ATLANTA — The decision to introduce a new position into the organizational structure of the Atlanta Falcons was not made overnight. It was months in the making.
On Monday morning, owner Arthur Blank penned a letter to the fans and Atlanta community explaining that the organization would be making a hire for a newly created position, the president of football.
"The leader in this new role will set the vision and identity for our team," Blank wrote.
"Our new head coach and general manager will report to the new president of football, and they will work collaboratively as a football leadership team on all football decisions. Final decision-making authority will rest with the president of football."
The president of football will report directly to Blank, and work collaboratively with Greg Beadles, who succeeded Rich McKay as the team's president and CEO. In his letter, Blank explained the two parties will "ensure the team's football and business operations are appropriately aligned."
In a press conference Thursday, Blank provided more information on the decision as well as what he's looking for in the role.
Mainly, Blank explained the president of football role is in place to ensure vision across all football areas is aligned with each party, and to hold the individuals they oversee accountable.
"The general manager will do his job, the head coach will do their job. They both will be accountable to the president of football," Blank said. "It'll be a dialog, exchange of ideas, etc."
Blank explained the organization retained Sportsology Group — a sports intelligence and advisory group — a couple months ago to do a complete diagnosis of the health of the franchise's football operations. This process included interviews conducted with 30 individuals in the building.
Blank was given a full report that detailed areas in which football operations could be improved, including specifics of communication, clarity of direction and accountability, according to the owner.
That report was the basis of Blank's decision to introduce a new organizational structure with a president of football in place between the head coach and general manager and the owner.
"It was a little bit surprising the lack of clarity about the vision for the team," Blank said about the report's findings. "In any business, any industry, when you don't have clarity around vision and about what you are trying to establish and trying to build you're going to end up with a lot of disparaged parts with everybody moving in different directions and that means you are not only unsuccessful — or even partially unsuccessful — but you will be very inefficient. As laser-focused as you can be about exactly what you want to do, you can make better selection of players, coaches, coaching staff, to hold that kind of consistency in place, and then you modify over time to depending on what's happening within the game because the game is changing."
For Blank, he is not involved in the day-to-day football operational decisions. He said Thursday that he "shouldn't be," which is why having someone in place with full responsibility in these areas was important to him in the aftermath of the report's findings.
"Because I have authority does not mean I have knowledge," Blank explained.
"We wanted somebody else to have input, guidance, hold the accountability and work closely with the head coach and general manager to build their capacities, coaching staff, the roster, making sure it is consistently held within the vision we have with the team and how we want to play ball."
Blank confirmed the Falcons will hold official interviews with candidates for the president of football position in the coming days, beginning at the conclusion of his Thursday press conference. The hope and goal — Blank said — is to have an individual in place very soon so they can lead the ensuing search and interviews for the vacant general manager and head coach positions.
"If we bring in the right person, it'll make a big difference in my view," Blank concluded.
The Falcons will announce interviews once they are completed.
