Philly Front Office

Over the next “as long as I’m running this website” I want to do my best to chronicle the very worst front offices around the sports world. I was lucky enough to catch the Miami Dolphins before they axed Chris Grier but missed Nico Harrison and the Mavericks disaster. This has given me a sense of urgency. I desperately do not want to miss the next one. With the recent news that QB Michael Penix tore his ACL for a 3rd time, time is of the essence to write about Terry Fontenot and the Atlanta Falcons while I still can.

Overview

Arthur Blank has owned the Falcons since 2002. The Home Depot magnate (who looks like a cross between Vincent Price and Al Pacino in Dick Tracy) is an admirable 189-192-1 since buying the team, but is also the not-so-proud owner of the worst collapse in Super Bowl history. The team has missed the playoffs 7 consecutive seasons with an 8th almost a sure thing at this point. Guiding this ineptitude is GM Terry Fontenot. Hired in 2021, he has obviously not made the playoffs and made some of the worst decisions you’ll ever see. Not only were these choices panned at the time, but in hindsight they were complete disasters. Let’s take a look.

The Draft

Fontenot’s first year in charge happened to coincide with the Falcons selecting 4th in one of the greatest drafts of all time, the legendary 2021 class. The team was in salary cap hell, coming off a 4-12 season, and led by a 36-year-old Matt Ryan. At #4, they were actually lucky to avoid the temptation of drafting one of the top 3 QBs that year, the unholy trinity of Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, and Trey Lance. They had serious options. The top prospects at the premium position are a who’s-who of future All-Pros and considered at the time can’t miss opportunities: Ja’Marr Chase, Penei Sewell, Patrick Surtain II, and Micah Parsons. If they wanted to trade down for more picks (like the Eagles did), there was Jaylen Waddle, DeVonta Smith, Jaycee Horn, and Rashawn Slater. Who of these future stars did the Falcons select? Kyle Pitts, tight end out of Florida.

It cannot be stressed enough how horrible this pick was. People can argue hindsight about all the talent selected immediately after him, but they were all superior prospects at the time too. Let’s not forget the negative positional value that comes with drafting a tight end so high too. Pitts would have had to be literally the best tight end in football almost immediately to justify this selection, and even then, it would still be a reach. This was just the first of a long line of similar mistakes by Fontenot.

Other than claiming the Falcons could have just drafted Chase, Waddle, or Smith the year before, I won’t argue with selecting Drake London 8th overall in 2022. However, I will argue about taking Desmond Ridder in the 3rd round. By all accounts Ridder was a nothing prospect (hence the 3rd round selection). The plan was to have him sit behind Marcus Mariota before taking over. Why? When you take a QB in the 3rd round, you are not expecting him to become a starter. Granted they didn’t have other options considering this was likely the worst QB draft ever, but planning to carry him over into the next season was the real screw up. That’s punting the season.

The 2023 Draft has produced several stars, but only one was truly available to them and it was not Bijan Robinson who they selected. Atlanta was in the 8th spot again and had Jalen Carter staring them in the face thanks to his draft fall. Robinson is a very good back and could end up being the best in the league at some point, but you simply can’t select RBs in the top 10. Most do not have the shelf life or effect on the game to justify that kind of premium selection…ESPECIALLY when you do not have a real QB in place. High RB picks are a luxury. Jalen Carter is currently the best player on the best defense in the league (and despite what happened that night in Georgia, everyone knew he was the best prospect in this draft).

All 3 of these drafts made it clear that Fontenot had no idea what he was doing. Despite this, he stayed. It has made all the difference as the Falcons have only made even worse decisions since then.

Signings and Trades

On the first day of free agency in 2024, the Falcons signed QB Kirk Cousins to a 4/$180m contract. Forget the part about Cousins being the most average QB in NFL history, but he was also entering his age 36 season. This isn’t top tier QB money, but it is still $45m per year. It was also about 6 weeks before the NFL draft where the Falcons were selecting 8th once again.

Despite the signing, the Falcons selected QB Michael Penix with their top choice. It is one of the most shocking picks you’ll ever see. Video of Arthur Blank confronting Fontenot made it seem like he might be fired on the spot. He should have been. This selection was horrible on so many levels. First, and most damning, it was terrible process. Penix was always going to be available at #8. Even if they thought it would take a small move up to get him, that would not have taken much draft equity. It just shows that the decision to take Penix came very late in the process and likely wasn’t known to the owner at all. Second, they tried to claim Penix was a project and they would be content to have him sit behind Cousins for years. Whether that was a lie or simply stupid is immaterial. Penix was an old prospect at 24 already. Were they really content with him waiting until he was 26 or 27 to take over? It never made any sense. Third, he was already old because of 2 ACL injuries in college. Now he likely has a 3rd ACL injury. I’m no doctor so I won’t speculate on his potential to bounce back, but I am a Joel Embiid survivor who knows injuring the same area over and over is a bad thing.

Predictably, the Falcons named Penix the starter late in the season. That carried over until this past week when he was lost for the season, once again making way for Cousins. To not play for the Falcons, his cap hit last year was $25m (not bad), but then $40m this year to hopefully not play at all. They can cut him in the offseason with $35m still on the books. If they decide to keep him for another year though because of the Penix injury…this is difficult to write…it will be a $57m cap hit. Despite this crater on the cap sheet, the Falcons actually thought they were contenders this season. That bit of lunacy has seemingly led to disaster.

What Have You Done for me Lately?

As if Fontenot and the Falcons didn’t have a bad enough history with the draft, 2025 brought a whole new dimension to their malpractice. Selecting Jalon Walker out of Georgia was a fine choice, considering they hadn’t taken a defender in the first round since AJ Terrell in 2020. It was about time. Unfortunately, they were not content with taking just one defender. With the Rams selecting at #26, the Falcons came in with a dream trade offer. For #26 and #101, the Rams would get pick #46, #242, and a 2026 1st. The Falcons would select DE James Pearce. This is one of the perils of mis-thinking you are a contender, you borrow from the future. Pearce has been okay, but nothing special. Now the Rams are set to pick #8 at the moment with one of the best rosters in football.

Meanwhile the Falcons need to extend Drake London, will likely make Bijan Robinson the highest paid RB in the NFL, still don’t have a good defense, and might not have a good QB after all of that. You would think with such a bleak outlook, they would have moved some vets at the trade deadline for any kind of draft compensation. Nope. Trading Kyle Pitts could have seen a mid to late round pick and symbolically purged the organization of its first mistake. Now he will walk for nothing. Leonard Floyd, Arnold Ebiketie, and David Onyemata could have provided contenders with pass rush depth. Then there is their high-priced secondary with S Jessie Bates and CB AJ Terrell. The Falcons would have had to eat a lot of dead cap with these two, but that would have made the return in draft equity even better. Instead, they will run them back in a mistaken attempt to contend next year as well.

What Could Have Been

I know hindsight is 20/20, but every one of the above moves were rotten the minute they were made. They could have easily drafted Chase or Sewell instead of Pitts and had a rock-solid piece to build their franchise around. Same with drafting Robinson over Carter. Instead of signing Cousins, they could have just selected Penix without him and had the money to make 1 or 2 big free agent signings. Conversely, they could have drafted Rome Odunze, Jared Verse, Quinyon Mitchell or any number of guys and ran with Cousins (that would have been a bad decision, but it would have at least made sense). As for this year, even if they REALLY wanted to draft Pearce, sending a future 1st should have been a bridge too far. The Rams probably could not believe what they were being offered.

Now with Michael Penix’s future in peril the team does not have a first round pick and is at least contemplating another year of Cousins. Fontenot needs to go. They can’t go through another offseason of this guy making the worst possible decisions.