... It comes down to a smart owner who finally takes his hands off the reins after numerous failures ... who, having learned something, hires the very best GM candidate that has opened up in years (Dimitroff in New England) ... Dimitroff was schooled by the very best GM in the league (Pioli of New England) ... then Dimitroff hires the new coach, who was a dark horse, not a big-name retread ....
And (praise be!) the owner lets them all do their job. Read and learn, cowboyszone fans ... maybe it will take Stephen Jones to run the team before we are successful again ..
April 16, 2008
Storm-Tossed Falcons Try to Pick Up the Pieces
By JUDY BATTISTA
The tornado that tore off parts of the Georgia Dome roof last month serves as a metaphor for the N.F.L. team that plays underneath it: The Atlanta Falcons never saw what hit them in 2007, and they were left flapping in the wind.
It was a year ago when dogs began to rip the Falcons apart. Then came the Razorbacks and finally a Tuna, and the team became a menagerie of misfortune. Michael Vick ended up in prison, Bobby Petrino went to Arkansas and Bill Parcells landed in Miami.
By the time animal-rights picketers left town, Falcons fans had given up, the team had collapsed and the organization had redefined haplessness. And this was already a franchise without consecutive winning seasons in its 42-season history.
Now, the Falcons’ owner, Arthur Blank, is trying to clean up the mess.
Rebuilding would be his thing, considering he is a founder of Home Depot. He has a rookie coach, a first-time general manager and a bundle of draft picks. He also has some unexpected feelings about the possible return to Atlanta of Vick — who is serving a 23-month prison sentence in Leavenworth, Kan., for his role in a dogfighting operation.
“I have not flatly ruled that out,” Blank said during an interview earlier this month at the owners’ meetings in Palm Beach, Fla. “Every emotion you could name with Michael, I felt. Betrayal, disappointment, anger, frustration. On the other hand, I do believe in second chances and people having the opportunity to come back.
“Michael is working hard, going through a rehabilitation process emotionally. Hopefully, he’ll be back in the N.F.L. some day. If he comes back, he will be a great role model and be able to talk to young people about making choices.”
Blank has a reputation, one agent said recently, of preferring the big splash. Bringing back Vick would certainly qualify as a cannonball, although it would also run counter to a philosophy Blank is trying to embrace after the past year’s misfortunes.
When he began his coaching search after Petrino left 11 months into the job, he received a note and a phone call from the Pittsburgh Steelers’ chairman, Dan Rooney. “Be patient,” Rooney advised.
Petrino had been the hot college coach when Blank quickly hired him. But Petrino proved to be aloof and incapable of adapting to N.F.L. players. After promising Blank he would stay as coach amid rumors that he was on the way out, Petrino left a day later with barely a word to his players and assistants. The team was 3-10.
Soon after, Parcells spurned at the last minute an offer to be the executive in charge of rebuilding the Falcons. He accepted a similar job with the Miami Dolphins.
“Forty-five years in business, and I’ve never been through a year like last year,” Blank said. “It was like torture. Every day got worse. Every day, something else came out. Between what happened with Michael and then the coach leaving, it was a very difficult year for everybody.”
A few days after Christmas, Blank turned to Ernie Accorsi, the former general manager of the Giants who retired after the 2006 season. Accorsi acted as a consultant to Blank for three weeks, identifying a handful of candidates for the general manager’s job.
On the list was Thomas Dimitroff, the Patriots’ director of college scouting, whom Accorsi had known for years. Dimitroff’s father had been a scout for Accorsi in Cleveland. The Patriots’ owner, Robert Kraft, whom Blank considers his closest friend and mentor in the N.F.L., also thought highly of Dimitroff.
Dimitroff was soon hired, and he eventually hired Mike Smith to be the Falcons’ head coach. Smith, a former defensive coordinator for the Jaguars, was largely unknown to some N.F.L. executives despite spending years in the game.
Although Dimitroff did not initially have Smith on his list, they bonded over a shared philosophy of personnel analysis when Smith returned for a second interview. Neither man was the first choice, or the biggest name, for the two jobs.
“We have to preach that we have a plan,” Smith said. “That we are very systematic in how we’ll approach this. When you’re systematic, I don’t think there is a time frame on when results will come.”
Blank conceded that the Falcons would have to win back fans who were split over Vick and alienated by losing. And a slow turnaround is rarely exciting.
But Dimitroff was schooled by the Patriots’ Bill Belichick and Scott Pioli in the measured fiscal approach that has made that franchise so successful.
Already, there is a shift in the Falcons’ culture. Dimitroff talks of comparatives and cap considerations. Smith immediately reached out to players, opening lines of communication that had been closed. Gone are players like Alge Crumpler, Warrick Dunn and DeAngelo Hall, a gifted cornerback who was unhappy in Atlanta.
Now comes the hard part. The Falcons, in need of any fix after finishing 4-12, hope to resist the quick one.
“Being able to come here with sound decisions, not just being lured in by that awesome athlete that walks in front of you, but realizing he might not be exact fit for the Falcons,” Dimitroff said. “This player may sell tickets, but if we all step back and realize the best way to go forward is to build from the bottom up, be consistent, getting the right people here.”
Blank said he was committed to adopting the measured approach of the N.F.L.’s consistent winners of recent seasons: the Colts, the Patriots, the Eagles and the Steelers. He has traveled to look at draft prospects, which has raised eyebrows and questions among his peers about whether he is too involved in personnel decisions. He insisted that he was not, that he was invited on trips by his football staff and would leave the decisions to Dimitroff and Smith.
“What we have to do is make sure this is not about splashing — you do that in water sports,” Blank said. “We have to do what our personnel department believes is best to do. You build from the foundation up. If that means we draft an offensive lineman, so be it.”
Maybe the Falcons’ fortunes are starting to turn. Dimitroff won a coin flip for the third overall selection in this month’s draft. The team has six choices in the first three rounds, giving the Falcons a chance to develop a nucleus for years to come.
It was at the draft last year when Vick told Commissioner Roger Goodell that he knew nothing of the dogfighting operation that had just been discovered on his property.
“Only a year,” Blank said with a laugh. “It feels like 10 to me.”
