. It was not quite like Thomas (Dimitroff in 2008) where I was looking at a phone and trying to see if I could see him. It was so hard to see in those days on the WebX or whatever we were using. It’s a little better now.”