Ian, it’s not too late. I understand why at first interviewing for the Atlanta Falcons job seemed appealing. The Falcons are a team without a first-round pick, with questions at quarterback, and without the cap
flexibility to fix everything without some patience and actual skill. Heck, Ryan Pace was even involved in making the mess. It is, on paper, very similar to the job that you helped Ryan Poles with in Chicago. If the general manager position in Atlanta were a real GM position, it would be perfect for you. However…
What exactly is the Falcons’ general manager job?
It’s not the primary executive of the team, as that’s Matt Ryan–the president of football operations. You interviewed for that job, and the Falcons instead gave it to a man who has never been involved in front office football operations before. However, it’s worse than that.
The head coach has already been hired. That sort of matters, as you should know from your time in Chicago. Still, Kevin Stefanski is obviously better than Matt Eberflus. He might even be a hire that you agree with. You might be able to see yourself working closely with him on roster construction. Of course, you won’t be the football executive with the most direct interaction with the head coach, as that’s former Lions general manager Bob Quinn–who just followed Stefanski from the Browns with the title “senior advisor to the head coach” after having been the “senior personnel/coaching executive” with him at the Browns.
So, you’ll be #2 to a tyro chief executive and likely on the outside looking in on an established pairing between a veteran GM and the head coach. Perhaps the Falcons’ general manager will really be the person most in charge of scouting? Well, probably not, not really. Because the director of college scouting Tumbo Abanikanda and his assistant Michael Ross are apparently still in place and still doing scouting for the team (leading a contingent at the Senior Bowl for one).
So, the general manager of the Falcons will not get to make primary decisions, will not have a say in the hiring of the head coach or his staff, will not be the senior advisor to the head coach, and will not have the power to select his scouting staff. Maybe next year you’d get to make a change if Matt Ryan agrees and if Quinn and Stefanski haven’t already established a rapport with them this year.
I know you know this already, but it’s less than a month until the NFL Combine. Who will be running the interviews there? Who will be familiar with the scouting reports and the coach’s needs? All of those levels of football decision-making have already been set, and the new “general manager” will be an add-on.
Right now, you are the assistant general manager of an organization with a reasonable structure, and this Falcons job actually seems like a step back in power from being a trusted and fully-integrated deputy to a person who is one step removed from each aspect of the operation.
So, Ian, why would you want the Falcons job? Isn’t it better to stay assistant general manager here in Chicago? Next year there will be other openings. Real openings. Openings that don’t actually reduce your relative power within an organization. Why waste your first, best shot at being a general manager by taking a position that is this full of compromises?
A cynic might think that the Bears’ fan in me is bitter about the two compensatory picks Chicago might not get if you leave for this job, but that’s not it. Not really. Looking back over Chicago’s third-round picks doesn’t make me especially wistful, honestly. It is true that I think you should go for a job that unambiguously does qualify–because I think you deserve for your next role to be that of primary executive.
If there’s money involved, fair enough. Maybe the Falcons are willing to pay you vastly more money and it’s worth it to you to take the cash now. Perhaps you’re tired of the weather and Atlanta in January seems a lot more appealing than Chicago. I can’t talk you out of that. Perhaps there’s some personal issue where you’ve grown to resent something inside Halas Hall that I don’t know about. If so, then you need to make the best decision for yourself.
However, if one of those things isn’t involved, why would you make this many compromises on your future?
Sincerely,
A Bears fan.
