 Oh, good afternoon and wanted to just first make a comment or two to our fans as well as to the media. One I think, you know us by reputation, you know by reality that a couple of seasons of 7-9 and 14-4-12 doesn't represent any aspect of our goals that was set out in the year 2000-2001 when we acquired the franchise. It's not our history, it's not what we do in any of our businesses, it's not what we do for our football team, for our soccer team, whatever. So we've been through a difficult period of time and we're at a point where we need to make, you know, a coaching change or coaching decisions and a general manager decision. I want to thank our fans for their support, number one of the last 20 years but particularly the last three years as difficult as they've been for all of us and I certainly have the feelings and the empathy and the compassion and probably not the patience that I would like to have but this is not a game of patience, it's a game of results and I understand that fully. So we've begun this journey now with hiring a new general manager, a new head coach and I know it's going to lead us to a very good place. We have a lot of talent on our roster, we have some holes that have to have to be filled and we're in a very good position in terms of draft this year, we're picking number four as most of you probably know already. So we feel good about that and we have a long list of candidates, both general manager and head coach candidates, it's a very diverse slate. It's one that I feel very good about, that team president, CEO, Richard Kay along with Abraham Lincoln sitting behind him, they really feel good about as well. He's the third person in on this, you have any questions for Abe, you can ask Abe to get him to talk and be a miracle but you know maybe we can get him to talk. But so I really want to thank you for that and also I want to take a moment and also acknowledge and thank our media partners, you're all on the phone because your job is to help tell the story of what we're doing with our franchise, what we're doing with our coaching staff, coaching decisions, etc. to analyze that beginning and to help interpret for our fans where we're going, directionally what's good, what's not so good, what needs to be improved upon, etc. The only thing that shocks me is that none of you write pretty regularly about all the things we need to do but none of you have applied for the head coaching position. So I guess sometimes a little bit easier be on the outside and in writing as opposed to be on the inside and doing but so many of you do have that as an aspiration and you're welcome to submit your your your series as to consider them but seriously I do thank you for all the time all the coverage all the storytelling about not only our game on the field or results on and off the field etc but all the stuff have been involved in the community wise particularly this year with all the social justice questions and issues that voting registration the voting rights getting out to support that how heavily involved our team has been our franchise has been and that's something regardless of 4 and 12 record we feel like in that regard our record is 16 and we've gotten a lot a lot of great storytelling behind our players and everything that they've done and I want to thank you for sharing those stories with our fan base as well. So with that let's open up to questions we will be as transparent as we can be there are things we can talk about the things we can't talk about try to talk about whatever we can and share with you whatever comments that we have that we're able to so with that I see two friends on the on the screen here DL and good buddy so who goes first DL usually you go first in all of our press conferences so I assume the first question is from you. Yep first questions are from D. Orlando Ledbetter if you can unmute your mic and address who they're to. Okay yes thank you David for Arthur. During this period have you had time to reflect on how you got here from you know so fast from being on the brink of the Superbowl trophy and and to 4 and 12. Yeah I think we you know I mean that's a it's a very good question and actually we've you know we've talked about a great big deal about internally because you know a lot of our talent is still the same it's changed somewhat you know on offense particularly in terms of the offensive line it's changed a little bit but we have you know some of the same young talented players on defense and I think there's a number of factors some which we can you know which we can get our hands around but most of which we can't I think it's it's not due to lack of effort it's not due to lack of trying it's not due to lack of planning on behalf of our you know head coach coaching staff and our general manager etc. I think we've made some mistakes from the draft which have hurt us in my opinion probably make some mistakes in free agency which is always very dangerous for us to tread in because you can you can you can pick a lot of you know pick up some really good players but you also you know you're always exposed to some other teams issues or the players issues that we we probably may not have fully dimensioned but I think we are we are and I think this year in fairness the record is four and 12 but I would tell you that anybody that we played along the way this is a great credit really I think to Raheem and to the whole coaching staff even to go back to Dan during the zero and five run with him Jeff the players have competed really hard they've never given up and whether it be against a team like Kansas City or even Tampa Bay the score got out of hand at the end but it was very competitive through the third quarter and and guys were fighting and fighting hard and and so I give them a lot of credit we had you guys know the numbers better than I do it's probably six or seven games we lost by by less than the but less of the touchdown by less than a couple of two or three points many cases they were by one critical play usually it's two or three players over the course of the game but in many cases it was just for the single play for us take the game against Kansas City if 24 holds on to the ball the game is over but that's just you know example but you know as Bill Parcell used to say you are what your record is and it's true you know we were four and 12 this year and two years seven or nine before that so the point is that none of that's acceptable and like everything else in life what we have to do that we do do is do a in-depth self-analysis take the x-ray machine examine all the bones examine every aspect of our body those parts that are good that need to be carried forward we'll do that with those parts that need to be changed out we will change them out because this is not acceptable for whatever the reasons are the results are not acceptable and this is results oriented business and we understand that totally and as my second question for Arthur also what are you looking for in the general manager and the coach and then how have the the interviews gone that have been completed with the enemy and Morris yeah I think the ones we've had so far have gone well both on the GM side as well as on the coach side we've got a long list of interviews set up over the next week or beyond the next week as I said earlier some very good candidates really both general manager opportunities and head coach opportunities I think the ones you've seen so far I think they've been thoughtful they've been thoughtful about our team what we have to do to get in their view what we have to do to get where we need to be so I think go to the essence of your questions I think that it's critical and you're not going to find anybody in the NFL I think or most businesses for that matter who would say that a general manager and head coach should be or could be on different pages I think it's okay to have different opinions about a variety of things that they listen to each other respectfully that they could become good listeners etc but whatever they do they need to do it in collaboration with each other needs to be a great respect with each other great respect not only with each other but with the staff's personnel coaching coaching the personnel etc so I think that's very important so they have to see the game the same way they have to have a similar plan for how do you build a championship team we have different plans than you're fighting over the draft who do you pick who you don't pick free agency what do you pick who you don't pick who you chase who you don't chase etc so it's very important that they speak the same language but not always the agreement there's always room for disagreement and that's a healthy thing to have in a in an organization so we're looking at some really good candidates and again fortunate both coaching wise and GM wise we have a very diverse set to look at so which is a real blessing giving emphasis to the league and our franchise has in terms of diversity next we'll go to Will McFadden from ElenaFalcons.com Thanks David uh my first question is for Arthur and it you know goes along with what you're just talking about you often refer to Dan and Thomas's co-team builders is that how you'd like for the next you know head coach and GM to interact or do you have maybe a different approach in mind as it pertains to the roster construction well I think it's always important you know I've been one will to not put as much emphasis on you know who has the 53 and the 46 and the 53 and the practice squad but it's that I think it's most important that they that they come together in a respectful way that one is not dominant over the other because I think that doesn't speak well for you know dynamics and for good decision making I think they need to be able to listen to each other listen to each other and understand where each person's coming from and and I would say if you do that and if you go in with a plan that you both agree to you know championship plan how do we get from here to where we're playing in February not somebody else is playing in February we're playing in February then there shouldn't be a lot of disagreements over you know particular players and what have you and if somebody has to use their quote power if you will to make make those decisions usually dynamic is not a very good one it's not a very healthy one so you want a general manager head coach to be collaborative and to work together and who ends up with the 56 and the 43 rich can comment on this as well to me is secondary completely secondary to whether or not they support each other and see the world the football world to the same lens if they do your chances for success go up dramatically if you don't then you can be fighting things internally which are always a problem the things you put in front of yourself it's hard enough to win on Sundays if you have to try to figure how do you win the building Monday through Saturday that's you know that's a that's a tough road then rich you want to add any comments to that no I think Arthur the one thing we would say and I think we've learned over the years is process is more important than power and so if you have the right process and the right collaboration along the way then the power kind of takes care of itself if the process isn't quite right from a collaboration standpoint then the power will be used and that that usually is not a good result here okay thank you uh second question is for you rich um you obviously depending this league and around it for your entire life uh how would you say the respective GM and head coaching fields of candidates kind of compare to previous years I would say that uh it's um on the coaching level it's probably about the same right because it the coaching level is always going to feel like there's less available candidates because there's less names known to the public not known in the league but known to the public on the GM side there are also less known but but the names are we know them all right so I think this GM list is really deep I think there are a lot of candidates that are ready to be GM's I look at when we hired Thomas and his skill set and what he brought to the table he was not known he was definitely not known commodity but he was known within the league and hired and very successful I think on the coach's side it's just always hard because as you begin to interview people that people don't necessarily know they immediately go oh that's not a very good candidate it is a really good candidate you just don't know them it's interesting how the measurement for that list is different because of a GM or a coach I think both of them are plenty deep I think as Arthur points out you know we have a very diverse slate on both sides but they're also it's also a deep slate uh that we may not get to you know there are a bunch of GM's that we have listed we're not going to get to them all from an interview standpoint I don't think I would say will also that you know some of the younger coaches that you've seen around the league that have gotten opportunities are people that would be on the list that Rich is referring to is that you wouldn't really necessarily know who they were a lot of people know who Sean McGray was before the answer is probably not a lot of people you know Kevin Stavansky probably not I mean the young man is in Arizona um what's his name I'm not pronouncing his name correctly but you all know what I'm talking about um so uh you know they were not household names but they've all been become very successful and what have you so I think you have to do the research the thing I will say that I think is different I do think and this is a credit I think to the league and it's a credit to the candidates and a credit to I would say the NFL generally is that the extent of qualified diverse candidates in my opinion from both positions is deeper this year than I've seen in the past um and I think that's a really good thing and I think that'll continue as time goes on um you'd like to see that have happened sooner but you know some progress made but not as much as you'd like to see I think we'll see more of that this year all right we'll go to Tori McElhaney with the athletic yes this is for Arthur when comparing this job opening with others now open believe there's now six or seven GM spots open why do you believe that Atlanta is a top job opening and what do you think is the biggest draw to this job um well I would say and I don't want to answer I appreciate the question I I think that if you would ask the candidates that I think they would say a couple of things um they would say who who who are the owners or who you know and I think that's it's difficult for me to talk about that because it's so about myself in that sense so I think that um you know certain ownership groups or owners around the league have a have a stronger reputation for um being committed doing whatever it's going to take to um it's a win win at all costs not at all costs you know in terms of culture but just win at all costs in terms of resources and facilities and staffs and things of that nature and um so I think that um generally I would say and others can comment on this and you all probably might or will but I would say in that regard to get you know feeling good marks um I think the culture of the organization the quality the building um whether or not we're seen by the league as being a team that's involved a team that's a leader in a variety of ways how we're involved in the community I think is important to a lot of the people that we chat with today much like all of us in society today we have a greater sense of awareness and sensitivity to what's going on in our communities throughout the United States so the general managers and so the coaches as well so I think that becomes a factor I think Atlanta is a factor uh Atlanta is uh is a great city has a great history great history and civil and human rights and uh I think a lot of the general manager and coaching candidates feel a bit about coming to Atlanta just as a community as a caring community um so I think there are a lot of things that are you know really very positive I think they recognize our roster which is not perfect obviously but they recognize the talent that we do have um and they recognize the age of the players somebody young and somewhere a little bit on but they recognize all of that and I think most would say this is a roster that is much better than 4 and 12 um so that doesn't mean changes aren't necessarily are necessary but they recognize those opportunities too and I think you know I won't say this um I can say it because I'm was rich it's not saying it but I'll say it for rich I think rich is the opportunity to work with somebody like rich who's had a long story of history in the NFL and is the highest perspective at the league level and at the club level both as a leader as the CEO and as a general manager historically um is the real plus um only somebody that's frankly um the weak person or somebody that is uh would feel like rich would be uh you know overly involved or overly whatever it may be would be threatened by anybody who's a legitimate candidate and is thinking right about themselves and understanding our culture and our organization would view having you know that kind of brain power available to them not pressed on them but available to them when when when if needed would view that as a real plus so I think the fact that rich is available to a lot of these folks I think is important too um so thanks thank you um my next question is for rich what time frame are you looking at in order to see a turnaround and does that answer have the foundation in the specific plan these candidates present to you yeah okay so I would say that uh you know we want to win in uh in 2021 we don't want to make any sacrifices that uh then hurt the franchise for the future so I think anytime you talk about turnaround you know I've said this I think Tory and Nicole that you and I have with Jeff a couple weeks back is that in 07 we left the 07 season with most people feeling like we were going to take a dramatic step back in 08 we're going to have to rebuild the team the roster needed it you know Michael was gone and we needed to change the roster and the next year we were 10 and 6 points of the playoffs and should have won a playoff game uh in Arizona so I believe you can win in this league and win very quickly and I believe with the roster we can do that but we're not going to do it by sacrificing the future uh from the standpoint of the salary capper or trades or things like that we're going to we're going to do it with the idea of having a short term a mid term and a long term vision and I and I would say if I could add to that um is that I think you need all three of those plans um I I don't think um and I think the best head coaches who obviously focus from Sunday to Sunday but even the best head coaches they also think about the mid term and think about the long term obviously general manager's role uh is particularly focused not only on the one season but you know how do we build for the future in terms of bringing along young talent talent development how do we draft with intentionality how do we make sure those players get the time of the dirt you know hand in the dirt and and and get the reps they need etc so um I think it's a mixture of both but I I do think that with the talent that we currently have you know supplemented with the proper draft and we're in a great position in the draft and um we won't be back in this position hopefully for a very very very long period of time uh and being active again properly free agency that we have a chance to be very competitive this coming year all right any any team that you spoke to that we played against this year will tell you that this team fought hard throughout the game didn't make all the plays and made some plays we shouldn't have made etc but it wasn't due to a lack of um uh urgency and a lack of commitment and doing all the things that are really important fundamentally as an organization all right next question goes to Charles Odom from the AP hi this uh this question is for for mr blank we heard from Raheem uh yesterday uh saying that he believes this team is close that this team uh can win with with um you know a minimum amount of change um are you expecting to hear um diverse opinion on on that question as to whether a a a more dramatic rebuild is necessary and are you um most open to hearing those who believe that you could meet the standard that rich just commented on that you can win in 2021 well i i would say this you know um i'll obviously i want to hear what all these general managers and head coaches and that's one of the advantage of you getting going through these this process is that you do get an outside assessment of um you know of your team and where you are and your players which is which is always good to hear um i would say based on what we've heard so far and seen so far i think the opportunity is certainly there for us to win in 2021 um i i think that uh um the team is better than the 4 and 12 record i there's no question about that and whether it's you know but but it's probably not better than seven nine or eight and eight and that puts us back with the last two years so we can't fool ourselves to thinking yeah we've lost three or four games and we shouldn't have lost etc even that being the case it's not at acceptable level it's not where we we have committed the franchise it's not where we've set our standards and our bar and and it's not acceptable just is not acceptable under with any with any lens that we look at um i expect every one of these people coming in to have a plan uh to have a plan that will end up leading to a championship and because of some of the reasons that rich mentioned you see this turn around the nfl because of the parity structure in the league the opportunity to go from last to first if you will or make dramatic improvements year over year is very real um and i expect that to happen for us in this coming year um but there'll be some changes to fundamentally that we have to be made as we go forward and and uh you know um there's probably some veteran players that you know may not be with us in the future uh some of that may be their decisions to move on some of their own decisions to prepare for the future and that's one of the things that our fans you know should expect of us is not only when tomorrow but prepare for the future as well because what i've said from the outset starting the year 2000 when i bought the team on behalf of our fans is that we're interested in not a one-year wonder we're interested in a sustainable winning team over a period of time which meant that whether it be Jeff Schultz or Hugh Charles or anybody else is writing about us over the summer we have you know real opportunities to be in the conversation to be in the top six seven eight teams the national football year every single year DL as well as you and um and and i want to make sure that we're in that conversation not only then but more important that we're playing as rich return but you know important games in december and january and we're into playing in february as well so um you know that's that hasn't changed those are that's our standard and that's not going to change um and we'll continue to do whatever we have to do to make sure we reach that as soon as we possibly can if i can ask one to uh to rich um and and your conversations with potential gms um has salary cap concerns come up as an issue and um can you clarify if you're hoping to get the gm higher first yeah Charles uh we've talked about salary cap in uh both the interviews that we've done so far on gms um and and what their thoughts and plans would be i've been saying anybody expressed over concerns about it they they certainly are aware of it we'll get a lot more this week out of it one of the things that i think arthur noted that and i know you all on this call know this but you should realize how what an opportunity is for us to get to interview all these people uh and you learn so much and there's so much brought to the table on you know for instance an analysis of why we're here you know you ask the question why are you here well we've done plenty of internal analysis we've done all the analytics we've done a lot of that it's nice to get a fresh out of eyes from the outside that looks at your team and says well what about this and what about that and so i think that that that's going to go on i think with respect to the um gm candidates we got more of those coming up later this week i'm certain the salary cap will be a discussion but i think it'll be a discussion from the standpoint of strategy around it as opposed to the word concern which is is the word that you use that that i know based on the articles i've read people are writing but i'm not sure i've heard that from the candidates the other thing i would i would add to that the advantage of the number of candidates that we're talking to is that you know we're getting not only an independent evaluation of our roster and what have you but these are from general managers and coaches that have competed against us it's one thing to get somebody else from the outside but it's quite something else when you get it from somebody who's actually had to do you know all the advance work of pregame stuff and getting ready to compete against you then having competed against you in the current year we're very close to the current year and sharing with you not only just things that you see through your eyes which is you know could be a little bit rose called like we have with our own children but somebody on the outside looking in saying you know what we saw some other things that that that we think are real pluses or maybe things that need to be addressed sooner. Go to Cody Chafins from Fox five. This is for Arthur you talked about the diversity and the candidates out there the percentage of minority head coaches is low GM's even lower for you guys is it intentional it looks like the people you've interviewed so far been a lot of minorities is that intentional on your part you talked about you know why it's important why is it important for the league to start moving in that direction? Well i think you know i mean we could you know i could i could take a you know pulpit and make a speech about that but i don't that's not the purpose of the call but i i i do think for all the reasons everybody on this call our fans and media generally would understand why you know social justice and social equity and and equality is very very important and i think it's important the nfl recognizes that we need to have a greater representation closer to what represents our players actually and many of our fans particularly here in atlanta so there's a great deal of sensitivity about that and if you're looking for the most talented people you can't you have to be called one you can't look at you know whatever color it may be you just need to look for the most talented people. I do think this year because of a lot of the pipeline work that's been done over the last number of years we've gotten more talent with diversity and pointing that i've seen in the past um which might disagree with that or you might have a different view on that but you know having seen these lists for some years i think um you've got more focus i think on on on the opportunities i think in every case every organization is going to and that includes the Atlanta Falcons going to try to hire you know the best person they can regardless of of their color or regardless of the background general manager as well as head coach as well as coordinators and position coaches and personnel folks etc but i think the advantage we have this year is that the list of candidates is much stronger than we've seen in the past and so it doesn't mean we've biased one way or another but it doesn't mean that we uh we have really good choices to make this year and uh and i'm happy about that. Steve Hummer from AJC. Yes uh hello Arthur um how are you? Very good thank you um yeah relax as i can i'm sorry gosh yeah um this this question is kind of i guess would speak to your patience as much as anything else do you think you think the 59 year old uh Arthur Blank who bought this team uh would think that he would still be here at 78 looking for the right formula to win a championship? Well i would say this Steve i think the formula hasn't really changed a whole lot uh i think we've been close obviously we're close we played in the Super Bowl we one year you know we played against 49ers if Roddy White's not held we probably were in the Super Bowl um we've been close on a couple other years so i think by and large our win-loss ratio up until the last three years has been you know really really good i've been in the top five in the NFL not true the last three years for sure so um i i think you know in this business it does require a degree of patience having to develop talent letting the coaches do their thing let general managers do their thing patience probably probably my family would say and probably guys like Richard McKay would say is probably not my strongest suit which you know works in the favor of our fans i think but i've learned to be more patient and uh in order to develop you know the development organization that actually is sustainable over a period of time you can do short-term fixes and short-term fixes sometimes they feel good and they look good but it's like a band-aid you put on something and you know you rip the band-aid off it still still hasn't healed correctly so you need to build it correctly i think and that's part of our culture is to build it for sustainability over a period of time a lot of it has to do with the process that you go through and bring these people together and the process that they go through in building an organization and sustaining it over a period of time making decisions that are you know based on transparency research listening to each other respect to each other uh collaboration the best brains in the building using all the brains in the building all those things that we care deeply about so um we had a lot of success uh last three years not not so much and um and it's uh it is very disappointing you know disappointing for our fans disappointing for everybody certainly myself i and finally i think i think almost anybody who's ever followed this team has has asked themselves the question am i going to live long enough to see this team win at all and have you asked yourself that and do you feel more of a uh an urgency i guess to you know i'll be a championship i got it i'm you know i am 78 i plan on living to 178 if i can god god willing uh but you know this series very night i i have i have you know a sense of urgency not really because of my age honestly but because i just i feel like we owe it to our fans all to our fan base uh to provide them with a winner uh to to get us in the you know in the tournament so starting this coming weekend for instance that would be one of the teams people be talking about uh or the weekend beyond that um the new structure in the nfl in terms of you know conference championships and what have you so um i i there's nothing that i or we will not do um within the constructs of what's allowed in the nfl to provide us a winning a winning team and a sustainably winning team because really honestly to win one year and then to you know go through this kind of trough for three years etc is not acceptable you can say we go back and say well i'm in a soup bowl and you know 17 and just only three years later well you know i don't want to go through that most importantly i don't want our fans to go through that it can't be a super bowl or bust it has to be competitive competitive competitive competitive and uh then you get into the tournament and you have a chance to go as far as you can and a single game elimination anything can happen i get it and sometimes the bowl is not round it can bounce in a lot of crazy ways so things happen sometimes during the game but we need it to be an important team throughout the year and throughout not one year but year after year after year after year and there are teams in the nfl that have done that um and their ingredients that they've built into their organization which which are sustainable and those are the things that we have to do go to jason butt from the ajc hey arthur um you know when it comes to the next head coach and general manager uh taking those steps to improve this roster do you personally want them to include matt ryan and julio jones in their plan well i the answer is yes of course they need to be included in the plan now what they do with them is not going to be my decision it's not going to be you know the general manager and head coach will have to look at you know people like matt or people like julio and and young stars like you know cal cal ridley and and other players that so they need to look at the whole roster and how is it built for today and how is it built for tomorrow are we getting ready for tomorrow how do we have a successful transition into the next you know the next chapter or chapters of the land of falcons and um you can't hire cannot hire the very best people you can hire whether it be general managers or head coaches and then tie their hands uh and tell them well you know this person's off limits and that one's off limits and that one which you're asking them for which is not off limits and needs to be pulled deeply do they have a championship plan do they have a plan on turning around the franchise sooner rather than later so we're winning in 2021 we have a plan that's sustainable over a long period of time so we can make sure that this team is competitive not just for the next year or two but over a longer period of time than that and so whatever that plan looks like and we we're all part of the discussion we're all anointed and approved etc however that affects certain players it affects certain players um you know in many in many ways these you know these players are you know they're part of family a part of my family we care for them personally each one of them we care for their efforts and what they put on the line every sunday i mean oh they're well compensated i get that but they're putting life on them on the line and playing this game and and we appreciate that but at some point you know for the best interest of the franchise which uses the you know the uh pursuit that we have the holy grail if you know what we have is that we have to make certain transitions and we'll do it doesn't mean we love them less just means that you know when roddy white decided using roddy's example you know to retire and move on and we collectively came to that decision it doesn't mean we take away at all from the the memories of roddy playing at a high level and being committed and you know being a tough player and being everything we wanted to be in an athlete but it meant it was a time for a transition in that position and we're fortunate because the trade we made at the time to pick up someone like julio jones and an anticipation of julio getting you know i'm not saying who is a great example but we selected someone like cal cal ridley which apparently is he is going to potentially be a superstar for us or for around for a number of years so that's the healthy transitions that fans should expect us to go through and be prepared for doesn't mean we love any of these players less we love them all you know just as much whether they will so they move on to something else in their lives and then my second one's for rich you know just what is your overall assessment now that the season is over of the talent level that's on this roster at the present time well i would say that i'm gonna leave the assessment to the next uh you know the next group i would say that for us the one thing the the assessment i'm going to give of this team is what argers said earlier which is i can't give enough credit to them for the way they continue to compete jason because you know we got we were 0 and 5 at the start of the season we're in the middle of coven we've changed a coach and we've changed the gm and they were dealt a really hard hand and i think if you look at the team and how hard they fought and how are they competed they never back down from anything we didn't win the games we wanted to win they never back down the assessment itself i don't want to prejudge that for for those guys that are going to take those roles be our principal football people let them assess it i just know that i'm thankful for the effort that the players gave that the coaches gave in a most challenging year now it's been challenging for everybody for many reasons but for this football team it was a most challenging year go to alex glaze from 11 live hey arder you said you personally you know would like to to keep matt and julio but how important is it for you to pick gm and head coach that they have the same views as that is that important to you or can you be convinced that that it's time by the right candidate well i should be should be clear when i apologize if i wasn't i didn't say it was important for me to for me to keep matt and julio what i think it's important um most important is that we hire people who are the number one of the very best of the jobs that goes without saying who um will come forward with a plan for us to you know have a championship team a competitive team etc and that may include matt and julio um to now for the next two years three years or may not i don't i have no idea but um it's in my opinion this is just my opinion i think it's it's a mistake for an owner to uh to lay out a set of dick tastes like that for a general manager and head coach and if i was a general manager head coach considering this opportunity and i heard an owner say that to me i'd be a little nervous because i think that's crossing the line for me that i don't believe that the owner should have a cross um and i would say that's true about rich as well even though you know he has his football knowledge etc i mean i would tell you we've talked about this subject collectively and uh i mean the only sacred cow we have is that we have an obligation responsibility and an opportunity to put a competitive winning team on the field and obviously to treat every player with the utmost respect uh when they come into building whoever number of years they're with us and when they leave the building to treat them with the same degree of respect as well um i had a nice conversation as they would matt schaub again for the second or third time matt's players last game for us he's retiring as you all know and i thanked him for what he's done for the nfl generally uh we interviewed him back in 2008 the year that we um the year that we drafted matt uh and schaub he's been a you know he was a really good player for us um and um and he's been a great player for the texans and came back and gave us a support from matt so but it was the time in his life ready to move on both from our standpoint and from this standpoint and uh this one's for rich um you know arthur said that he doesn't want to you know be in the spot that you guys are right now uh picking forth in the draft are you going to consider picking a quarterback with that that fourth pick that will be a consideration for whoever the the two people are that are in those principal football positions um you know they're going to have to look at the whole plan right what's their plan and how are they going to try to win now try to win mid-term try to win long term so i don't want to sit here and speculate alex it's a good question but i'm going to give you a non answer and then that's up for them uh we'll hear what we'll hear what they think i'm sure there'll be a lot of speculation i do not like picking high i first came into a franchise when i started in this league in Tampa they kind of own the top 10 because they were in there like a few too many times it's not a good place to be we haven't been there since 08 and we don't want to be back there i don't know how long has that been 12 13 years let's say at least not that long till we got to do it again all right we'll go to jeff schultz from the athletic hey arthur um this follows up a couple um recent questions and also tories earlier illusion of the fact that there's so many gm and coach jobs open i've never remembered seven gm jobs ever being open rich might i don't know but um i don't know that are usually that many coaching jobs i think that's right i think you're right jeff it's usually not that many gm jobs so this kind of goes to the whole perception about how how good is this job relative to other jobs that are obviously out there for for the candidates have you gotten what kind of feedback on i don't know how specific you can get but what kind of feedback have you gotten um from people you've spoken to in terms of sort of what they would be inheriting whether it's the organizational structure whether it's the roster um you know in terms of where things are going and and have you made it clear to them that they can do whatever they need to do to to you know put you on the right track well i i was i i would tell you that you know probably every candidate that you talk to um tells you one form another during the interview that this is the perfect place for them i'm just surprised by that they can't see themselves in any any other place in life rather than in Atlanta but i i i i do think when you listen to them and you listen to others who are not either ourselves or them being interviewed um people would generally say this is a really good situation um you know we're not picking number one uh so you know does that mean something to somebody yeah potentially but i don't think so i think most people look at this as a warm term situation again i'm just repeating myself the ownership is important culture and the building is important community i'm bringing my family to is important uh their outreach in the community how involved they are is not unimportant much more important today than it's been in the past um and uh other facilities resources all those things are going to be made available to me and i'm going to have an organization that's going to support me and allow me to do my job uh not try to influence but just try to support them and do their job and um i think they come away with the feelings and all the and those guards we check every box so um um we'll we know we'll see but um i i think if you look at other people who look at this on independent basis outside of myself or you guys are much more independent but you're in Atlanta guys and gals um but you look at the national you know media and they look at us as being a really good opportunity i would say um and you know part of it we have to make ourselves clear to these candidates um not sell anything we're not in the business of selling you know when the business is telling our story uh telling the facts telling them what we can do tell them what we're prepared to do tell them what we have done acknowledge our own failures when that discussion comes up why why is this why is that et cetera and own what we need to home um and then they have to decide for themselves is this a this a make-believe story which we don't think it is but a real story and we come across that way and um do they have in their reference checking and i tell these guys that um you know you need to check us out you need to check us out carefully um you know it's not like you know buying a car you don't like it six months later you get another car this is a bit of a marriage and so you you check all the references and these guys do that uh they they tell us that we would talk to the so and so and so and this is what they've had to say and they share a lot of that with us not all of it but a lot of it with us so i think they they have a very big fraternity and the NFL outside of competing on sundays general managers talk to lots of personnel folks talk to other coaches talk to each other et cetera so they have their way of gauging um you know what's real and what's not and and for either you or rich you've both been involved with hiring head coaches some came from the offensive side of the ball and then you hired you try to hire a strong defensive coordinator to go with or the reverse you hired the head coach from the defensive side of the ball and then you try to hire uh oh see you know i'm sure you know what's coming but it's a general rule do you have a preference do you think uh is one more likely to succeed than the other just your general thoughts on that rich you might take crack that first yes i i'm gonna be brutally honest here i've changed my opinion on that about five times in the last 30 years um and so i i think that it really does show you at the end of the day that leadership matters is the individual leader are they an expert on their side of the ball are they an ex do they bring something on their side of the ball an expertise to their side of the ball uh that that is sustainable because what happens to you is if you win uh whoever is on the other side of the ball when you win is liable to go be an ocea or a dc at another team so you need some sustainability out of that individual that is your head coach um so i really don't think there is a preference i could show you studies that would say to you oh boy you should hire a defensive head coach because of these numbers and i literally jeff could show you the same study different angle and are you ocea so i i just i'm of the position and we we've done this arthur knows and if you look at the slate of people we're going to interview it's pretty evenly split and it's for that reason we're just not going to get slanted that way i felt like i told you i take the blame forever for um the patrino situation in that we were we pigeoned hold ourselves we said we've got to have an offensive coach we've got to have somebody to deal with michael we've got to have somebody that can get us to the next level and we've got to do it and and matt was not the way to look at it the other thing i would say jeff just to add to that is that um you know the the complexity of being a head coach today in the nfl has just grown more and more over the years the size of the staffs have grown dealing with the media the responsibility dealing with you know a lot of issues of training the athletes are different their backgrounds uh some of the things are exposed to today the social media effect on not only the players but on the coaches and on the content relative to the franchise etc so i think you need somebody first and foremost who has all the elements of a strong leader and that's a long list of things we can discuss on another call sometime but you know strong leader and then whatever side of the ball they're on but they need them honor respect and and nurture and care for both sides of the ball from an equal standpoint they need to really think of themselves as a head coach if they get so immersed in one side or the other side um which i've seen happen um you know over the years you know that takes away from their opportunity to be a head coach for both sides of the ball and special teams as well so you really need somebody who you know obviously has a background maybe in one ear or the other area but as long as they the most critical thing i think beyond being you know the right person leadership culturally wise you got to hire the right coordinators you got to hire the right position coaches you got to you got to be willing to hold your players accountable not just you know roster spot 53 but roster spot number one either one or 53 and you got to hold your coaches coordinators or position coaches as accountable as you hold your players and i think those qualities are more important than which side of the ball that they're they're coming to because then really they're honoring the entire ball they're hiring honoring the entire game i mean i i will say this to you and you know you've got an expert here uh eight ma'am lincoln the guy sitting right beneath him but you know really truly i mean the game today has been skewed uh to um you know score points and so there's been you know adjustments it's harder to play your defense and in this uh in this time in age and this year the nfl despite you know no training camps no otas no anything we had the most point score that we've ever had in our history at least that correct rich yeah high high scoring year in the history so you know i mean their committee chair of the competition committee you know has continued to ease up a little bit to make it you know make a little bit easier for the for the offense is to be a little more creative so i you know it's just a factor it's just reality so but you can appreciate that from both sides of the ball if you talk to an offensive you know offensively monitor head coach if you would tell you that you know their ability to dissect the defense in today's environment and to use you know every blade of grass on the field which is one what one of coach used expression is important today you have more availability to do that you've had in the past so you know that's you know that's one way of viewing it on the other hand if you look at a great defensive coordinator you tell you you know you have to be more creative to stop all these offenses that uh are using one movement and more more variety of different things than they've seen in the past got time for a few more before we have to wrap kelsie conway the lane of falcons.com hey mr blank i wanted to follow up on what you were talking about about how you want to win in 2021 but of course with a first-time head coach what do you measure uh for in the first season when you look back and you're obviously not going to put a number on how many games you want to win but what makes a successful season for a first uh a coach in a first year. Yeah so i think you should go back to the comment i think that rich said earlier i think you you're asking between both individuals general manager and head coach together because it's collaboration you want a shared plan both it's a short-term plan next year medium plan year or two out and then a longer term plan how do you sustain the franchise in five or six and seven years out so you know you have those you have those benchmarks and you look at them and the one that you had planned on for next year is the one that you're shooting for as you build to the second third year and beyond that so whatever you've agreed to is here as you're playing if you will unless something changes and you know um you you follow that plan and you support that plan if that's what you best the goals you reach then you treat it as a success if not you go through the diagnostic and figure out you know why we're not successful and then my second question is for rich rich the teams that are in the playoffs playing this weekend obviously either have a really good offense or really good defense or can run the ball really well or have a great quarterback where do you feel like the team is that in those two areas in terms of running the ball and defense because Raheem said he felt that those two areas especially the past rush kept them from winning this year well I'll leave it to Raheem and the way he evaluated I would look at just say that um we didn't run the ball uh in you know in the fashion that we needed to run the ball to to give enough balance to the offense at times there's no question about that um you know defensively we got better over time but we didn't get to where we wanted to be listen Arthur you know quoted coach Parcells right we are what a record says we are and we probably should have won a few more games than that but those areas defense and and the run game are two areas we know we have to get better at in order to get the record where it needs to be so that we don't keep hearing coach Parcells ask us that question all right the reality is Kelsey that you know whether we're four and 12 or another version of seven and nine or eight and eight it really is not acceptable so you know it's not that we were one game with two games away from where we needed to be we were a whole lot of games away from where we needed to be and that's just you have to accept that you know as reality and then you move on from there we'll go to Allison from WSB hey this question is for Arthur I was more so curious do you feel a greater sense of urgency to try to make that hire for a GM head coach sooner rather than later with all of the vacancies out there and what's your timeline for that well I would say Allison we want to we want to do it as quickly as possible but having said that I will tell you and I was telling this somebody the other day the existing head coach Nana fell one of the processes were going through call me a senior coach and reminded me that you know take your time be thoughtful don't rush you'll get coordinators or get position coaches you got to get the head coach right in this case it's just the coach and search I also had somebody Dan Rooney who's you know gone now but I remember Dan calling me the year he hired Mike Tomlin as a matter of fact it was not a household name and then now he is and he was the last person they interviewed and he called me to tell me you know you know as a senior owner in the league principal owner and great family he said I want to remind you as you go through the search that we were going through about the same time I think he said you know take your time make sure you make the right choice and so we have a sense of urgency about it yes we know we're competing for talent yes and we know it's a free Asian market yes in both areas GM head coach but we need to go through the process we need to interview all these incredibly talented you know men and see where we come out so we'll move as quickly as we can one because of the competition but most importantly we want to make the right decision we that's you know and if we have to you know kind of you know check ourselves and check our own urgencies I think we have to do that but we've got to make the right decision and frankly some of the most talented people because they're playing you know be playing this weekend are not available you know we spoke to a young man this morning from Kansas City you know that he is available because they got the buy so we had an opportunity to visit with him today but if they didn't have that situation we couldn't speak to them so all right it's it's our time for today appreciate everyone joining us today and look forward to talking to you in the near future thank you