Last offseason the Atlanta Falcons heavily pursued Deshaun Watson, and according to reports were very close to having the 12th overall pick in Atlanta. However, the Cleveland Browns swooped in at what seemed like the final hour and signed him to a five-year $230 million dollar contract.
Again, if you believe some of the reports, Arthur Blank seemed to be the driving force behind the pursuit of Deshaun Watson. Tuesday night on The Jon Chuckery Show, Jon Chuckery asked the Atlanta Falcons beat reporter for the AJC, D. Orlando Ledbetter, if he expects Arthur Blank to “pressure” Arthur Smith and Terry Fontenot to pursue Lamar Jackson
D. Orlando Ledbetter confidently answers by saying “Yeah no doubt, they try to hide behind this collaborative decision making process part, and that they all got to be on the same page and so forth.”
D-Led also goes on to say “The Owner has a say, they meet with him a lot he’s informed, and they’re trying to make a coalition and have everybody at the table, kind of you know maybe the too many cooks in the pot type of deal, but that’s how they’re rolling, and the owner, the general manager, his assistant the coaches you know everybody’s on the hook for getting the quarterback situation correct here.”
It’ll be interesting to see how much the Atlanta Falcons get into the Lamar Jackson sweepstakes if he in fact becomes available, and if he does and the Falcons are heavily pursuing Jackson this may be a move that is being orchestrated a little more heavily by Arthur Blank than usual.