Blame Thomas Dimitroff’s ego if Atlanta Falcons fail in 2019
If the Atlanta Falcons fail to win a Super Bowl in 2019, blame Thomas Dimitroff’s ego.
There are two things certain in life – change and death. Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank has been very vocal this NFL off-season, which itself is a change, but he has said a lot that we all should have been paying attention to. I am guessing Falcons General Manager, Thomas Dimitroff, was not.
A little over a month ago, Blank stated that the Falcons would be very busy in Free Agency addressing high need areas before April’s draft. Looking at football and this teams needs, I assumed that meant offensive line wise, given youth there is not the best route to go currently. Falcons nation was excited to hear this statement from our owner, again given his quiet nature.
Dimitroff has stated repeatedly that he was certain that Grady Jarrett and Julio Jones contracts would in fact get done and he gave the sense that these would be easy to complete.
Why are contracts in football so damn tough? Egos.
General Colin Powell has 13 rules of leadership that he lives by, I know them all by heart. When I graduated high school more than 20 years ago, my best friend had General Powell sign them and frame them for me as a gift (they are family). If you have never seen them, they are very powerful and have served me well. I believe Thomas Dimitroff should read these, specifically number three.
"It Ain’t as Bad as You Think! It Will Look Better in the Morning."
"Get Mad Then Get Over It."
"Avoid Having Your Ego so Close to your Position that When Your Position Falls, Your Ego Goes With It."
"It Can be Done. Leaders make things happen."
"Be Careful What You Choose. You May Get It."
"Don’t Let Adverse Facts Stand in the Way of a Good Decision."
"You Can’t Make Someone Else’s Choices. You Shouldn’t Let Someone Else Make Yours."
"Check Small Things."
"Share Credit."
"Remain calm. Be kind."
"Have a Vision. Be Demanding."
"Don’t take counsel of your fears or naysayers."
"Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier."
We talked about the team needing to rescind their initial guarantee of nearly 13 million with former first round pick, Vic Beasley. I said its time to move on, though I would not have been upset if they had renegotiated to a more realistic number, say three million. Dan Quinn confirmed last week that the team was not going to move Vic off that number.
Word came from the Atlanta Journal Constitutions Falcons beat writer, D. Orlando Ledbetter, that the Falcons and Grady Jarrett are nowhere near an agreed amount and don’t appear to be heading in that direction, but are “working diligently”. This means that Grady will end up being franchised tagged and will earn 15 million guaranteed in 2019. When you add Vic’s 13 million in to that, the Falcons have no more money or flexibility to get better anywhere.
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The only logical conclusion that I can come up with is Thomas Dimitroff’s ego is so big, he refuses to see the glaring issues on this team. His ego will not allow him to move on from Vic Beasley. His ego did not want to walk away from Jalen Collins. His ego will not allow him to cut Duke Riley. His ego will not allow him to go out and sign better than mid-grade offensive lineman. Thomas Dimitroff’s ego is so big, that he is going to waste Matt Ryan’s career and leave questions of “what if” for decades.
We will look back for years to come and wonder how this roster, which is better top to bottom than any other NFC roster, never won a Super Bowl. The answer will be simple – Thomas Dimitroff’s ego.