The Atlanta Falcons have taken an unusual approach with their new regime by hiring a head coach before a general manager. It goes to show how much they believe in Kevin Stefanski.
Eyes have turned directly to who the team's next general manager will be. They have been conducting interviews over the past few days, including the Pittsburgh Steelers' assistant GM Andy Weidl.
However, he might be off the board after the Steelers' shocking hire of Mike McCarthy. Those two have a history going back to their days with the New Orleans Saints decades ago.
Mike McCarthy could spoil the Falcons' hopes of hiring Andy Weidl
The Falcons interviewed Weidl on January 22, prior to the Steelers' hire of McCarthy.
At the time, there was a lot of uncertainty with the franchise after Mike Tomlin's departure. While they are retaining GM Omar Khan, everyone else's job security was uncertain.
But that may change with the past history Weidl has with McCarthy going back to their days with the Saints in the early 2000s. Khan was also a part of those teams. Will that take one of the Falcons' targets off the board? That is the million-dollar question.
Undoubtedly, Weidl played a part in hiring the Steelers' new head coach. He isn't counting his chickens before they hatch when referring to a potential promotion with another team.
If he feels the Falcons are in a bad spot, he could withdrawal his name from consideration. The other side is whether the Dirty Birds were impressed by him or not. If not, then all of this is a moot point.
Of course, the Falcons have many other names on their list.
Matt Ryan has conducted interviews with many other candidates around the league: former Jets GM Joe Douglas, the Chiefs' Mike Bradway, the 49ers' Josh Williams, the Bears' Ian Cunningham, and the Texans' James Liipfert.
Williams and Cunningham also interviewed for Ryan's new job, President of Football.
It would figure that those two have the inside track. If Atlanta wasn't impressed with them in their first interviews, they wouldn't have brought them back.
But you never know, and it will be interesting to see what Weidl ends up doing after his team's recent big moves.