{"id":652826,"date":"2026-01-04T08:46:31","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T08:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/652826\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T08:46:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T08:46:31","slug":"falcons-owner-arthur-blank-to-evaluate-atlantas-football-ops-for-rest-of-season-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/652826\/","title":{"rendered":"Falcons Owner Arthur Blank To Evaluate Atlanta’s Football Ops For Rest Of Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n By Nikhil Mehta<\/a> |
\n at January 3, 2026 9:44 pm<\/p>\n

JANUARY 3:\u00a0As part of his evaluation process, Blank has brought in the consulting firm Sportsology (which has worked with NFL teams in the past). Dianna Russini of The Athletic notes (subscription required<\/a>)\u00a0Rick Smith has played a role in Sportsology\u2019s ongoing Falcons audit. The former Texans GM was among those who interviewed for Atlanta\u2019s most recent vacancy before Fontenot was ultimately hired.<\/p>\n

DECEMBER 13:\u00a0After another disappointing year from the Falcons, major changes could be coming in Atlanta this offseason.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Owner and chairman Arthur Blank will spend the rest of the season evaluating the team\u2019s football operations, including head coach\u00a0Raheem Morris\u00a0and general manager\u00a0Terry Fontenot, per NFL Network\u2019s Ian Rapoport<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Falcons were already eliminated from the playoffs before their Kyle Pitts<\/a>-driven win over the Buccaneers on Thursday night. However, their Week 14 loss to the Seahawks locked in their eighth losing season in a row. Atlanta finished with an 8-9 record in 2024, their first year under Morris, but the team\u2019s lack of improvements this year have raised doubt about his future. The same is true of Fontenot, who is in his fifth year as GM without much year-to-year progress.<\/p>\n

Of the two, Fontenot feels more likely to leave Atlanta this offseason. He has struggled to find starters in the draft and does not have a strong record outside of the first round, though he has built a strong offensive line over the years. Fontenot also drove the Falcons\u2019 controversial quarterback moves in the 2024 offseason. He signed Kirk Cousins<\/a> to a four-year, $160MM deal with $90MM fully guaranteed and drafted Michael Penix<\/a> with the eighth overall pick less than two months later.<\/p>\n

Individually, both decisions were questionable, but together, they set up a difficult dynamic in Atlanta. Cousins was surprised by the Penix pick, which immediately put a clock on his time with the Falcons. The veteran quarterback played well to start the 2024 season, but a rough stretch of five games in the second half inspired an earlier-than-expected transition to the rookie. Penix showed some flashes in his three starts and entered 2025 as the clear starter while Cousins attempted to force an offseason move out of Atlanta.<\/p>\n

Fontenot then made another controversial decision in the 2025 draft by trading up from the second round to select edge rusher James Pearce Jr.<\/a> with the 26th overall pick despite already adding Jalon Walker<\/a> at No. 15 overall. He gave up a bevy of picks in the deal, including second- and third-rounders in 2025 and a first in 2026, which could be a top-10 pick.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Morris has not led the Falcons to the immediate success for which Blank was likely hoping, but his team has been decimated by injuries this season, especially on offense. Right tackle Kaleb McGary<\/a> suffered a leg injury in training camp that knocked out the left-handed Penix\u2019s blind side blocker for the entire season. Penix then went down with a season-ending injury after nine starts, and Drake London<\/a> has missed multiple games, too.<\/p>\n

The Falcons had a decent start to the year with a 3-2 record on the back of a defense that didn\u2019t allow more than 300 yards of total offense in that five-game span. Atlanta then lost five straight, a stretch that included some rough defensive showings and ended with Penix\u2019s injury. The result was a season that fell well short of Blank\u2019s expectations and will spur plenty of conversations in Atlanta about the futures of Morris and Fontenot. Giving Morris another year to see what he can do with a healthier roster makes sense, but Blank may be running out of patience with Fontenot\u2019s inability to build a competitive roster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Nikhil Mehta | at January 3, 2026 9:44 pm JANUARY 3:\u00a0As part of his evaluation process, Blank…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[23809,223,254,2554,224,7,6,2663,94788,2660],"class_list":{"0":"post-652826","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-arthur-blank","9":"tag-atlanta","10":"tag-atlanta-falcons","11":"tag-atlantafalcons","12":"tag-falcons","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-raheem-morris","16":"tag-rick-smith","17":"tag-terry-fontenot"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115835960604274672","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}