Falcons Promote Lionel Vital To Director Of Player Personnel

That the Atlanta Falcons have put together one of the deepest benches in the NFL in their front office should come as a surprise to no one. Despite some high-profile and much-maligned misses, the FO under Thomas Dimitroff has rebuilt this franchise into a perennial contender.

Lesser organizations would be suffering a bit if they lost two Directors of Player Personnel in a couple of years, as the Falcons have with Les Snead to the Rams and Dave Caldwell to the Jaguars. The Falcons, of course, just shrugged and promoted Lionel Vital.

Vital's a former NFL running back who has been a big part of the front office for years now. He's known as a shrewd evaluator of talent in his own right, and was on the Rams' candidate list when they were filling their GM job. He's been working closely as Caldwell's assistant and is quite familiar with the whole team. I'm one hundred percent confident that he'll do well.

Snead and Caldwell's abilities as talent evaluators will certainly be missed, but I like Vital's chances of keeping the good times rolling. A hearty congratulations on his promotion.