5 candidates to be next head coach of Falcons
After firing Dan Quinn following an 0-5 start, the Atlanta Falcons now have nearly three-quarters of the season to begin their search for Dan Quinn's full-time successor.
It's difficult to know whether the Falcons are an attractive job.
In many senses, how appealing the job is to potential candidates will depend upon who is ultimately hired as the organization's next general manager. General manager Thomas Dimitroff was fired with Quinn Sunday, so presumably the organization will hire his replacement before the next head coach. Perhaps the executive hired to lead the front office will come to the organization with a head coach in mind.
The next general manager - and by extension, the next head coach - will inherit Matt Ryan and Julio Jones. Both are franchise icons, but ones likely in the twilight of their careers, signed to massive contracts. Moving on from either would require taking on a significant amount of dead cap money, leaving the organization with next-to-no cap space for 2021. From that sense, this job may not be as attractive as other openings.
At the same time, at 0-5, the Falcons are very. much in the race for Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence. Even if it required a pretty lean year or two in terms of the cap to move on from Ryan, the chance to be paired with Lawrence would be extremely intriguing to any potential coaching candidate.
With some of the pros and cons acknowledged, here are five candidates to be the team's head coach in 2021, with Raheem Morris set to serve as interim coach for the remainder of the season:
