The 2014 estimated population of Flowery Branch is 6,385, according to the United States Census Bureau. With the six general managers, current and former, in the Falcons’ building in the city, there’s one football executive for every 1,064 residents.
But general manager Thomas Dimitroff, who was retained, despite the team’s perceived lack of talent, doesn’t believe that, with the addition to Phil Emery and Ruston Webster, there will be too many cooks in the kitchen when they are selecting players.
“Not one bit,” Dimitroff said Thursday. “Interestingly enough, I’ve had this discussion with (coach) Dan (Quinn) about it. I talked to (owner) Mr. (Arthur) Blank about it.
“All of these guys that are in our building, we’re all contemporaries. We’ve all scouted together for many, many years, shoulder-to-shoulder, way before we even thought we’d have a sniff at a general manager job.”
Dimitroff clearly respects their opinions and believes they can work together to build a more talented roster.
Emery, who worked with the Falcons from 2004-08, and Webster had failed stays as general managers in Chicago (Emery, 2012-14) and Tennessee (Webster, 2011-14).
In addition to Emery and Webster, president Rich McKay (Tampa Bay), assistant general manager Scott Pioli (New England) and scout Billy Devaney (St. Louis) have been general managers.
Emery and Webster will spend a majority of their time on the road.
“It’s not like we’ll have five desks lined up with me right in the middle and I’m turning from left to right to look for answers,” Dimitroff said. “Of course, we’re going to have some awesome discussions and dialogue about our organization as well as the league. Being able to sit down with (Quinn) and talk about all of the things that we have done well and all of the things that we’ve had our challenges with.”
The additions come after former director of player personnel Lionel Vital, elected not to accept a demotion to one of the national scouting positions.
Dimitroff lauded the recent additions to the team’s scouting department and said that there are more changes to come.
“We’ll continue to make a number of other moves going forward to continue to revamp and re-direct our scouting staff,” Dimitroff said. “We’ve also mentioned about a complete revamp of the pro personnel department. We are in the process of really honing in on that. A lot of interviews are going on right now. It’s very important for us right now to make sure that department is operating at full force.”
The Falcons hold only five picks in the draft this year.
“It’s going to be important that we’re dialed in on the pro side,” Dimitroff said.
With the new evaluators, Dimitroff will remain the final decision-maker, and Quinn will retain final decision-making authority over the 53-man roster.
“Ultimately, someone has to pull the tag off the board and those are my responsibilities,” Dimitroff said.
After a year of working together, Quinn and his coaching staff have made it clear to Dimitroff what type of players they are looking for and beleive best fit their schemes.
Dimitroff acknowledges that the team hit the low point during his tenure with the 2012 draft.
“The 2012 draft was highly disappointing,” Dimitroff said. “It was coming off a big year where we made a very aggressive move for Julio Jones. We obviously didn’t have a first-round pick. Our second-round pick was Peter Konz, unfortunately, not as a person, but as a draftable player, that ended up being a major blunder for us.”
Despite the third-round pick of 2014 (Dez Southward) being released and the shaky play of 2015’s second-round pick Jalen Collins, Dimitroff believes the team has rebounded from that draft.
“I believe our personnel is continuing to show that we’re are heading in the right direction,” Dimitroff said.
Dimitroff warns that adding Emery and Webster and the pending moves won’t make the scouting department perfect.
“Are there mistakes?” Dimitroff said. “Of course there are. Will they continue to be? That’s the nature of this business. It’s not an exact science. I hope to do the best job that I can to continue to earn back the trust of this fan base that I, and we, know what we are doing as far as building a football team.”
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