Atlanta Falcons: Does culture change lead to success?

Does culture change lead to success for the Atlanta Falcons?

The Atlanta Falcons have moved on from their previous regime and they’re bringing in new leadership hoping for a different result in the future.

The Falcons hired Terry Fontenot from the Saints as their new GM and they hired former Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator Arthur Smith as the new head coach. With a new staff and new leadership at the helm, there has been a breath of fresh air breathed into the franchise as a whole.

But the question of the matter isn’t if Fontenot and Smith will do things differently. The question is if a change in culture leads to success for the Atlanta Falcons.

Culture change needed to take place for the Atlanta Falcons, but a change doesn’t always spell success

You can say all the right things and breed a culture of winning, but if you’re not doing these things you’re not going to be successful:

1. You’ve got to win the NFL Draft year-in and year-out
2. You’ve got to develop talent and be spot on in your evaluations
3. You’ve got to address areas of weakness and improve them with the right fit
4. You’ve got to have a head coach that understands the game and can make the right decisions to win
5. Players have to ‘buy in’ that they’re legitimate competitors

Let’s be honest here.

The majority of NFL games aren’t blowouts. When you get to this level, the difference in 4,5 or even 6 wins could just be a few decisions or plays within  games. That can be seen in the 2020 Atlanta Falcons team, where they lost a total of eight games by less than a touchdown.

You’ve got to have a front-office and a head coach who are all making winning decisions- from the draft to free-agency to contracts to in-game decisions- to be successful.

Changing the culture and just calling it ‘new’ isn’t enough to get the job done.

The question is if we’ll see Fontenot and Smith making winning decisions that vault the Falcons back into becoming contenders or if they’ll simply be like the old leadership before them who never got over the hump.