Falcons presser: Blank was ‘angry’ with season
Falcons owner Arthur Blank let the public know that he was 'angry' with how last season turned out. Curtis Compton, ccompton@ajc.com
Falcons owner Arthur Blank admitted that he was “angry” after the team’s early exit from the playoffs in a press conference on Wednesday.
Blank, head coach Mike Smith and general manager Thomas Dimitroff spoke to the local media in the aftermath of a season that saw their Super Bowl hopes come crashing down in the wild-card round of the playoffs.
Before the presser, the team had already lost defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder to a “family decision” to return to the college ranks and around the same time, offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey was being introduced as the new head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Here are some of the other highlights from the press conference that lasted a little over an hour.
– The team stated that it wanted to support transparency, but that it would conduct its search for new coordinators in private.
– The team has 17 free agents and consider eight of them to be core players. However, all of them may not return because of financial considerations.
– Blank stated that the team is playing for “rings” and “championships.” He said, “We’re not about being in the playoffs. . . this organization is about greatness.”
– The team wants to add some tough, mean and physical players.
– Smith said that his offensive MVP was quarterback Matt Ryan. His defensive MVP was linebacker Sean Weatherspoon. He also had kind words for punter Matt Bosher and return man/coverage guy Eric Weems.
– He stated that Weatherspoon received some attention during the league-wide Pro Bowl voting.
– Running back Michael Turner’s touches will likely be cut down moving forward.
– Blank spoke about the “intellectual honesty” of Smith and Dimitroff. “They’ll be honest in their evaluations,” Blank said.
– Blank promised that the analysis of the team will be thorough. “We need to be careful that we don’t throw the baby out with the bath water,” Blank said.
–D. Orlando Ledbetter, The Atlanta Falcons beat blog
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515 comments Add your comment
CGD..
January 12th, 2012
11:45 am
Falcon_Ghost
January 12th, 2012
11:18 am
“Interesting Interview – I only got one thing out of this interview.
Blank stated that the team is playing for “rings” and “championships.” He said, “We’re not about being in the playoffs. . . this organization is about greatness.”
“This means that the coach and GM are both on a short leash. If they don’t think so, then history should be there guide. Mora (NFC championship game) – Reeves (Super Bowl appearance)…they both got fired with 3 years of those feats.
both Smith and Dimitriof will get fired after next season.”
Agreed, that was a shot across Dimitroff and Coach Smith bow!
Arthur should also rid himself of Richie Rich!
Unfortunately he’s probably going to give Obsolete 2-3 more years to win a playoff game..
He should try and upgrade the QB position this year..
Mister.Earl
January 12th, 2012
11:45 am
garyc42 – an expansion franchise? No Thank You.
List the position/ players you would keep and then list how you would fill the holes – one by one.
Tough huh?
Whodat own Atlanta
January 12th, 2012
11:50 am
This goes out to Authur Blank,..
You had a bad day
You’re taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don’t know
You tell me don’t lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad day
The camera don’t lie
You’re coming back down and you really don’t mind
You had a bad dayyyyyy’aaaa ya had a bad day
rise up, now sit back down.,.,
lol
Who Dat
Whodat own Atlanta
January 12th, 2012
11:56 am
re-mix
Falcons rise up, now sit back down, sit back down, sit sit back down.,,
rise up, sit back down, sit back down, sit sit back down, rise up, sit back down, sit back down, sit sit back down,
who dat
joebrave
January 12th, 2012
12:01 pm
Who is the damn fool that keeps wanting g to trade for a one game wonder FREE AGENT Matt Flynn. Jesus you cannot trade for a damn free agent
Don Nelson
January 12th, 2012
1:13 pm
Problem is the Mr. Blank is a blank. A top manager does not take 5 years to figure out his employees skills, a top level CEO is continually evaluating his team to make sure they are performing to the goals of the organization. Now, after all these years, he decides we need some mean tough guys. Please!!!
Coolio
January 12th, 2012
1:21 pm
Ohhh nooo!!!!! The 2 Live Stews done sold out to the falcons hype tooo!!!
rally
January 12th, 2012
3:32 pm
Arthur Blank should be pissed and rightly so. If he wasn’t…I would seriously wonder what cloud the mafia man was under. Look Bottom line is this folks for the last four seasons we have a winning tradition under Mike Smith, TD and Blank. If you guys aren’t happy about this go back in that hole you’ve been under because you don’t deserve to be a fan. We fan’s remember all too well how we felt when we were the bottom of the barrel of the league in Example 2-14, 3-13 and 4-12 year in and year out. I credit Mike Smith for alot of things….but his OC and DC were horrible and they about cost him his job. Mike Mularkey should have never had a coaching job anywhere and really really shocked that the Jaguars decided to take a chance on him. I hope to heck they go 0-16 in Jacksonville next year. ROFL LMAO at the Jaguars…..
Donaldo
January 12th, 2012
4:27 pm
Jusy watched a video of Montana, Rice, Lott, Clark & Craig talking about the Niners first SB 30 years ago. Bottom line from their comments was having trust in each other, and raising the level of expectations with players helping each other and when necessary enforcing others to improve when it was obvious problems. They had team leaders and all played together as a group of men with pride, truthfully they were all leaders. ATL has a long way to go, it begins with character & trust.
no change
January 12th, 2012
9:38 pm
blank makes millions if the team is good or not–he’ll go cheap again and stay away from the high dollar free agents and keep the overpaid busts he has now. the falcons will be lucky to make the playoffs next year—but as long as they have a “winning season” the chump fans in atlanta are happy!!!
Mid Town Joe
January 13th, 2012
9:34 am
Too many changes destine this team to failure next year.
big t
January 15th, 2012
8:48 am
hey i agree with Donaldo Atl needs key players like ray lewis type to hold players accountable to fire them up some attitude.,,, hey for all you ryan haters drew breez looked like a below average passer without 10 seconds to throw he looked like a scared little man.It shows you what we have in ryan if we can get him time to throw
blackdog
January 15th, 2012
9:05 pm
the falcon need more trick plays,in tne red zone
FenderMan
January 16th, 2012
11:15 am
Enter your comments here
FenderMan
January 16th, 2012
11:27 am
I disagree with the Turner bashing. Turner gained 1340 yards averaging 4.5 yards per carry.
That’s pertty darn good. Win he has a hole he can run through it. It all starts with the OL. Letting Dahl go was a huge mistake.
Turner can start but we have other backs to share the load. Thank God Mularkey is gone. Hopefully the new OC will use all our backs, Snelling, Rogers, Muhgelli, Cox and Smith. Smith looked great in preseason and I do not think he had five carries all year. Why Mularkey did not see what this guy is
all about is a mystery. But then Mularkey’s skills as an OC are a mystery.
We have guys to run the ball. We need an OC who knows how to use the personnel we have.