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It’s easy to forget just a decade ago, the Atlanta Falcons were a reeling franchise. Mike Vick went from franchise quarterback to federal inmate. Bobby Petrino went from coaching a night game to doing the pig sooie chant on ESPN within under 24 hours. Rich McKay was on his way out of making personnel decisions after putting together a pretty weak roster.
Things were bleak.
This offseason, the Falcons extended franchise quarterback Matt Ryan through 2023. Yesterday, the team announced that both Dan Quinn and Thomas Dimitroff will be sticking around until 2022. Julio Jones, threatening a holdout, is reportedly heading to the start of training camp.
The Falcons have done a masterful job at keeping around their most important components. Not only has the team put together arguably their most talented roster in franchise history, but they have maintained a crazy level of stability while doing it. It would be unfair to compare the accomplishments to, say, the Cleveland Browns, as they have been a model of instability.
However, just looking at this offseason, the Washington Redskins let their franchise quarterback leave in free agency. The Oakland Raiders brought in a new head coach who seems to be pushing out their successful general manager. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were hoping a slew of free agency moves would keep their coaching staff safe, before their quarterback was suspended for the first three games of the year.
You don’t have to look to far to see coaches on hot seats, general managers making clearly bad decisions, and good players leaving their teams. The Falcons have done a masterful job at avoiding all of these problems. The roster is stacked with young talent, the new stadium’s roof is working, and it feels like a good time to sit back and enjoy a team that is doing a lot of the right things.
The result has been the most successful decade in franchise history. Blank has been dedicated to keeping his players, sticking by his front office through good and bad, and keeping the team competitive. Blank deserves a tip of the cap for doing the fans right.