The Atlanta Falcons finally introduced one half of their new regime yesterday, as Kevin Stefanski's first meeting with the Atlanta media went as well as it could've gone. It seems pretty clear hiring him is a stark contrast from Raheem Morris, which has given Falcons fans more hope than they've had in years.
Now that Stefanski is in place, the Dirty Birds are focusing all of their attention on finding their next general manager. They conducted six virtual interviews last week, but they're finally whittling it down, as Matt Ryan revealed that the GM search has started to make some good process the last few days.
The Falcons are bringing two finalists to the facility for in-person interviews tomorrow: Chicago Bears assistant GM Ian Cunningham and Houston Texans assistant GM James Liipfert. Both are very qualified candidates, so while the race can go either way, we'll finally have some clarity in due time.
Falcons are inching closer to hiring their next general manager as they're down to two candidates
This update means that the Falcons have basically eliminated Joe Douglas, Andy Weidl, Josh Williams, and Mike Bradway from consideration. Aside from Williams and maybe Weidl, none of them had a real shot to land the job, but Weidl isn't leaving Pittsburgh after the Steelers hired his old friend Mike McCarthy to be their next head coach.
Cunningham has been a frontrunner throughout the search process due to his ties to Ryan, but things are getting dicey. He's the right-hand man of Ryan Poles and has worked for some great executives in the past, but Stefanski seems to prefer Liipfert and Ryan seems to prefer Cunningham.
Liipfert, a former Georgia Tech star, spent nine years as a scout in New England, but followed Texans GM Nick Caserio to Houston as the director of college scouting, and was later promoted to assistant GM after. And Albert Breer reported that his first interview with for the Falcons' GM job went well.
Liipfert's time in New England also overlaps with new Falcons' executive Bob Quinn's. The pair worked together for six seasons with the Patriots, and Stefanski brought Quinn to Atlanta to serve as his senior advisor after working together in Cleveland and his failed stint as the GM of the Detroit Lions.
Stefanski's vision was supposed to align with Ryan's, but it seems like the belief that they prefer different GM candidates is true. They both prefer the guy they have more connections to, but they have to get on the same page to nail this hire, especially since the new GM will still call the shots.
In all honesty, if Cunningham was their guy, they would've hired him by now. The Bears have been out of the playoffs for two weeks and he's been a candidate since before Ryan was officially hired. This means that it's anyone's race, so we'll have to wait another day or two to see how things shake out.
It's nice to know they have a plan, but stay tuned to see how this thing ends.