If Ryan isn't the man for the job, then the Falcons appear to be back to step one. Ryan is the only candidate besides Garrett that new general manager Thomas Dimitroff has interviewed. So now, the Falcons appear set to go through another series of interviews.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution proposes 49ers assistant head coach Mike Singletary, Vikings defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier and Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo are some likely candidates to be next on Dimitroff's list. In the case of Spagnuolo, the Falcons will have to wait until after this weekend's NFC Championship game, and would have to wait until after the Super Bowl if the Giants beat the Packers.
At this point there doesn't seem to be much reason to hurry. Speed was of the essence when trying to compete with the Ravens to hire Garrett, but unless the Falcons end up in another bidding war with the Ravens for a coaching candidate, the path is now clear for Dimitroff to take his time, and point the coaching search in a new direction if he wants.
It was hard to figure out a situation where Garrett would end up in Atlanta--it's a much worse situation than the Ravens, but Garrett is walking a difficult tight rope. He clearly wants to give the Cowboys every chance to figure out a way to keep him, but by doing so he's turning off a lot of Ravens fans who can't understand why he is debating an assistant coach job with the Cowboys vs. a head coaching job in Baltimore.
The Falcons may now turn to an ex-Ravens assistant. Rex Ryan has been putting together one of the best and most complex defenses in the NFL. He apparently impressed in his interview with the Falcons, according to the Sun, and the AJC reports that he's the only other candidate to get a second interview besides Garrett.
Jason Garrett is about to be much richer, but it's not really clear where he'll be coaching.
According to Adam Schefter, the Falcons became the second team to offer the Cowboys offensive coordinator their head coaching job. The Ravens had already offered Garrett their head coaching job earlier on Tuesday. Garrett also could stick with the Cowboys if he decides he's OK with being the NFL's highest paid offensive coordinator.
If the Falcons have actually offered Garrett their job, it would seem to indicate that new GM Tom Dimitroff didn't have as much input as expected--the Falcons interviewed Garrett on Jan. 4, but that was an interview with the nine-man search committee that supposedly became obsolete the minute Dimitroff was hired. Schefter's report says that owner Arthur Blank offered Garrett the job, which adds more fuel to the possibility that Dimitroff doesn't have as much power as was originally reported.
Now that Tom Dimitroff has signed his deal to become the Falcons general manager, the question is exactly how much power he has.
In some ways, the news is encouraging. It appears that Dimitroff will be pretty much the main decision maker when it comes to hiring the next head coach. But in other ways, it still sounds like Dimitroff will be part of a committee that decides on football matters, as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution explains.
Dimitroff will have significant, if not total input on hiring a head coach. Such decisions rarely, if at all, are made unilaterally, so Blank, McKay and others likely will give their opinions on coaching candidates. A good thing for Dimitroff is he's also coming from outside of the organization, where he can comfortably accumulate opinions from other league officials about potential coaches.
As for McKay, he will not have final say on football issues. Dimitroff will hold the swing vote if his staff is tied on some decisions. Then, he will bring things to McKay and Blank for final approval. Blank, of course, has ultimate say and veto power.
Having Dimitroff consult with the new head coach makes some sense--the coach needs to have some input into buying the groceries, as Bill Parcells would put it. But having Rich McKay and Arthur Blank involved makes no sense. McKay and Blank are two of the main factors in getting the Falcons into this mess, now it's time for Dimitroff to clean it up.
Imagine the difficulty of trying to impress nine different people during a job interview. Trying to figure out who it's really important to connect with, who can be somewhat ignored.
Then imagine that all of that work didn't mean anything. The Falcons decision to hire Tom Dimitroff as the team's new general manager completes what's been a rather crazy search process, with nine different Falcons interviewing all the candidates. It also appears to mean that the prospective coaches may have been wasting their time by interviewing in front of the nine-man committee.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Dimitroff will now go about hiring a new coach. He has been given the authority to make the hire, which likely means that Ravens defensive coordinator Rex Ryan, Indianapolis assistant head coach Jim Caldwell, Titans defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, Dallas offensive assistants Jason Garrett and Tony Sparano and Jacksonville defensive coordinator Mike Smith are all likely back at square one, as whoever impresses Dimitroff in an interview is much more important than who wowed the committee that's now out of a job.
It's a strange way to hire a coach and GM, but Dimitroff seems like exactly what the Falcons needed--a scout with an eye for finding talent in the draft. While he's not a flashy hire (like say, Bill Parcells), flashy has worked poorly for the Falcons in recent years. If he can now find a coach with a similar knack for player development, maybe things will start to turn around
There may not be a college coach who's better at playing the salary game than USC's Pete Carroll. The Trojans coach gets linked to NFL jobs every year, even if he never seems that serious about leaving Southern Cal, where he has a sweet gig, a slew of All-American recruits every season and pretty much a lifetime pass to the Rose Bowl.
Apparently Carroll's talks with the Falcons didn't change any of that. The Falcons hired Patriots exec Thomas Dimitroff as their general manager, which pretty much assured that Carroll wouldn't be coming. Now CBS Sports' Charlie Casserly confirmed it, saying on the NFL Today that he spoke with Carroll on Saturday and Carroll told him that he never had more than casual conversations with the Falcons. He also assured Casserly that he's staying put.
I know a lot of people were excited about the idea of Carroll as the Falcons coach, but this seems like a bullet dodged to me. It's a lot easier to beat teams with overwhelming talent in college (which Carroll has) than to win against evenly-matched teams in the NFL (as we saw when Carroll was an NFL coach).
They're planning to hire the general manager first, which makes sense since you'd like the GM to have input into hiring the coach, but they're also going through with interviewing nearly every coaching candidate under the sun with a nine-man search committee. Jaguars defensive coordinator Mike Smith and Titans defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz will be the next two coaching candidates to go through the grilling, although in Schwartz's case, he might be snapped up by the Redskins before the Falcons get around to making a decision.
That's part of the problem with the Falcons approach. All the other teams looking to hire a coach actually have a person in place to make that decision now, which means they'll get the first chance to hire the top coaching candidates. Hopefully for the Falcons we'll see a GM hired in the next couple of days, and then the Falcons can junk this nine-person coaching search committee, get Rich McKay out of the process and actually go about hiring a coach.
I guess this isn't much of a surprise, Arthur Blank is screwing another coaching search.
Just weeks after Rich McKay was removed as the team's general manager because of his poor drafts and horrible hiring record (Jim Mora Jr. and Bobby Petrino), the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting that McKay has been given a new two-year contract and a raise to go with a new title--team president.
So let's get this straight. McKay botched his old job, so he's been given a bigger title and more money, and he's also serving as Blank's main advisor in the decision of who to hire as the team's new general manager and coach. It's not hard to figure out how wrong this is in so many ways.
The Falcons have officially begun their coaching search by requesting and being granted permission to speak with a Cowboys assistant coach.
But while offensive coordinator Jason Garrett might be the hot name floated around by the media, the Falcons are talking to a different Cowboys assistant--offensive line coach/running game coordinator Tony Sparano.
While Sparano doesn't have the instant name recognition that Garrett has, he does have some pretty impressive credentials and a lot more experience than Garrett. He did a good job as the play caller for Bill Parcells' final year in Dallas. He was forced to hand over that job to Garrett this season as part of Jerry Jones' machinations to ensure Garrett stuck around when Wade Phillips was hired. Parcells thought enough of Sparano to block him from jumping to New Orleans when Sean Payton wanted to hire him as the Saints offensive coordinator, and he's now considered a candidate for the Dolphins job when Cam Cameron gets canned.
It seems much more likely that Sparano will end up in Miami, but he does seem like a solid candidate, and a sign that maybe the Falcons are headed in the right direction with this coaching search.
"First of all, you eliminate no one," McKay said. "Secondly, you pay attention to history. I think the college coaches have been the exception as opposed to the rule. I think some of them have been exceptional. I don't want to sit there and say, 'Boy, we don't want to go down that path.' "
With Jason Garrett officially out of the picture, and Rex Ryan apparently not warranting an immediate job offer, it appears that the Falcons' coaching search may stretch beyond the Super Bowl.
According to the Baltimore Sun, Jason Garrett has decided he won't be the Falcons next head coach.
Jason Garrett is about to be much richer, but it's not really clear where he'll be coaching.
Now that Tom Dimitroff has signed his deal to become the Falcons general manager, the question is exactly how much power he has.
Imagine the difficulty of trying to impress nine different people during a job interview. Trying to figure out who it's really important to connect with, who can be somewhat ignored.
There may not be a college coach who's better at playing the salary game than USC's Pete Carroll. The Trojans coach gets linked to NFL jobs every year, even if he never seems that serious about leaving Southern Cal, where he has a sweet gig, a slew of All-American recruits every season and pretty much a lifetime pass to the Rose Bowl.
About the only thing that's clear about the Falcons GM/coaching search is that there isn't a whole lot of clarity.
I guess this isn't much of a surprise, Arthur Blank is screwing another coaching search.
The Falcons have officially begun their coaching search by requesting and being granted permission to speak with a Cowboys assistant coach.
You would think with the skidmarks that 
