Does anybody in the Atlanta Falcons organization care anymore?
By Adam Zippan
The Atlanta Falcons front office and organization failure this season is palpable. The fanbase has been duped into believing a viable product has been put in place and would translate on the field.
Let’s not sugarcoat it. The Atlanta Falcons front office is in shambles. It is a complete and utter farce. The only thing it has been good at this season is duping the entire fanbase into believing how competitive and productive the team would be heading into the 2019 season.
Fans are exasperated. Trust and confidence are waning rapidly. From Arthur Blank to Thomas Dimitroff to Rich Mckay to others in the front office, there is plenty of blame to go around.
Perhaps fans should boycott the remaining four home games so that there are 20,000 fans in the seats. Maybe this will send a message to Arthur Blank and the front office that these hard-working fans who pay very good money will not accept or tolerate such incompetence.
Blank said at his post-game press conference after the loss to Seattle that it’s painful to see the stadium half empty. How about seeing it three-quarters empty? Fans have little to no sympathy for billionaire owners who claim as such.
The Atlanta Falcons fans deserve an apology, an explanation or some sort of statement at least from general manager Thomas Dimitroff. He has remained silent. He stood pat at the trade deadline, which hopefully is a sign that Arthur Blank did not approve any trades because he has lost all trust in his general manager to orchestrate anything that is beneficial to the team’s future. No explanation was even given or a statement issued as to why no trades were made.
With all the silence in the front office leads one to believe there will be sweeping changes after the season in the front office and on the coaching staff. Hopefully, this is the case. Head coach Dan Quinn hasn’t said much either, but how much can he possibly say?
Quinn knows he’s a dead man walking in terms of his job status. He continues to attempt to say all the right things, even though his rhetoric has become stale, old and has worn off completely. He still shows very little emotion both on the sideline during games as well as his post-game press conferences.
Throughout the entire Atlanta Falcons organizational failure this season, the only ones who have shown any kind of emotion or passion have been a few players. Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, Grady Jarrett, and Ricardo Allen seem to be the only players playing with passion, energy, heart and have even exuded leadership qualities.
The front office has duped the fans into believing they know how to scout, draft and sign players with their embarrassing free agent signings (specifically on the offensive line this season) and their draft pick failures over the past few years (specifically Takk McKinley and Vic Beasley).
There seems to be a lack of leadership upstairs, a lack of overall football intelligence and a lack of passion. This has trickled all the way down to the coaching staff and the players, which has translated on to the field. Although it would be reminiscent of the mid to late 1980s when attendance at Fulton County Stadium at some home games was in the 30,000 range, this might be the even more painful and humiliating wakeup call that Arthur Blank deserves and needs.
This would send a message and be a vivid reminder that Falcons fans have had enough. It seems as though the organization overall as a whole does not even seem to care.