Thomas Dimitroff still is the Falcons’ general manager. Scott Pioli still is Dimitroff’s assistant.
And coach Dan Quinn? Well, Quinn is The Man when it comes to Falcons football operations. After one 8-8 season tinged with disappointment, Quinn is the Bill Belichick of Flowery Branch.
OK, Quinn probably isn’t that powerful yet. But it’s clear now that he’s inching closer to it.
While announcing he was keeping Dimitroff and shaking up the scouting department, franchise owner Arthur Blank referenced a “shared vision” between Dimitroff and Quinn. I’m sure that’s true.
But here’s the thing: The reason it must be true is because if it weren’t, Dimitroff would be gone. Quinn decides which players will be on the 53-man roster, and now he indirectly decided Dimitroff’s fate.
Quinn reports directly to Blank, who gave Quinn final-roster authority in Year 1. Now In Year 2 Blank gave Quinn the prerogative to keep Dimitroff around for Year 2 and beyond. It’s a stunning rise for Quinn, who a little more than a year ago had never been a head coach at any level.
Now Quinn appears to have as much juice as Pete Carroll, his old boss in Seattle. Carroll, like Quinn, controls the 53-man roster. Seahawks GM John Schneider heads up the draft and free agency, with considerable input from Carroll.
That’s similar to the arrangement Quinn has with Dimitroff. The difference is that when the Seahawks hired Carroll, he had been head coach of the Jets and Patriots. He also had won two national championships at USC.
The other key difference is that Carroll and Schneider joined the Seahawks together in 2010, so they’ve always been a team. Schneider made his reputation serving as Ted Thompson’s right-hand man in Green Bay, so who knows which guy owner Paul Allen would side with if it came to that?
There’s no such doubt in Flowery Branch. Blank arranged the marriage between Quinn and Dimitroff, but he was prepared to break it up if the coach didn’t like the relationship. Certainly Blank had just cause to let Dimitroff go after diminishing returns from the roster.
Dimitroff’s six-man draft class in 2012 are all out of the NFL. Julio Jones is the only impact player among Dimitroff’s 27 draftees from 2009-12. There was the embarrassment of cutting 2014 third-round draft pick Dez Southward in November and seeing him land on the Colts’ practice squad.
Quinn purged the Falcons of many of Dimitroff’s players before last season. When Quinn said Monday that he would be focusing on the offensive and defensive lines this offseason, it was a reminder that Dimitroff had often neglected to address those areas and whiffed too often when he did.
Dimitroff has earned currency with Blank. He teamed with ex-coach Mike Smith to build the Falcons into winners when the franchise’s history is littered with losing. Dimitroff added to Blank’s profits, which fans should always remember is the most important thing for a franchise owner no matter how often you see an owner acting like a fan.
The same could be said for coach Mike Smith, but that didn’t prevent Blank from firing him after the 2014 season. Blank retained Dimitroff, hired Quinn and gave him considerable power for a first-time coach and gave some of Dimitroff’s responsibilities to Pioli.
The three-headed arrangement still doesn’t make sense from the outside, but that’s not what matters. What matters is that Quinn believes it works, and Quinn is Blank’s guy. Quinn wants Dimitroff as his right hand, and so Blank gave him what he wanted.
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