The Atlanta Falcons confirmed on Wednesday that they interviewed New Orleans Saints Vice President / Assistant General Manager Terry Fontenot for the vacant General Manager position in Atlanta.
Fontenot has spent nearly 20 years in the Saints organization in the scouting department before becoming Assistant General Manager in 2020.
The Falcons are looking to replace Thomas Dimitroff who was fired in October after having been the only GM to work under Owner Arthur Blank. Blank recently told the Atlanta Journal’s Orlando Ledbetter that he thinks the Falcons have made some mistakes in the draft and free agency recently.
“I think we’ve made some mistakes in the draft which have hurt us, in my opinion,” Blank told Ledbetter. “I thought we made some mistakes in free agency, which is always very dangerous waters to tread in because you can pick a lot of – pick up some really good players, but you also – you’re always exposed to some other teams’ issues or players’ issues that we probably may not have fully dimensioned.”
One criticism of Dimitroff was his penchant for treating the Falcons like a 7v7 team and investing heavily in offensive skill players while ignoring the lines of scrimmage. The Falcons have the No. 4 pick in the NFL Draft this in April, but they might not be in a position to upgrade the lines with a need to find a successor to Matt Ryan who turns 36 in May.
Fontenot is the fifth candidate the Falcons have interviewed for the General Manager position joining:
- Anthony Robinson, Atlanta Falcons director of college scouting
- Rick Smith, former Houston Texans executive vice president of football operations
- Brad Holmes, Los Angeles Rams director of college scouting
- Morocco Brown, Indianapolis Colts director of college scouting
