I've seen several comments about the owner not making coaching changes and using the 10 years with Garrett as the reasoning but is it just the opposite? He waited for it to come and it never did. His patience went unrewarded.
Has the fact that he's not getting any younger and a year closer to checking out every year affected his thinking about time and how much there is left to see another SB?
Some feel McC is safe but they pulled the trigger on Nolan after one year and now have two succession candidates on the staff and who thinks the owner won't pull a Garrett move with Kellen Moore?
I really do think we are seeing a new sense of urgency, an awareness of the clock that we've not seen before from him and I do not think that bodes well for McC. He needs a kickstart to this season or we could see the second HC replaced during the season.
The fans are impatient and last season was more embarrassing than a lot of losing seasons. So, the owner is impatient too.
And what do you think the players think? Who brought Nolan in last season and who allowed the defense to get turned inside out? Think there might also be some impatient players?
I think McC has a ticket on the 3:10 to Yuma that he is unaware of and if he starts off 1-3, that train pulls into the station and if he goes to 2-6, his ticket gets punched. I know, some feel not unless he's lost the team. At 2-5 or 6, he's lost the team and management. No GM pays a QB this much and assembles this O to go 2-5 or 6.
The other NFL owners have been getting more itchy trigger fingers with HC's every season and now I think this owner has joined their ranks.
McC better win or pack it in.
Stephen Jones is making those decisions now.
SJ is the reason Garrett is gone.
SJ has pushed out the other influences on Jerry and has it setup such that everyone reports through him. This makes SJ the sole source of info going to Jerry about football operations.
Garrett was the last employee with direct access to Jerry without SJ in the middle.
The other family members are supportive of having SJ in charge of football operations and that helps influence Jerry in that regard.
SJ likely pointed out to Jerry that Nolan was not utilizing Randy Gregory.
It is not proven that SJ is better at winning than Jerry but SJ is definitely making all decisions on football operations now.
Fans that love to hate Jerry refuse to admit that Jerry has stepped back from running football operations but even the media now often reference SJ as making the decisions; although only verbally, not in print.
You won't see legit local reporters reference it in print because they'll don't want to get on bad terms with Jerry or Stephen. Jerry is never going to publically admit to it and is unlikely to ever relinquish the GM title. Jerry probably has it in his Will that he keeps the GM title into perpetuity.
SJ and Will McClay have always wanted to hire Dan Quinn. They both love the Seattle defense. They told Kiffin/Marinelli when they were hired that they wanted to run the Seattle style defense.
They made Kris Richard the co-DC in 2018 and 2019 bit determined that he was not good at working with other coaches which made him a no-go to become the full time DC. SJ wanted McCarthy to hire his own staff anyway.
Mike Nolan was not the preferred choice but by the time McCarthy was hired none of their other options were available. They hired George Edwards as Senior defensive coach because they were not sold on Nolan to handle everything.
They had to convince Quinn to take the job because he had other offer as a DC. Quinn requested a committment to defense in the draft and the ability to sign his guys in free agency.
Quinn says his number one mistake in Atlanta was getting spread too thin. He was too much into the defensive coaching details to also be the Head Coach. Many coaches over the years have been great coordinators but not good as Head Coaches...Wade Phillips...