FLOWERY BRANCH — Perhaps in the middle of a playoff run, the Falcons are bracing to undergo their most significant facelift in the Thomas Dimitroff-Mike Smith era.
Whether the Falcons win or lose their playoff game against the New York Giants on Sunday, next week offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey, director of player personnel Les Snead and director of college scouting David Caldwell will interview for positions with other teams.
Mularkey will interview with Miami and Jacksonville for their head coaching positions.
Snead, considered one of the up-and-coming executives in the league, will interview with St. Louis and Indianapolis. Also, Chicago is in the early vetting stage and is expected to seek permission to interview Snead.
Caldwell, who will interview for the Colts’ GM job, spent 10 seasons with Indianapolis before joining the Falcons in May 2008.
Falcons owner Arthur Blank believes that losing some talent is a good thing.
“That’s one of the prices for success, particularly when you have it over time,” Blank said. “When you look at the performance of the team over the last four years, albeit in the regular season only, for the last four years we’ve won every two out of three games that we’ve played, and I think there is only one team in the NFC that has won as many games as we have.
“We’re fifth in the NFL for total wins during that period of time. You are going to attract a lot of attention.”
Since 2008, the Falcons are 43-21 (.672). Only New England (48-16, .750), New Orleans (45-19, .703), Pittsburgh (45-19, .703) and Baltimore (44-20, .688) have won more games over that time span.
Should Mularkey land the Jacksonville or Miami job, he could take a couple of assistant coaches with him. There has been very little turnover from Smith’s original staff. Four of the original 16 members have moved on to other jobs, and only two of the key position coaches, Emmitt Thomas (assistant head coach/secondary) and Bill Musgrave (quarterbacks), have left.
Thomas’ contract was not renewed, and Musgrave left in 2011 to become the offensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings.
If Snead leaves, there are several internal candidates to fill his spot, including assistant director of player personnel Lionel Vital and director of football administration Nick Polk.
“Part of the challenge for our organization is if we lose a talented coach, we have to step up and be able to replace him,” Blank said. “That’s the nature of our business. The nature, really, of any organization that’s going to be successful whether it be in business or the football business.”
If the Falcons win Sunday, NFL rules give them the authority to dictate the time and place of the interviews. If they are getting ready for a road playoff game, they’ll likely have Jacksonville and Miami interview Mularkey in Atlanta.
Mularkey was a candidate last season for head coaching jobs in Cleveland and Denver. He interviewed with Cleveland, but withdrew from the Denver search. Cleveland hired Pat Shurmur and Denver hired John Fox.
Mularkey's son Patrick is a scouting assistant with the Jaguars. He wants to be a head coach again. He was Buffalo’s head coach in 2004-05 and posted a 14-18 record.
Mularkey and Musgrave have been lauded league-wide for their fast development of quarterback Matt Ryan and for turning the Falcons’ offense into one of the league’s better units.
Mularkey is attractive because of his background in coaching power football. Jacksonville also needs someone to develop quarterback Blaine Gabbert, who struggled in his first year in the league. Miami will likely be in the market for a quarterback in the draft.
Mularkey was Miami's offensive coordinator in 2006 and their tight ends coach in 2007.
“When you have success there are going to be opportunities for guys on your staff to get head coaching jobs,” Smith said.
