ATLANTA — Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank said Thursday that Matt Ryan, a former quarterback for the team, will be one of the candidates interviewed for the franchise’s newly created position of president of football.
The president of football will be involved in selecting a new coach and general manager. The Falcons fired second-year head coach Raheem Morris and fifth-year general manager Terry Fontenot on Sunday, hours after the completion of an 8-9 season, the eighth consecutive losing season for Atlanta.
Ryan, the most accomplished quarterback in Falcons history as the starter from 2008-21, is currently an NFL analyst for CBS Sports. The 2016 NFL MVP, he holds most of the team’s major passing records, including yards, completions and touchdowns.
Blank said it was not an impediment that Ryan, 40, has no front-office experience.
“My response to that would be Matt Ryan came into the league as a rookie in 2008, ended up leading a locker room for 14 years, leading in a huddle, being a great player, leading the players, supporting coaches,” Blank said. “So his EQ and IQ when it comes to football is extraordinarily high.”
The Falcons announced Thursday night that Detroit Lions chief operating officer Mike Disner and Carolina Panthers executive vice president of football operations Brandt Tilis became the first candidates to interview for the president of football position.
Disner has worked with the Lions since 2019 and has been in his current role since 2022. Disner previously spent seven seasons with the Arizona Cardinals as director of football administration after four years at the NFL Management Council.
Tilis spent 14 seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs, from 2010-23, before holding his current role with the Panthers the past two seasons.
Blank said he intentionally avoided giving the new position the title of president of football operations.
“It’s not football operations, it is football, because sometimes people can interpret that as being, well, they’re responsible for the operations stuff, the backroom stuff, administrative stuff,” Blank said. “But this person we’re trying to hire will be responsible for everything that relates to football.”
Blank has made filling the new position a priority because the coach and GM will report to the president.
The team owner said his interest in Ryan is based on his “long relationship” with the former quarterback.
“He’s an outstanding individual, great community leader, and the kind of person you’d certainly want to consider in that position,” Blank said Thursday morning. “But we have other candidates that we’re interviewing as well over the next couple of days, starting this afternoon, this evening.”
Blank, 83, has owned the Falcons since 2002 and acknowledged in a letter to fans released Monday he is disappointed in the team’s lengthy run of losing season. He said Thursday that’s why he chose to fire Morris and Fontenot, and announce other front-office changes, despite the team closing the season with four straight wins, capped by Sunday’s home victory against the New Orleans Saints, who are the Falcons’ top rival in the NFC South Division.
“It was my conclusion as the season went on that we could not achieve or were not achieving at the level that I thought this roster was capable of performing at,” Blank said. “I think we’re capable of getting to another level. … In my judgment, I felt that two years of (Morris) being (the coach) of this team and Terry after five years, I felt I’ve seen enough to know that we could do better than this, in my heart.”
The Falcons haven’t had a winning season or appeared in the playoffs since 2017, a season after they reached the Super Bowl for just the second time in the history of a franchise that debuted in 1966 and is still looking for its first NFL title. Morris, a former Falcons assistant who returned to the team after serving as the defensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams and helping them win the 2021 season’s Super Bowl, went 16-18 in his two seasons in charge in Atlanta.
Blank said John Harbaugh, who was fired on Tuesday after 18 seasons as coach of the Baltimore Ravens, would be a candidate to replace Morris if he was interested in the job.
“John has been one of the most successful coaches in the last 20 years and already has won at every level,” Blank said. “And so he would certainly be a candidate we would want to spend some time with. Whether or not he would have an interest in Atlanta, I don’t know.”
The president of football will replace Greg Beadles, who was hired as president and chief executive officer and will oversee business operations. In his new role, Beadles replaces Rich McKay, who will continue as CEO of AMB Sports and Entertainment with responsibilities including the role of Mercedes-Benz Stadium — home to the Falcons as well as Major League Soccer’s Atlanta United FC, which is also owned by Blank — in the FIFA World Cup this summer and in Super Bowl XLII in February 2028.
Blank hired the consulting firm Sportsology to study the Falcons. An executive search firm, ZRG Partners, will assist on the coach search and Sportsology will be involved in the hunt for a new GM.