Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank happy with offseason business - NFL News
Atlanta Falcons fans are up in arms over what they see as the franchise’s lack of movement during the free-agency, however, owner Arthur Blank completely disagrees with that notion and believes that the team is close to the point where it needs to be.
The Falcons have signed just two players during the current free-agency and the names that have been brought in aren’t exactly what the fans were hoping for.
Atlanta signed linebacker, Lofa Tatupu and guard, Vince Manuwai.
Blank believes that general manager, Thomas Dimitroff and coach, Mike Smith made some astute moves by concentrating on re-signing their own free agents and said that the team is close where he wants it to be.
“I feel good about where we are. I know we didn’t make a big splash going into free agency. But that really wasn’t our intention going into this year. We really felt we had a lot of talent. Sometimes, it’s a matter of who is delivering the message and whether
the players are hearing it or not.’’
Blank went on to add that he had studied the building of great teams and that consistency was the key in each success story.
"Consistency is very important in terms of leadership with coaches and players. The great teams, what they have done is they've kept their head coaches for a longer period of time, kept their general managers for a longer period of time.”
The Falcons have struggled in the playoffs since Mike Smith took over the head coaching role at the franchise.
Smith has taken Atlanta to three playoffs but each time the franchise has failed to progress to a National Football Conference (NFC) Championship game.
Atlanta entered the playoff wildcard rounds in 2011-12 after finishing the season 10-6. However, they once again failed to perform in the playoff round losing out by an embarrassing 24-2 margin.
Quarterback Matt Ryan choked in the game and failed to make any scoring play during the game.
This year though with new coordinators and a tweaked system in place the Falcons are rearing to put their playoff woes behind themselves and will hope that 2012-13 will be the year that the team finally comes of age.
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