{"id":669077,"date":"2026-01-11T15:24:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T15:24:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/669077\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T15:24:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T15:24:22","slug":"falcons-hire-matt-ryan-as-president-of-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/669077\/","title":{"rendered":"Falcons Hire Matt Ryan As President Of Football"},"content":{"rendered":"

Longtime Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan is returning to Atlanta in a key front office role. The Falcons announced<\/a> that they have hired Ryan as their president of football.<\/p>\n

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The Falcons created the position for Ryan, one of the greatest players in franchise history. Ryan originally joined the Falcons as the third overall pick in the 2008 draft. The Boston College product quarterbacked the team through 2021 and made four Pro Bowls.<\/p>\n

During an MVP-winning season in 2016, Ryan led the Falcons to a Super Bowl bid. After a gut-wrenching loss to the Patriots, the Falcons rebounded to earn a playoff berth again in 2017 for the sixth and final time in the Ryan era. They have not gone back to the postseason since then.<\/p>\n

Failing to reach the playoffs in five years under general manager Terry Fontenot and two seasons under head coach Raheem Morris led owner Arthur Blank to move on from the pair a week ago.<\/p>\n

Blank acted quickly in hiring Ryan, most recently a CBS NFL analyst. The 40-year-old Ryan beat out<\/a> Lions chief operating officer Mike Disner, Panthers executive vice president of operations Brandt Tilis, 49ers director of scouting and football operations Josh Williams and Bears assistant general manager Ian Cunningham for the job. He\u2019ll now leave behind<\/a> his role with CBS.<\/p>\n

In a statement announcing his hiring, Ryan said:\u00a0\u201cArthur gave me the chance of a lifetime almost twenty years ago, and he\u2019s done it again today. While I appreciate the time I had with the Colts and with CBS, I\u2019ve always been a Falcon. It feels great to be home. I could not be more excited, grateful, or humbled by this new opportunity. I began my career with a singular goal: to do right by the Blank family, the Falcons organization, the City of Atlanta, and especially our fans. My commitment to the success of this franchise has not changed. I\u2019m beyond ready to help write a new chapter of excellence.\u201d<\/p>\n

In taking over as the Falcons\u2019 top football executive, Ryan will hold \u201cfinal decision-making authority,\u201d Blank stated on Friday. Ryan will immediately get to work on hiring a new GM and head coach.<\/p>\n

With Ryan firmly in charge, the NFL regards the Falcons\u2019 GM opening as a secondary position, according to Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports<\/a>. That means the Falcons technically don\u2019t have to conduct any interviews before hiring someone for the role. However, the Falcons\u2019 president of football interviews also served as GM interviews, sources told Dianna Russini of The Athletic (via Scott Bair of Marquee Sports<\/a>). While the Falcons may offer the job to Disner, Tilis, Williams or Cunningham, hiring either Williams or Cunningham would have to wait because those two are working for current playoff teams. It\u2019s also possible that those individuals\u2019 teams could block them from taking the Falcons\u2019 gig if they view it as a lateral move.<\/p>\n

There are fewer complications with the Falcons\u2019 HC opening. They\u2019re set to interview Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver and Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak on Saturday (via Tom Pelissero of NFL Network<\/a>). The Falcons also have interest<\/a> in John Harbaugh, the most established choice on the market, but they\u2019re not ready to \u201cgo all-in\u201d on him yet, Jones reports.<\/p>\n

Once Ryan settles on replacements for Fontenot and Morris, his focus will turn to improving a roster that produced an 8-9 record in 2025, the team\u2019s eighth straight sub-.500 season. The Falcons haven\u2019t finished above .500 since Ryan was under center in 2017. Evaluating the team\u2019s current QBs \u2013 Kirk Cousins<\/a>, a likely release candidate, and Michael Penix Jr.<\/a> \u2013 will rank among Ryan\u2019s most important tasks in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Longtime Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan is returning to Atlanta in a key front office role. The Falcons announced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[254,7,2909,8357,2859,8730],"class_list":{"0":"post-669077","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-atlanta-falcons","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-john-harbaugh","11":"tag-klint-kubiak","12":"tag-matt-ryan","13":"tag-newsstand"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115877161756279936","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669077","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=669077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}