In the wake of a disastrous 4-12 season, Falcons owner Arthur Blank promised that the team’s talent evaluators would receive the same scrutiny that the coaching staff received.
But instead of replacing any scouts, the Falcons elected to add a layer of management Wednesday by hiring Scott Pioli as the team’s assistant general manager.
“I think the big thing when you have a relationship with such deep-seated trust, the trust goes beyond the idea of making sure that everyone has everyone’s back,” said Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff, who is close friends, personally and professionally, with Pioli. “It has much more to do, in my mind, with being open and honest with each other, along with creating that type of feeling with all of our scouts.”
The evaluation of the coaching staff led to the release of offensive line coaches Pat Hill and Paul Dunn and defensive line coach Ray Hamilton. Mike Tice was hired to coach the offensive line and Bryan Cox to coach the defensive line.
Until Pioli’s hire, which was in the works for weeks, nothing had happened in the scouting department, which played a role in the missed evaluations of personnel along the offensive and defensive lines. Pioli, 48, played defensive line in college and was an offensive line coach before switching to the personnel aspect of football.
“When you play a position (it provides) … a little bit different perspective on things, so hopefully I can add value,” Pioli said.
Pioli most recently was general manager of the Kansas City Chiefs from 2009-12. He previously worked in the front offices of the Cleveland Browns, Baltimore Ravens, New York Jets and New England Patriots.
Pioli and Dimitroff worked together with the Patriots, where Pioli was vice president of player personnel before leaving for Kansas City. He was with the Patriots for three Super Bowl titles.
While he had success at New England, Pioli’s teams in Kansas City were 23-41, including a 2-14 record in his final season. He missed on solving their quarterback problem, and that led to the demise of the team.
“Scott is one of the best football men in this league,” Dimitroff said. “To have an opportunity to have him sit at the table and provide insight, it’s great on so many levels. Not only for all of the successes that Scott has had, but also the challenges that he’s had.”
Pioli works as an analyst for NBC Sports and on Sirius radio. He has commitments to them through the Super Bowl. He’ll be on board after the game and dive into helping the Falcons get ready for the NFL scouting combine, which will be held Feb. 19-25, and free agency, which starts March 11.
“We’ll have some unbelievable discussions about what we need to do to build this team,” Dimitroff said. “How we need to adjust and tweak things. It’s going to be great for some of the younger scouts to be around those discussions as well.”
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