“We will be competitive this year, and I promise you, we will be successful.”
When the Falcons traded Matt Ryan to the Indianapolis Colts, many fans were wondering if the move signaled the beginning of a multi-year rebuild. In the immediate aftermath of the trade, head coach Arthur Smith and general manager Terry Fontenot rejected the idea of a rebuild. That mentality, illustrated by the quote above, has been echoed by owner Arthur Blank.
Speaking with Dukes & Bell on 92.9 The Game this afternoon, the Falcons’ owner stressed that, in the NFL, approaching a season without a winning mindset is not an option.
“You can’t ask these guys to put their minds, their bodies on the line to make the commitments they make physically, emotionally and mentally in every sense of the word and tell them ‘well actually, we don’t really plan on winning.’ We plan on winning. We plan on being very competitive…That’s what every single player would expect of us. That’s what every single coach, forget about what they are paid to do, they’re paid to do that, but beyond that, that’s how they’re wired," Blank said.
While the word “rebuild” may be taboo in today’s day and age, Blank did admit that the organization is “going through a transition" that may take some time. While Blank had nothing but praise for the man who served as the face of the franchise for the past 14 seasons, he reiterated that moving on was the right move as they plan for the future.
“You’re not playing golf, you’re not playing chess. You’re not just playing by yourself. You need a team around you and I think salary cap was becoming a real burden for us the way it was being distributed,” Blank said.
While dealing with a record dead cap hit associated with Ryan’s contract—$40.5 million—and several other contracts that are still on the books, the Falcons have made a flurry of free-agent additions in the past few weeks, including QB Marcus Mariota, WR Auden Tate, CB Casey Hayward and several others. General manager Terry Fontenot acknowledged the difficulty of operating with a strict budget this off-season saying that the Falcons are “taking it on the chin” this year.
Following what Blank and the Falcons hope is a successful 2022 season, he expressed that the decision to start this “transition” has the organization on a path toward a quick turnaround.
“Looking at the longer-term, not just the immediate short term, our fans in some ways really should understand and almost in a sense celebrate—not that Matt is gone—but that we will have 25% of our cap back next year going into free agency. We’ll probably be at least $110 million under the cap—the most we’ve ever been in the history of my 21 years as an owner, probably in the history of our franchise and probably only two or three teams in the NFL next year that’ll have the amount of cap room that we will.”
In addition to being active in free agency, Blank offered that the increased cap space will allow the organization to retain its own players moving forward.