February 16, 2021 • 39 mins
The new Falcons general manager joins Steve and Jim to talk about his learning curve as a first-time GM (12:05). He explains why he initially didn’t want to interview for the Falcons job and how owner Arthur Blank’s book “Good Company” helped sway him (17:11). Jim has a little fun with Terry’s take on Julio Jones’ and Matt Ryan’s futures with the team (20:06). Terry also talks about the significance of being the Falcons first Black GM (24:14) and what options are on the table for the team’s #4 overall draft pick (29:40). Plus, Steve and Jim give context to Russell Wilson’s recent outspokenness about his situation in Seattle (03:17).
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Coming up next on Huddle and Flow, when I find
out the Falcons wants to interview me. I had no
interest in interviewing for the Falcon's job initially until I
read the book. And then when I when I actually
got on the interview, and and and Mett author blank
He's everything is advertised, and um, and I've gotten to
meet his family, uh, and his sons and his Daughe
(00:23):
got to meet most of his family and and there
everything is advertised. So that's the type of person that
you want to work for because you know it's bigger
than football. He wants to win, but he wants to
do it the right way. He wants to build it
the right way with with the right people and win
the right way. That's next on Huddle and Flow. Alright, alright,
(00:59):
welcome to another edition of the Huddle and Flow Podcast,
brought to you by Into It, proudly makers of Turbo Tactics,
Quick Books and the Mint. I'm Steve White with my
guy Jim Trotter, two thirds of the Howard mob Man
Thomas Warren, the final piece of the Pauls on the
ones in the twos in the background, Jim, this is
gonna be an interesting one because you know, we're beyond
(01:20):
the Super Bowl, so what's next? We go to free agency,
in the draft, it's all about building for We're gonna
be joined by new Falcons general manager Terry Fontineau. And
this should be a good one because this is a
guy we've heard about for a while, a young GM,
one of the three black gms that were hired. UM
real interested to see the path he's gonna take with
(01:43):
his team and what could possibly be percolating around the NFL. Yeah,
the one thing about him, Steve, you know, is that
he's well prepared for this moment, spending eighteen years with
the SAT sixteen in personnel, and he's got I don't
think this team is as far away as some might think,
So it's gonna be very interesting to see how what
(02:06):
he does with it. One thing we know he wants
to build a team that can be competitive successful year
in a year out. But does that mean you do
it right away or do you have to lay more
of a foundation for that to happen. So I'm intrigued
to see what he does. But clearly the guy who
has paid his dues, who has learned along the way
under some talented people, and I'm excited to see what's
(02:28):
next for him. Yeah, you know, I think there's a
team that could compete whild building when we've seen some
teams do that because you look at lot of their
losses last year, a lot of more just numb skull
plays or just failure to execute one or two things
like the onside kick thing, Todd Gurley scoring, I mean,
just little things like that. To me, they're competitively not
(02:48):
that far away. But at the same time, with them
holding the fourth overall pick um which they could trade
to get more assets, they can continue to build. So
it'll be interesting to see again if they're gonna do
anything with Matt Ryan, if they're gonna draft quarterback um
to back. We know Arthur Smith is the new head coach.
He helped shape Ryan Tannehill's re emergence, So what could
(03:09):
happen in Atlanta. But but on that note too, I mean,
we have, you know, some more conversation still. The Carson
was trade stuff is still out there. Russell Wilson talking
about he wants to have saying personnel and he's tired
of getting hit. I mean, I love you, Russ, but bro,
you ain't the only one there's a lot of quarterbacks
(03:30):
out there get their brains beat out. Um, you know,
so you you are not unique to this right now?
That was a very interesting While he was doing the
Walter Payton Man of the Year media tour, he was
saying these things. So this I don't know what Russell
was on. One thing we know about Russell's that he's
very calculated and he thinks about things before he says it,
(03:52):
so clearly there was a plan here to get this
out now. UM, I don't think there's any problem with
with you know, Frank has quarterbacks saying hey, can I
at least be included in a conversation? But to make
it sound as if you want to have some say
in personnel that that's that's a little different. Now. You
(04:14):
can say I like a player or I don't, or
I work well with a receiver or I don't or
something like that, But it has never been a player's
responsibility to say, um, we this is who I want
to go get him, or this is who I don't
want to get rid of him, that sort of thing.
I don't know what Russell's play was here, I really don't. Yeah,
(04:35):
I wonder if he was just a little, you know,
hurt with the reports out there that teams have called
the Seahawks about acquiring him in a trade. I'm sure
teams called the Seahawks every year about acquiring him in
a trade. Yeah, it's it's just weird again because Russell
as you don't you be Russell? Oftentimes you walk away.
(04:56):
There's not much there in terms of me. You know,
he he'll speak to you in generalities, if not cliches,
and yeah, you filled your a lot of time, but
there's not anything news worthy while he's thrown out a
few nuggets of late. So I don't know if he
if he feels that he's starting to get down the
(05:16):
road in his career. I don't know if he feels
like he's watching Tom Brady win the seventh Super Bowl.
I don't know if he feels like that. When he
struggled over the second half of the season, folks started
to wonder, Um, is it Russell or is it the offense?
There are just so many things that that weren't addressed
there that I would have loved to have known. Because
(05:36):
this Russell does not speak out of the blue. Put it.
He does not. He he absolutely does not. This is
very uncharacteristic. But I gotta tell you, man on the low,
I don't even know if he's on the low. Seattle
might be one of the most drama queen teams in THEFL.
Every year, they always got something more. I mean, Earl Thomas, sure,
(05:59):
Mark Sean, they always got something going on. Yeah. No,
But part of that is the culture they've created with
Pete and with John. They want their players to be
able to have a personality, to be able to speak um.
They've never been one to kind of squash their players
when it comes to saying what they feel or that
sort of thing. So that's the culture that Pete from
(06:21):
the get go creative. You know, they want alpha dog types.
They want guys who who are gonna push the envelope,
those type of things. So I'm not I think they're
okay with that. Knowing John and knowing Pete the way
they do, I don't think they're losing sleep over this.
And I think it's just sort of another log on
the fire of what goes on up there. Yeah, on
(06:43):
the longest jord of it. Russell Wilson ain't going anywhere.
He's gonna be in Seattle next year, all right. Jim
on that. Let's go ahead and get to our special guest,
because it's the first time that you know, either one
of us are talking to him, especially in this role.
New Falcons general manager Terry Fonto r Jim. Now we're
(07:11):
joined by our special guest and it's new Falcons general
manager Terry Final. This is gonna be great. Terry, thanks
so much for joining us here on the huddling flow. Guys,
I really appreciate you having me excited to talk. So
the first question, we're gonna start out with a little
fun right here. Okay, so you grew up in Louisiana,
you played ball at Tulane, You went right from Tulane
to working for the Saints, and now you are working
(07:33):
for the Falcons. Have you been disowned by like any
family members or anybody, because we know that Saints Falcon's
rivalry is real, you know. You know the funny thing
about it, I would have expected that, but right now, everybody,
my friends, my family, they all want Falcon's gear. They're
all about getting Falcons gear, and they're excited about coming
(07:53):
up here and going to games. I wouldn't have expected,
uh that this reaction from the family, but but we
got a lot of Louisiana Falcons fans right now. Wait
a minute, even Dad, because just a year ago you
were saying Dad was gonna be disappointed, he couldn't support anyone.
But the same Dad is as Falcon gear that is
all in right now, he's all in. Oh my god,
(08:15):
you're a Jim Terry's the Bennie Hin of like Falcons
fans because he's put some hands on on Saints fans
and converted him. Telling you so so Terry, right right now,
we just finished up the Super Bowl, and so it's
it's you know, I'm sure that you're you're in draft
meeting here, in free agency meetings and things like that,
(08:36):
but I'd love to kind of get started on just
your relationship now, the relationship building with new head coach
Arthur Smith, and kind of how you all are working
collaboratively and how that's going, and trying to lay the
road map of what you guys want to do this offseason.
That's really important. So so right now, we just got
the college scouts all in town and and they're in
(08:58):
in draft meetings right now, starting that the pre combined
draft meetings. The pro staff is really grinding on getting
ready for free agency, and the coaches are all in
their office really grinding on on the self scout, really
working hard on this team. And so everyone's doing that.
But then the next step in that phase is to
get with the coaches and not only go through our
(09:18):
roster with them, but also go through their prototype what
they're looking for at each position and and and really
get detailed with it, not not just but really get
detailed of, Hey, this this is what we call this position,
this is what we're looking for. Because now as we're
getting into this process of player procurement, whether it's proer
college players, the most important thing is to be on
the same page with the coaches and have that clear vision.
(09:39):
So we actually a funny story real quick. We're sitting
down with Dean ps yesterday and just before we even
get into it, just him kind of going through his
defense a little bit and and and what kind of
players he likes. And he's talking about Ed Reid and
ray Lewis, and I think there's only two of them.
That's it. There's only two. So but that's that's a
(10:03):
really important part of the process, really getting with the
coaches and understanding what they are and not only that,
but also blending philosophies. It's it's cool even in the
scouting staff when we have people from from Washington and
Baltimore in in New Orleans, you have all these different
all these different coaches like blending philosophies and and not
making it, making it what we do, making it our
(10:24):
process and really taking the best of each area. But
you know, Terry, one of the things that I thought
was so critical in New Orleans was a lesson that
you guys learned were selecting players that fit the schemes
and systems that you were running, as opposed to just
who might be the best players, so to speak. I
remember having that conversation with Dennis Allen when he talked
(10:45):
about bringing guys like DeMarco Davis and others who had
specific skill sets to what they want to do. How
how much is that an issue that you see around
the league sometimes when personnel people get caught up and
selecting a player who is a talented player but might
not fit exactly what a club system or scheme that's
(11:06):
being run. That's that's a good point, because we're not
just collecting talent. We're not just trying to bring in
a lot of talent and figuring out like we want
to have a clear vision and have a clear plan.
And but I will say about whether we're talking about
Danps or Author Smith, they're gonna have Hey, this is
our system, this is what we're trying to do, this
is what we're working through. But also there's an element
(11:28):
to let's get players that are smart, tough, highly competitive,
they have the right makeup and they have the right
skill set, and let's bring those guys and they're gonna
get the best of them. So there's never gonna be
a point where, again whether it's with Dean or Author
or Dave were Gone, where we have a really talented
player with the right makeup and they might not fit
(11:49):
in this particular box that we've created, but we really
like the player. They're gonna want to bring that player
in and let's get the most of them. So it's important, yes,
to be on the same page with the coaches, but
there's also an element to bring in players with the
right makeup and the right skill set and let's figure
it out. Teff, what you do with the Saints, which
is really in the you know, the talent evaluation element
(12:11):
of things. And now you're you're overseeing the whole operation,
which which kind of the curve that you're on right
now during this whole process. You know what, the most honestly,
the most difficult part about this right now is when
you sit in this seat. And I was ready for it,
and I was prepared for it, I knew it. But
when you sit in this seat, people communicate with you
a little bit differently, and and people treat you a
(12:34):
little bit differently. And that's kind of tough to deal
with because I had a situation a couple of days ago.
I asked somebody to do something and they did it.
And that has nothing to do with their department. But
instead of just telling me, hey, I don't do that,
it just did it, you know. And And so I
want to get to a point where people can just
be honest with me and and and and give me
the feedback and and as opposed to just hey, you're
(12:56):
the GM, so I'm gonna tell you what you want
to hear. So, uh, that's probably the toughest part right now.
Just I want people to understand who I am as
a person and just speak freely with me and be
open because sitting in that seat, I can see a
change in that dynamic. You know, Terry, I'm curious, UM,
sixteen years and personnel, scouting and personnel, how have you
(13:18):
seen the general manager role change over those sixteen years.
That's a that's a really good question. That's a really
good question. And for me, I would say I still
look at the GM role the same way. I think
it's all about player procurement and and yet there are
so many other areas where it's about bringing in the
(13:38):
right types of people. And it's it's no different than
whether you're talking about bringing in a player. Hey, you're
gonna assess the makeup and and assess the skill set
and determine the fit. It's just like that in a
lot of other areas of the building. Like we've added
in some different areas of this building, UM, and as
we continue to do that, it's kind of that same area.
So where GM isn't just the personnel director, UM, you're
(14:02):
really the leader of an organization. And that's what's really important.
To be the leader of the organization and make sure
you know how you do anything, that's how you do everything.
So make sure in every area you have that right mindset,
whether you're talking about UH, the equipment room or the
training room or the weight room, or the coaching staff
or the players. It's all you have to have that
(14:24):
same organizational philosophy. So I think with the general manager,
you're not a player personnel director. UH, you're the leader
of an organization along along with the head coach. You know,
people talk about you being a people person. I just
wonder what what are the traits or character characteristics that
are most important and inter personal communication in terms of
(14:46):
having successful relationships. That's a that's a great question, and
I would say it's about understanding who people are, understanding
what's important to them. So you have to you have
to build those relationships and really get to know people
in order to to serve them. Because I really believe,
I believe in servant leadership and I believe as a
general manager, you're really a servant to everyone in the organization.
(15:08):
That's your job. It's my job to make give the
scouts everything they need to be the best area scout,
the best pro scout they can be. It's our job too,
It's my job to give whether it's the trainers, uh,
give everyone everything they need to be successful. And that's
the same thing with the coaches. Hey, we're resources for
the coaches. I need to I need to make Author
(15:29):
Smith the very best coach he can be, and make
all those assistant coaches the best they can be, and
and and we're resources for the players and and so
I think it's important to to learn people, learn what's
important to them, build those relationships, and ultimately, I believe
the best leaders are really servants UM to everyone in
the organization. Terry, it's interesting siate that because you know,
(15:50):
we had Arthur Blank on the podcast UM a couple
of months ago. I know Arthur well having, you know,
spend time covering the organization, and he talks about the
servant leadership, even even though he's the guy who writes
the checks. Do you think that was part of the
dot connecting, let's say, in this interview process, for them
to say you're the guy to help run this club.
(16:11):
I really think it was. And I read Author's book
before I came on the interview smart man, but someone
told me to read authors book and I read it,
and I read it really quick, and I got excited
about it because when for a person like me that
really all I do is football and my family. You know,
I have four beautiful kids and a beautiful wife, and
(16:34):
and so there's not enough time to really do anything else.
I don't have any other hobbies but football and family.
So and I'm a person that the way I grew up,
I have really strong I have a strong faith. I
have strong core values and principles that I was raised
with and that came from from my parents, for my siblings,
from from everybody in my path growing up. I have
a really really strong core values. So when all I
(16:58):
do is football and family, then I'm want to make
sure that's intertwined and everything I do. And so I
want to work for an organization that that prioritizes that
that that's important too. So that really spoke to me
when I read his book, and that got me excited
about because I'll be honest, when I find out the
Falcons wants to interview me. I had no interest in
interviewing for the Falcons job initially until I read the book.
(17:19):
And then when I when I actually got on the
interview and and and Mett author blank, He's everything is
advertised and um and I've gotten to meet his family,
uh and his sons and his daughter got to meet
most of his family and and there everything is advertised.
So that's the type of person that you want to
work for because you know it's bigger than football. He
wants to win, but he wants to do it the
(17:41):
right way. He wants to build the right way with
with the right people and win the right way. Wait,
we gotta go back to that. Why initially did you
not want to interview with the Falcons? Well, it was
it was the Atlanta Falcons. It was our arrival and
have the interested. I had no interest interviewing for the
Falcons the way. But again, as soon as I read
(18:03):
the book, and then I started learning about the organization
as opposed to just looking on the surface and it
being a rival. And then I get on, hey, what's
really important to me? Because I'm not a type of
person that just wanted to become a general manager just
anywhere that that's never been important to me. I want
to be work for for the right organization and be
a part of something special. And as soon as I
(18:24):
read that, and then I met author Blank and I
and I started meeting the people in the organization, I
saw that this is something special. And then I was
able to meet Arthur Smith, and and then and now
it's not even like some people ask, how does it
really feel? And I don't even know how it feels.
I'm excited because I get here and I'm a process
oriented person, so my head my heads down and I'm
(18:45):
working on the process and and so I couldn't be
more excited to be here right now. And early on
it didn't feel like that before I got the interview,
But now I couldn't be more excited. Well, Terry, you've
seen the Falcons up close. Obviously they've had only two
winning seasons in the last eight years. What has gone
wrong over those eight years in your opinion, Well, that's
(19:08):
what we're going through right now, because you can't just
focus on specific areas because you can't just focus on
just on the field, on the players like it's it's
throughout the entire organization and and uh, and that's what
that's what author Blank wants to do. He wants to
he's willing, he wants to build it the right way
and build a consistently winning franchise with sustained success. And
(19:30):
so we're going through that process in every area and
making sure we have the right mindset um to be
able to have that type of sustained success. Should I
should I let tear you away with that, Steve No,
because you know the closed I told you before we
(19:51):
got on air. I told you that I listened to
podcasts and I listen to it because I told you
all that there's head coaches and there's general managers, and
they tell you everything. They tell you what they're doing,
they tell you how to build it, and you can
get some good notes. But I'm not gonna be that guy.
I told you that. But you're still exactly you gotta
ask the question, like you know, the obvious question that
(20:11):
every Falcon fan wants to know, is Matt Ryan and
Julio Jones gonna be on this roster come come the
start of next season. Those guys are good players and
both of Matt and Julio and they've done a lot
of really good things for this organization. So and and
look we're gonna add you're already smiling look at you
(20:31):
for me. Okay, how about this? You finish up? Tell
me who I'm gonna say, no if if not even knowing,
because people don't know this is the first time we've met.
But having read up on you, having done some research
on you, my guests would be the answer to that
question would be, they're very talented players. We are looking
to have the best team that we can have, and
(20:53):
obviously you want the best players possible, and we're gonna
do everything we can to make sure the Atlanta Falcons
are success well, not just this year but every year
after Bam perfect. But you know what I will say this.
I will say this, this is we are in play.
Whether we're talking about free agency or whether we're talking
(21:15):
about the draft, we are going to add to every
position like we'll build strengths. We're not afraid to build
strengths like We're gonna add to every position. It's about adding.
We want to be a culture of competition and and
and author Smith has said it. We want to bring
in smart, tough, highly competitive football players. They're gonna fit
this culture and and and they're gonna and we're gonna
do that at every position, whether it's quarterback, whether it's receiver.
(21:37):
You look at Ron Wolf, he's you always bring in quarterbacks.
That don't. You need to bring in quarterbacks, whether it's
in the draft, whether it's in free agency, are signing
guys off the street. It's so important bringing quarterbacks a
lot build trends, AAI newsom bring in the best players
available like these are. These are men that have had
all that success, and it's about having the right fifty three.
But we have to add competition in every position, so
(21:59):
we're not gonna be afraid um to add to strengths.
But both those players are are really good. I'm excited
to be here with those players. I'll try it this
way with you, Terry. Are there any untouchables on the roster?
Are there any untouchables? Correct? Go ahead, tell me tell
me no, No, oh no, are there any untouchable it's
(22:20):
on the roster. I don't think there's any. I don't
think you'd ever be in a situation where you would
say somebody is untouchable. That's not the right culture, right
if if you're building a culture like I said, of competition,
and then then that doesn't make sense to have UM
to say that this person can't be touched. But but look,
I believe we have a lot of good people in
(22:41):
this building right now, a lot of good players that
have the right mindset, and we're going to supplement this
roster and add to the roster, and we're working to
build this team for what sustained success. So so, Terry,
one of the one of the big conversations you aways
here on the foul because of the offseasons. Oh, the
shalary cap situation, it's crazy. So if you if you
could explain a little bit about the manipulation of that,
(23:03):
especially not knowing you know what the cap is gonna be.
Let's assume it's a hundred and eighty million dollars. How
you have to kind of finesse that with some of
that roster building as well, because you know there's always shed,
there's always attrition. Then how you can get into this
market and free agency because a lot of people think
it's gonna be a slow played free agency market because
(23:23):
you're trying to depress some salaries to get guys in
on maybe a one year lesser salary deal. And and
that's gonna be a part of those that decision making
process because you do there's always a way to to
to make it work for this year, but at some
point you're kicking it down the road. At some point
it's gonna come back and you're gonna have to um
pay those prices. So we have to again, our goal
(23:45):
is to have sustain success. So we're gonna work hard
to do the right things again. We want to get
the most competitive team on the field this year, but
we don't want to make decisions in one that are
going to hurt us in twenty three and moving forward.
So we're gonna have that that big picture mindset and
we're gonna we're gonna make sure we make decisions for
sustaining success. But but there's always ways to um to
(24:09):
to work. Your heart is to um to make things
work and to make sure you can continue to act
good players through the off season. You know, Terry On,
I have to tell you you're the You're the first
black general manager in the history of the organization. What
is the significance of that to you? It's so significant
and and you know, I actually got I got emotional
on my press count during my press conference. And I
(24:31):
think the reason I did is because that was the
first time. I'm such a process oriented person and I
and I really sometimes I'm focused so much on the
moment and the process, and I'm thinking about what I
have to do next. And so even as soon as
I get the general manager job with the Falcons, right away,
I'm thinking about staff and I'm thinking about my first
steps in the first sixty days and what we need
(24:52):
to do and what. So I'm focusing on those things
to where I don't even take a second to really
be in the moment and just and just appreciate the
magnitude of the situation you're in. And so when I
was on my press conference, when I actually said it
out loud, that's when I got emotional, and that's when
I kind of realized that and my son. So so
I did the press conference and saw Matt. I'm in
(25:13):
this office and my son is is right across from me.
He's sitting there and he's looking at me, and he
wants to be a GM. He's nine years old, and
he has opinions on every football team and every player
and and and and he's so he's and he's been
since he was since he could walk. He's been sitting
in my office on the couch here in the conversations
with the coaches and watching players. So in his mind,
(25:35):
that's what he wants to do. And so when I'm
when I'm talking about this, and I'm looking at my
son and and I look, I got three daughters too,
and they might end up wanting to be gms. And
but when I'm looking at looking at my family, that's
when it really hit me how important it really is.
And and I really look at this like and I
explained that to them, is that there are no it's
not about accomplishments, it's about opportunities, because I have to
(25:58):
take this like, this is an opportunit unique, but I
have to make sure I handle this the right way
because it's not fair to my son, or my daughters
or a lot of other people if I don't handle
this the right way and make sure I do things
the right way so they can have those opportunities moving forward.
I mean that that's a brilliant that's brilliantly said, because
you know, sometimes especially you know, diverse candidates, when they
(26:19):
good opportunities, they're not like you like when you said,
you know, hey, I want to be in the right spot.
I'm gonna choose to go where I think is the
right by some people to take the job because it's
there they may not ever get it again. And so
I think that is important that you were able to
kind of finesse that and understand that this is a
huge opportunity. I want to change gears just a little
movement a little bit towards the draft process. And that's
(26:40):
the evaluation without the combine and only having pro days,
and and doing this in this really odd environment where
some schools only had five games, a lot of schools
aren't didn't start until like last week, especially some like
HBCU programs. So how is it about you know, you've
been doing this for a while, but evaluating the college
(27:01):
athlete in the college prospect under these circumstances, that's that's
really tough, because that's that's all a part of it,
Like wanting to get out and wanting to put your
hands on the players and and be around him, and
and and being the buildings as much as possible and
talk to everyone in the buildings. That's that's all a
part of the process. That's one of the first things
when when the college staff got here today and we're
(27:22):
talking about them, I know they haven't been able to
do everything they would have normally done in this year,
and and yet they worked hard. And what I what
I will say is everybody's it's even playing field, and
so everyone is doing the same thing. So so we
have to just make sure we maximize all the opportunities,
and there are some benefits. There are some things moving
forward that we're going to continue to change, like like
(27:45):
look at the zoom interviews and that whole process. That's
really that's really valuable, and you can get a lot
of good information and you get it back to back,
so you're getting apples to apples on the players. So
there's some advantages and there's some good things, but not
being able to to to go out as much and
again the combine like there's some scouts that have been
doing this for for forty years and not going to
(28:06):
combine that. They can't believe that. But but but I
will say everybody's has the same everybody's gonna have the
same opportunities, everybody's gonna be dealing with the same things.
So we just have to make sure we maximize the
process as much as we can and get the right
information so we can bring in some good falcons. You know.
Terry J. C. Tread Or, the president of the nfl
(28:26):
p A, said recently that what this uh, what what
COVID has taught him at least, is that players don't
need to be on the field in the off season
as much as teams have had them on the field,
particularly veterans. I'm wondering, from your standpoint, do you agree
with him or is there a middle ground that could
(28:47):
be found where teams can be smarter in terms of
how do they utilize zoom and other things virtual meetings
and limiting the wear and tear of say some of
these veterans who are out there in the off season
for the on field workout. Yeah, that's that's a good question. Uh,
And I think it's a loaded question. I think there's
so many levels of it because, Uh, there's also the
(29:08):
part that, Hey, if you talk to a strength coast,
they're gonna say, I want to get those guys as
soon as possible to make sure, um, we have them
prepared for um. So, so we're we're preventing injuries and
we're getting them prepared, especially say a young guy, getting
them in your program and getting them going. And there's
a part of building those relationships, getting the players together. So, um,
I think there's so many different angles you can process with.
(29:31):
But I just feel like from my standpoint, the way
I look at it is is hey, to tell us,
tell us what we can do, and then we're gonna
take it and we're gonna maximize it and get the
most of it. So Terry, having that fourth overall pick,
this is now you're in a draft spot you're really
not used to. Haven't been with the Saints in the
success that you guys have had down there for so long.
What type of chip is that? And of course when
(29:53):
I say that, you're in a prime spot to take,
you know, an elite guy. But you know, especially in
this quarterback type of market. Ye, your phone's gonna be
ringing a little bit right some people are gonna be
throwing to bait your way to see if you're gonna bite.
And you I mean, really, you're in a position of
strength at number four, just coming in and doing everything
you guys are going through right now, process wise. What
(30:14):
kind of chip is it to be at that, at
that number four spot. Yeah, that's a great question. It's
so valuable and it's so exciting to be right there
because you're right, we don't want to be we don't
want to ever be picking in the top five again.
We want to be picking at the bottom of the
rounds of all the rounds. So this is it's really
valuable and we're in a position that, hey, we can take.
We want to build this roster the right way, and
(30:36):
we're gonna think long term. So nothing is really off
the table, um, whether you talk about taking the best
player on the board, or are are moving down or
I think everything's wide open. And so it's a it's
a great it's a great spot to be in and
and we want to make sure we maximize that and
and have a hell of a draft because we don't
expect to be there anymore. You know, Terry, we all
(30:57):
know it's a quarterback driven league, and yet I think
this offseason we're gonna see quarterback movement like maybe we've
never seen before. Why do you think that is now? Um?
Because teams choosed to treat that as as an untouchable
position essentially as it relates to franchise guys. We've already
seen Stafford moved, We're hearing that Carson Wentz is going
(31:17):
to be moved, Deshaun Watson is asked to be moved. Um,
why do you feel now teams are much more willing
to to play musical chairs with quarterbacks? That's that's a
really good question, and and it's it's still I don't
want to say, surprising to me but it is such
an uncommon year with with that going on, and that
(31:39):
such a critical UH position in such an important position, UM,
and and it's look, it's uncommon to say the least,
and and I can't really tell you why that's happening, uh,
but but but it's gonna be interesting to see a
playout and and just on that note, without you know,
we we see you know, Jim mentioned Deshaun Watson, Carson Wentz.
But also it's not what the players are or some
(32:01):
of these NFL quarterbacks are going NBA style saying hey,
I want out and they're trying to flex a little
leverage right here. Is it a potential trend or are
these just unique situations? I think I think they're unique situations, um,
because it's it all depends and when there's so much
movement with with UH with different coaches and and and
(32:22):
different gyms and different schemes and and UH, I think
that that adds a little bit to it. Um. Look,
I would think I don't know if that's just something
that's just happened right now at this moment, or if
it's gonna be a trend moving forward. But but again,
definitely uncommon to say the least. All right, Terry, Hey,
we we appreciate you joining. You know, since it is
(32:42):
the first time, we weren't weren't gonna squeeze you too
tough when you came to political you and keep your
lance bottoms. You could be here her next speech writer.
But now this was great, man, this is great. We
really appreciate you taking the time because we know you're
super busy right now. We wish you all the best
at Jim. This man here converted some Saints fancies and
(33:04):
Falcons fans, So if he can do that, I think
the Falcons are in really good shape. I'm telling you,
I have a list of of of people all the
way from Late Charles Louisiana, where I grew up, all
the way through New Orleans that I have a list
of people that I've already told told my wife we
got to get them hats and shirts because because I'm
getting a lot of a lot of requests. So there's
gonna be a lot of a lot of black and
(33:25):
red um in Late Charles Louisiana all the way up
to New Orleans. How deep How deep is the list?
It's deep, It's deep. Dozen dozen's hundreds things Steve, I
don't know if they're gonna actually wear it, if they're
just saying that to be nice. And look, like I said,
with my dad, he's telling me he's all in, but
who knows. He might still be stuck on stuck on
(33:47):
New Orleans. But but look, there's a lot of I've
gotten a lot of awesome positive feedback. And uh, my son,
I've got a picture of him, my wife said the
other day, and he's sleeping with He's got one of
the flat black Malcolm's helmet, a really cool looking winning
Those are great. So it's uh, it's pretty cool. It's um,
my family's all in. There's a lot of people in
(34:09):
Louisiana that are all in. That's awesome. That's awesome, Terry,
thank you so much for joining us and all the best.
We're gonna circle back and have you on again after
the draft to see how see how things went. That
sounds great, That sounds great. Appreciate you guys. Steve was
(34:32):
an impressive guy. Um, I'm surprised after having this interview
with him that it took him this long to become
a GM but um, just somebody who's very thoughtful, very
learned and I'm I'm I'm intrigued to see what he's
gonna do, because again, I think they're not that far away.
But it's funny. The one thing I knew about him
(34:53):
going into the interview doing my research is that he
reads and listens to all of the media trying to
pick up nugget while not giving any out on his own.
And so that's why, you know, I kind of like
he said when I was smiling when he was answering
things because I knew, okay here. At times, it's kind
of that I'll almost say, it's almost like that Russell
Wilson talk where you know they're they're filling up your
(35:15):
notebook but not really saying anything, you know. But I
was kind of good though. He was just like, oh,
I listen and I read because you can. You can
get some good information right there. So that's a great sign.
And I'm telling you, Jim, if he can convert some
Saints fans to some Facons fans, even if he wears
the gear, I'm like, I said an interview, that's like
many hinds, but hands on somebody for his dad to
(35:40):
flip that, I mean, because he had just said just
last season told him, I'll be disappointed if you go
anywhere else, and if it's in the division. Basically, the
intimation was I'm not having it, you know. So it's
gonna be interesting when the Saints of the Falcons playoff,
particularly in New Orleans, how that goes down. Well, he
(36:00):
said he didn't want to interview with the Falcons because
they were the Falcons. But they read Arthur's book. It's
a good book. We both read it. So that that
that is that is absolutely hilarious. But we want, you know,
I just want to wish him the best because this
that's a challenging situation. Um, their cap situation is is
all over the place. They got the four pick, so
(36:21):
they're gonna be a team to watch come draft day.
I really think, um, you know, they could use the pick.
Could they go quarterback, could they move back to stack assets?
Gonna be very interesting to see what Terry Fonto does.
But we know that they think highly of him, and
you know, we know Arthur Blank too, and he clearly
is a culture guy. Here's that that and that's the thing.
(36:41):
This is why I'm intrigued by Terry Fonto because on
the one hand, you know, he's a guy who learned
under Mickey Loomis and Sean Payton. And the one thing
we know about those two, particularly even as it relates
to Drew Brees down the rope, down the stretch um
the finish of his career, is that they treated Drew right.
(37:02):
There was a respect there for the player in terms of, hey,
we know your players started to diminish a little bit,
but we're not gonna run you out of here. In essence,
We're gonna let you decide when you're ready. And now
he's got a guy like Matt Ryan who has done
so much for the franchise in terms of building the
bridge from Michael Vick to where they are now, those
(37:22):
sorts of things. How much does that come into play
in terms of what they do with him? If anything?
Same thing with Julio Jones. He's a franchise type guy.
He's gonna be a Hall of Famer one day. How
much does all that play into whether or not you
keep a guy or you let them go? And and look,
I covered the charges for a number of years, and
and the thing that was most disappointing is that many
(37:44):
times when their franchise players left, they left on bad
terms and there's some tough decisions sometimes that have to
be made, and I'm fascinated to see how the Falcons
handled these two situations. Yeah, Vincent Jackson online one't year
and JA sent you and you say Ol Ladany and Tomlinson,
I mean, Kellen Winslow. I mean, I could just keep
(38:06):
going down the list. It was so unfortunate that that
these guys didn't leave on good terms. It really is
all right, Jim, let's go ahead and wrap this up,
and hopefully we're gonna have some more general managers on
here as we you know, get into free agency and
get into the draft and to see how these guys
are scouting. Uh, and these just peculiar, you know, evaluation circumstances.
(38:27):
But Jim, why don't you go ahead and bring us home. Well,
once again, we we thank you for listening, We thank
you for subscribing. Please continue to leave comments, let us
know who you'd like to hear from, what you'd like
to hear us discuss. In that way, we can give
you more of what you're funking for. That's right, that's right.
(38:47):
We're gonna continue to have a strong lineup of guests
coming up in the off season. The games aren't being played,
but the Huddle and Flow is going to keep on
doing business. So don't turn your dial, don't be looking
for anything else, keep telling other people about it, because
we are going to keep bringing it to you. Are
There is a Huddle Flow podcast brought to you by
Into It, makers of Turbo Tax, The Mint and Quick
(39:09):
Books for Jim Trotter and Thomas Warrant. I am Steve White.
We are the Howard Mob and we are out
Coming up next on Huddle and Flow, when I find
out the Falcons wants to interview me. I had no
interest in interviewing for the Falcon's job initially until I
read the book. And then when I when I actually
got on the interview, and and and Mett author blank
He's everything is advertised, and um, and I've gotten to
meet his family, uh, and his sons and his Daughe
(00:23):
got to meet most of his family and and there
everything is advertised. So that's the type of person that
you want to work for because you know it's bigger
than football. He wants to win, but he wants to
do it the right way. He wants to build it
the right way with with the right people and win
the right way. That's next on Huddle and Flow. Alright, alright,
(00:59):
welcome to another edition of the Huddle and Flow Podcast,
brought to you by Into It, proudly makers of Turbo Tactics,
Quick Books and the Mint. I'm Steve White with my
guy Jim Trotter, two thirds of the Howard mob Man
Thomas Warren, the final piece of the Pauls on the
ones in the twos in the background, Jim, this is
gonna be an interesting one because you know, we're beyond
(01:20):
the Super Bowl, so what's next? We go to free agency,
in the draft, it's all about building for We're gonna
be joined by new Falcons general manager Terry Fontineau. And
this should be a good one because this is a
guy we've heard about for a while, a young GM,
one of the three black gms that were hired. UM
real interested to see the path he's gonna take with
(01:43):
his team and what could possibly be percolating around the NFL. Yeah,
the one thing about him, Steve, you know, is that
he's well prepared for this moment, spending eighteen years with
the SAT sixteen in personnel, and he's got I don't
think this team is as far away as some might think,
So it's gonna be very interesting to see how what
(02:06):
he does with it. One thing we know he wants
to build a team that can be competitive successful year
in a year out. But does that mean you do
it right away or do you have to lay more
of a foundation for that to happen. So I'm intrigued
to see what he does. But clearly the guy who
has paid his dues, who has learned along the way
under some talented people, and I'm excited to see what's
(02:28):
next for him. Yeah, you know, I think there's a
team that could compete whild building when we've seen some
teams do that because you look at lot of their
losses last year, a lot of more just numb skull
plays or just failure to execute one or two things
like the onside kick thing, Todd Gurley scoring, I mean,
just little things like that. To me, they're competitively not
(02:48):
that far away. But at the same time, with them
holding the fourth overall pick um which they could trade
to get more assets, they can continue to build. So
it'll be interesting to see again if they're gonna do
anything with Matt Ryan, if they're gonna draft quarterback um
to back. We know Arthur Smith is the new head coach.
He helped shape Ryan Tannehill's re emergence, So what could
(03:09):
happen in Atlanta. But but on that note too, I mean,
we have, you know, some more conversation still. The Carson
was trade stuff is still out there. Russell Wilson talking
about he wants to have saying personnel and he's tired
of getting hit. I mean, I love you, Russ, but bro,
you ain't the only one there's a lot of quarterbacks
(03:30):
out there get their brains beat out. Um, you know,
so you you are not unique to this right now?
That was a very interesting While he was doing the
Walter Payton Man of the Year media tour, he was
saying these things. So this I don't know what Russell
was on. One thing we know about Russell's that he's
very calculated and he thinks about things before he says it,
(03:52):
so clearly there was a plan here to get this
out now. UM, I don't think there's any problem with
with you know, Frank has quarterbacks saying hey, can I
at least be included in a conversation? But to make
it sound as if you want to have some say
in personnel that that's that's a little different. Now. You
(04:14):
can say I like a player or I don't, or
I work well with a receiver or I don't or
something like that, But it has never been a player's
responsibility to say, um, we this is who I want
to go get him, or this is who I don't
want to get rid of him, that sort of thing.
I don't know what Russell's play was here, I really don't. Yeah,
(04:35):
I wonder if he was just a little, you know,
hurt with the reports out there that teams have called
the Seahawks about acquiring him in a trade. I'm sure
teams called the Seahawks every year about acquiring him in
a trade. Yeah, it's it's just weird again because Russell
as you don't you be Russell? Oftentimes you walk away.
(04:56):
There's not much there in terms of me. You know,
he he'll speak to you in generalities, if not cliches,
and yeah, you filled your a lot of time, but
there's not anything news worthy while he's thrown out a
few nuggets of late. So I don't know if he
if he feels that he's starting to get down the
(05:16):
road in his career. I don't know if he feels
like he's watching Tom Brady win the seventh Super Bowl.
I don't know if he feels like that. When he
struggled over the second half of the season, folks started
to wonder, Um, is it Russell or is it the offense?
There are just so many things that that weren't addressed
there that I would have loved to have known. Because
(05:36):
this Russell does not speak out of the blue. Put it.
He does not. He he absolutely does not. This is
very uncharacteristic. But I gotta tell you, man on the low,
I don't even know if he's on the low. Seattle
might be one of the most drama queen teams in THEFL.
Every year, they always got something more. I mean, Earl Thomas, sure,
(05:59):
Mark Sean, they always got something going on. Yeah. No,
But part of that is the culture they've created with
Pete and with John. They want their players to be
able to have a personality, to be able to speak um.
They've never been one to kind of squash their players
when it comes to saying what they feel or that
sort of thing. So that's the culture that Pete from
(06:21):
the get go creative. You know, they want alpha dog types.
They want guys who who are gonna push the envelope,
those type of things. So I'm not I think they're
okay with that. Knowing John and knowing Pete the way
they do, I don't think they're losing sleep over this.
And I think it's just sort of another log on
the fire of what goes on up there. Yeah, on
(06:43):
the longest jord of it. Russell Wilson ain't going anywhere.
He's gonna be in Seattle next year, all right. Jim
on that. Let's go ahead and get to our special guest,
because it's the first time that you know, either one
of us are talking to him, especially in this role.
New Falcons general manager Terry Fonto r Jim. Now we're
(07:11):
joined by our special guest and it's new Falcons general
manager Terry Final. This is gonna be great. Terry, thanks
so much for joining us here on the huddling flow. Guys,
I really appreciate you having me excited to talk. So
the first question, we're gonna start out with a little
fun right here. Okay, so you grew up in Louisiana,
you played ball at Tulane, You went right from Tulane
to working for the Saints, and now you are working
(07:33):
for the Falcons. Have you been disowned by like any
family members or anybody, because we know that Saints Falcon's
rivalry is real, you know. You know the funny thing
about it, I would have expected that, but right now, everybody,
my friends, my family, they all want Falcon's gear. They're
all about getting Falcons gear, and they're excited about coming
(07:53):
up here and going to games. I wouldn't have expected,
uh that this reaction from the family, but but we
got a lot of Louisiana Falcons fans right now. Wait
a minute, even Dad, because just a year ago you
were saying Dad was gonna be disappointed, he couldn't support anyone.
But the same Dad is as Falcon gear that is
all in right now, he's all in. Oh my god,
(08:15):
you're a Jim Terry's the Bennie Hin of like Falcons
fans because he's put some hands on on Saints fans
and converted him. Telling you so so Terry, right right now,
we just finished up the Super Bowl, and so it's
it's you know, I'm sure that you're you're in draft
meeting here, in free agency meetings and things like that,
(08:36):
but I'd love to kind of get started on just
your relationship now, the relationship building with new head coach
Arthur Smith, and kind of how you all are working
collaboratively and how that's going, and trying to lay the
road map of what you guys want to do this offseason.
That's really important. So so right now, we just got
the college scouts all in town and and they're in
(08:58):
in draft meetings right now, starting that the pre combined
draft meetings. The pro staff is really grinding on getting
ready for free agency, and the coaches are all in
their office really grinding on on the self scout, really
working hard on this team. And so everyone's doing that.
But then the next step in that phase is to
get with the coaches and not only go through our
(09:18):
roster with them, but also go through their prototype what
they're looking for at each position and and and really
get detailed with it, not not just but really get
detailed of, Hey, this this is what we call this position,
this is what we're looking for. Because now as we're
getting into this process of player procurement, whether it's proer
college players, the most important thing is to be on
the same page with the coaches and have that clear vision.
(09:39):
So we actually a funny story real quick. We're sitting
down with Dean ps yesterday and just before we even
get into it, just him kind of going through his
defense a little bit and and and what kind of
players he likes. And he's talking about Ed Reid and
ray Lewis, and I think there's only two of them.
That's it. There's only two. So but that's that's a
(10:03):
really important part of the process, really getting with the
coaches and understanding what they are and not only that,
but also blending philosophies. It's it's cool even in the
scouting staff when we have people from from Washington and
Baltimore in in New Orleans, you have all these different
all these different coaches like blending philosophies and and not
making it, making it what we do, making it our
(10:24):
process and really taking the best of each area. But
you know, Terry, one of the things that I thought
was so critical in New Orleans was a lesson that
you guys learned were selecting players that fit the schemes
and systems that you were running, as opposed to just
who might be the best players, so to speak. I
remember having that conversation with Dennis Allen when he talked
(10:45):
about bringing guys like DeMarco Davis and others who had
specific skill sets to what they want to do. How
how much is that an issue that you see around
the league sometimes when personnel people get caught up and
selecting a player who is a talented player but might
not fit exactly what a club system or scheme that's
(11:06):
being run. That's that's a good point, because we're not
just collecting talent. We're not just trying to bring in
a lot of talent and figuring out like we want
to have a clear vision and have a clear plan.
And but I will say about whether we're talking about
Danps or Author Smith, they're gonna have Hey, this is
our system, this is what we're trying to do, this
is what we're working through. But also there's an element
(11:28):
to let's get players that are smart, tough, highly competitive,
they have the right makeup and they have the right
skill set, and let's bring those guys and they're gonna
get the best of them. So there's never gonna be
a point where, again whether it's with Dean or Author
or Dave were Gone, where we have a really talented
player with the right makeup and they might not fit
(11:49):
in this particular box that we've created, but we really
like the player. They're gonna want to bring that player
in and let's get the most of them. So it's important, yes,
to be on the same page with the coaches, but
there's also an element to bring in players with the
right makeup and the right skill set and let's figure
it out. Teff, what you do with the Saints, which
is really in the you know, the talent evaluation element
(12:11):
of things. And now you're you're overseeing the whole operation,
which which kind of the curve that you're on right
now during this whole process. You know what, the most honestly,
the most difficult part about this right now is when
you sit in this seat. And I was ready for it,
and I was prepared for it, I knew it. But
when you sit in this seat, people communicate with you
a little bit differently, and and people treat you a
(12:34):
little bit differently. And that's kind of tough to deal
with because I had a situation a couple of days ago.
I asked somebody to do something and they did it.
And that has nothing to do with their department. But
instead of just telling me, hey, I don't do that,
it just did it, you know. And And so I
want to get to a point where people can just
be honest with me and and and and give me
the feedback and and as opposed to just hey, you're
(12:56):
the GM, so I'm gonna tell you what you want
to hear. So, uh, that's probably the toughest part right now.
Just I want people to understand who I am as
a person and just speak freely with me and be
open because sitting in that seat, I can see a
change in that dynamic. You know, Terry, I'm curious, UM,
sixteen years and personnel, scouting and personnel, how have you
(13:18):
seen the general manager role change over those sixteen years.
That's a that's a really good question. That's a really
good question. And for me, I would say I still
look at the GM role the same way. I think
it's all about player procurement and and yet there are
so many other areas where it's about bringing in the
(13:38):
right types of people. And it's it's no different than
whether you're talking about bringing in a player. Hey, you're
gonna assess the makeup and and assess the skill set
and determine the fit. It's just like that in a
lot of other areas of the building. Like we've added
in some different areas of this building, UM, and as
we continue to do that, it's kind of that same area.
So where GM isn't just the personnel director, UM, you're
(14:02):
really the leader of an organization. And that's what's really important.
To be the leader of the organization and make sure
you know how you do anything, that's how you do everything.
So make sure in every area you have that right mindset,
whether you're talking about UH, the equipment room or the
training room or the weight room, or the coaching staff
or the players. It's all you have to have that
(14:24):
same organizational philosophy. So I think with the general manager,
you're not a player personnel director. UH, you're the leader
of an organization along along with the head coach. You know,
people talk about you being a people person. I just
wonder what what are the traits or character characteristics that
are most important and inter personal communication in terms of
(14:46):
having successful relationships. That's a that's a great question, and
I would say it's about understanding who people are, understanding
what's important to them. So you have to you have
to build those relationships and really get to know people
in order to to serve them. Because I really believe,
I believe in servant leadership and I believe as a
general manager, you're really a servant to everyone in the organization.
(15:08):
That's your job. It's my job to make give the
scouts everything they need to be the best area scout,
the best pro scout they can be. It's our job too,
It's my job to give whether it's the trainers, uh,
give everyone everything they need to be successful. And that's
the same thing with the coaches. Hey, we're resources for
the coaches. I need to I need to make Author
(15:29):
Smith the very best coach he can be, and make
all those assistant coaches the best they can be, and
and and we're resources for the players and and so
I think it's important to to learn people, learn what's
important to them, build those relationships, and ultimately, I believe
the best leaders are really servants UM to everyone in
the organization. Terry, it's interesting siate that because you know,
(15:50):
we had Arthur Blank on the podcast UM a couple
of months ago. I know Arthur well having, you know,
spend time covering the organization, and he talks about the
servant leadership, even even though he's the guy who writes
the checks. Do you think that was part of the
dot connecting, let's say, in this interview process, for them
to say you're the guy to help run this club.
(16:11):
I really think it was. And I read Author's book
before I came on the interview smart man, but someone
told me to read authors book and I read it,
and I read it really quick, and I got excited
about it because when for a person like me that
really all I do is football and my family. You know,
I have four beautiful kids and a beautiful wife, and
(16:34):
and so there's not enough time to really do anything else.
I don't have any other hobbies but football and family.
So and I'm a person that the way I grew up,
I have really strong I have a strong faith. I
have strong core values and principles that I was raised
with and that came from from my parents, for my siblings,
from from everybody in my path growing up. I have
a really really strong core values. So when all I
(16:58):
do is football and family, then I'm want to make
sure that's intertwined and everything I do. And so I
want to work for an organization that that prioritizes that
that that's important too. So that really spoke to me
when I read his book, and that got me excited
about because I'll be honest, when I find out the
Falcons wants to interview me. I had no interest in
interviewing for the Falcons job initially until I read the book.
(17:19):
And then when I when I actually got on the
interview and and and Mett author blank, He's everything is
advertised and um and I've gotten to meet his family,
uh and his sons and his daughter got to meet
most of his family and and there everything is advertised.
So that's the type of person that you want to
work for because you know it's bigger than football. He
wants to win, but he wants to do it the
(17:41):
right way. He wants to build the right way with
with the right people and win the right way. Wait,
we gotta go back to that. Why initially did you
not want to interview with the Falcons? Well, it was
it was the Atlanta Falcons. It was our arrival and
have the interested. I had no interest interviewing for the
Falcons the way. But again, as soon as I read
(18:03):
the book, and then I started learning about the organization
as opposed to just looking on the surface and it
being a rival. And then I get on, hey, what's
really important to me? Because I'm not a type of
person that just wanted to become a general manager just
anywhere that that's never been important to me. I want
to be work for for the right organization and be
a part of something special. And as soon as I
(18:24):
read that, and then I met author Blank and I
and I started meeting the people in the organization, I
saw that this is something special. And then I was
able to meet Arthur Smith, and and then and now
it's not even like some people ask, how does it
really feel? And I don't even know how it feels.
I'm excited because I get here and I'm a process
oriented person, so my head my heads down and I'm
(18:45):
working on the process and and so I couldn't be
more excited to be here right now. And early on
it didn't feel like that before I got the interview,
But now I couldn't be more excited. Well, Terry, you've
seen the Falcons up close. Obviously they've had only two
winning seasons in the last eight years. What has gone
wrong over those eight years in your opinion, Well, that's
(19:08):
what we're going through right now, because you can't just
focus on specific areas because you can't just focus on
just on the field, on the players like it's it's
throughout the entire organization and and uh, and that's what
that's what author Blank wants to do. He wants to
he's willing, he wants to build it the right way
and build a consistently winning franchise with sustained success. And
(19:30):
so we're going through that process in every area and
making sure we have the right mindset um to be
able to have that type of sustained success. Should I
should I let tear you away with that, Steve No,
because you know the closed I told you before we
(19:51):
got on air. I told you that I listened to
podcasts and I listen to it because I told you
all that there's head coaches and there's general managers, and
they tell you everything. They tell you what they're doing,
they tell you how to build it, and you can
get some good notes. But I'm not gonna be that guy.
I told you that. But you're still exactly you gotta
ask the question, like you know, the obvious question that
(20:11):
every Falcon fan wants to know, is Matt Ryan and
Julio Jones gonna be on this roster come come the
start of next season. Those guys are good players and
both of Matt and Julio and they've done a lot
of really good things for this organization. So and and
look we're gonna add you're already smiling look at you
(20:31):
for me. Okay, how about this? You finish up? Tell
me who I'm gonna say, no if if not even knowing,
because people don't know this is the first time we've met.
But having read up on you, having done some research
on you, my guests would be the answer to that
question would be, they're very talented players. We are looking
to have the best team that we can have, and
(20:53):
obviously you want the best players possible, and we're gonna
do everything we can to make sure the Atlanta Falcons
are success well, not just this year but every year
after Bam perfect. But you know what I will say this.
I will say this, this is we are in play.
Whether we're talking about free agency or whether we're talking
(21:15):
about the draft, we are going to add to every
position like we'll build strengths. We're not afraid to build
strengths like We're gonna add to every position. It's about adding.
We want to be a culture of competition and and
and author Smith has said it. We want to bring
in smart, tough, highly competitive football players. They're gonna fit
this culture and and and they're gonna and we're gonna
do that at every position, whether it's quarterback, whether it's receiver.
(21:37):
You look at Ron Wolf, he's you always bring in quarterbacks.
That don't. You need to bring in quarterbacks, whether it's
in the draft, whether it's in free agency, are signing
guys off the street. It's so important bringing quarterbacks a
lot build trends, AAI newsom bring in the best players
available like these are. These are men that have had
all that success, and it's about having the right fifty three.
But we have to add competition in every position, so
(21:59):
we're not gonna be afraid um to add to strengths.
But both those players are are really good. I'm excited
to be here with those players. I'll try it this
way with you, Terry. Are there any untouchables on the roster?
Are there any untouchables? Correct? Go ahead, tell me tell
me no, No, oh no, are there any untouchable it's
(22:20):
on the roster. I don't think there's any. I don't
think you'd ever be in a situation where you would
say somebody is untouchable. That's not the right culture, right
if if you're building a culture like I said, of competition,
and then then that doesn't make sense to have UM
to say that this person can't be touched. But but look,
I believe we have a lot of good people in
(22:41):
this building right now, a lot of good players that
have the right mindset, and we're going to supplement this
roster and add to the roster, and we're working to
build this team for what sustained success. So so, Terry,
one of the one of the big conversations you aways
here on the foul because of the offseasons. Oh, the
shalary cap situation, it's crazy. So if you if you
could explain a little bit about the manipulation of that,
(23:03):
especially not knowing you know what the cap is gonna be.
Let's assume it's a hundred and eighty million dollars. How
you have to kind of finesse that with some of
that roster building as well, because you know there's always shed,
there's always attrition. Then how you can get into this
market and free agency because a lot of people think
it's gonna be a slow played free agency market because
(23:23):
you're trying to depress some salaries to get guys in
on maybe a one year lesser salary deal. And and
that's gonna be a part of those that decision making
process because you do there's always a way to to
to make it work for this year, but at some
point you're kicking it down the road. At some point
it's gonna come back and you're gonna have to um
pay those prices. So we have to again, our goal
(23:45):
is to have sustain success. So we're gonna work hard
to do the right things again. We want to get
the most competitive team on the field this year, but
we don't want to make decisions in one that are
going to hurt us in twenty three and moving forward.
So we're gonna have that that big picture mindset and
we're gonna we're gonna make sure we make decisions for
sustaining success. But but there's always ways to um to
(24:09):
to work. Your heart is to um to make things
work and to make sure you can continue to act
good players through the off season. You know, Terry On,
I have to tell you you're the You're the first
black general manager in the history of the organization. What
is the significance of that to you? It's so significant
and and you know, I actually got I got emotional
on my press count during my press conference. And I
(24:31):
think the reason I did is because that was the
first time. I'm such a process oriented person and I
and I really sometimes I'm focused so much on the
moment and the process, and I'm thinking about what I
have to do next. And so even as soon as
I get the general manager job with the Falcons, right away,
I'm thinking about staff and I'm thinking about my first
steps in the first sixty days and what we need
(24:52):
to do and what. So I'm focusing on those things
to where I don't even take a second to really
be in the moment and just and just appreciate the
magnitude of the situation you're in. And so when I
was on my press conference, when I actually said it
out loud, that's when I got emotional, and that's when
I kind of realized that and my son. So so
I did the press conference and saw Matt. I'm in
(25:13):
this office and my son is is right across from me.
He's sitting there and he's looking at me, and he
wants to be a GM. He's nine years old, and
he has opinions on every football team and every player
and and and and he's so he's and he's been
since he was since he could walk. He's been sitting
in my office on the couch here in the conversations
with the coaches and watching players. So in his mind,
(25:35):
that's what he wants to do. And so when I'm
when I'm talking about this, and I'm looking at my
son and and I look, I got three daughters too,
and they might end up wanting to be gms. And
but when I'm looking at looking at my family, that's
when it really hit me how important it really is.
And and I really look at this like and I
explained that to them, is that there are no it's
not about accomplishments, it's about opportunities, because I have to
(25:58):
take this like, this is an opportunit unique, but I
have to make sure I handle this the right way
because it's not fair to my son, or my daughters
or a lot of other people if I don't handle
this the right way and make sure I do things
the right way so they can have those opportunities moving forward.
I mean that that's a brilliant that's brilliantly said, because
you know, sometimes especially you know, diverse candidates, when they
(26:19):
good opportunities, they're not like you like when you said,
you know, hey, I want to be in the right spot.
I'm gonna choose to go where I think is the
right by some people to take the job because it's
there they may not ever get it again. And so
I think that is important that you were able to
kind of finesse that and understand that this is a
huge opportunity. I want to change gears just a little
movement a little bit towards the draft process. And that's
(26:40):
the evaluation without the combine and only having pro days,
and and doing this in this really odd environment where
some schools only had five games, a lot of schools
aren't didn't start until like last week, especially some like
HBCU programs. So how is it about you know, you've
been doing this for a while, but evaluating the college
(27:01):
athlete in the college prospect under these circumstances, that's that's
really tough, because that's that's all a part of it,
Like wanting to get out and wanting to put your
hands on the players and and be around him, and
and and being the buildings as much as possible and
talk to everyone in the buildings. That's that's all a
part of the process. That's one of the first things
when when the college staff got here today and we're
(27:22):
talking about them, I know they haven't been able to
do everything they would have normally done in this year,
and and yet they worked hard. And what I what
I will say is everybody's it's even playing field, and
so everyone is doing the same thing. So so we
have to just make sure we maximize all the opportunities,
and there are some benefits. There are some things moving
forward that we're going to continue to change, like like
(27:45):
look at the zoom interviews and that whole process. That's
really that's really valuable, and you can get a lot
of good information and you get it back to back,
so you're getting apples to apples on the players. So
there's some advantages and there's some good things, but not
being able to to to go out as much and
again the combine like there's some scouts that have been
doing this for for forty years and not going to
(28:06):
combine that. They can't believe that. But but but I
will say everybody's has the same everybody's gonna have the
same opportunities, everybody's gonna be dealing with the same things.
So we just have to make sure we maximize the
process as much as we can and get the right
information so we can bring in some good falcons. You know.
Terry J. C. Tread Or, the president of the nfl
(28:26):
p A, said recently that what this uh, what what
COVID has taught him at least, is that players don't
need to be on the field in the off season
as much as teams have had them on the field,
particularly veterans. I'm wondering, from your standpoint, do you agree
with him or is there a middle ground that could
(28:47):
be found where teams can be smarter in terms of
how do they utilize zoom and other things virtual meetings
and limiting the wear and tear of say some of
these veterans who are out there in the off season
for the on field workout. Yeah, that's that's a good question. Uh,
And I think it's a loaded question. I think there's
so many levels of it because, Uh, there's also the
(29:08):
part that, Hey, if you talk to a strength coast,
they're gonna say, I want to get those guys as
soon as possible to make sure, um, we have them
prepared for um. So, so we're we're preventing injuries and
we're getting them prepared, especially say a young guy, getting
them in your program and getting them going. And there's
a part of building those relationships, getting the players together. So, um,
I think there's so many different angles you can process with.
(29:31):
But I just feel like from my standpoint, the way
I look at it is is hey, to tell us,
tell us what we can do, and then we're gonna
take it and we're gonna maximize it and get the
most of it. So Terry, having that fourth overall pick,
this is now you're in a draft spot you're really
not used to. Haven't been with the Saints in the
success that you guys have had down there for so long.
What type of chip is that? And of course when
(29:53):
I say that, you're in a prime spot to take,
you know, an elite guy. But you know, especially in
this quarterback type of market. Ye, your phone's gonna be
ringing a little bit right some people are gonna be
throwing to bait your way to see if you're gonna bite.
And you I mean, really, you're in a position of
strength at number four, just coming in and doing everything
you guys are going through right now, process wise. What
(30:14):
kind of chip is it to be at that, at
that number four spot. Yeah, that's a great question. It's
so valuable and it's so exciting to be right there
because you're right, we don't want to be we don't
want to ever be picking in the top five again.
We want to be picking at the bottom of the
rounds of all the rounds. So this is it's really
valuable and we're in a position that, hey, we can take.
We want to build this roster the right way, and
(30:36):
we're gonna think long term. So nothing is really off
the table, um, whether you talk about taking the best
player on the board, or are are moving down or
I think everything's wide open. And so it's a it's
a great it's a great spot to be in and
and we want to make sure we maximize that and
and have a hell of a draft because we don't
expect to be there anymore. You know, Terry, we all
(30:57):
know it's a quarterback driven league, and yet I think
this offseason we're gonna see quarterback movement like maybe we've
never seen before. Why do you think that is now? Um?
Because teams choosed to treat that as as an untouchable
position essentially as it relates to franchise guys. We've already
seen Stafford moved, We're hearing that Carson Wentz is going
(31:17):
to be moved, Deshaun Watson is asked to be moved. Um,
why do you feel now teams are much more willing
to to play musical chairs with quarterbacks? That's that's a
really good question, and and it's it's still I don't
want to say, surprising to me but it is such
an uncommon year with with that going on, and that
(31:39):
such a critical UH position in such an important position, UM,
and and it's look, it's uncommon to say the least,
and and I can't really tell you why that's happening, uh,
but but but it's gonna be interesting to see a
playout and and just on that note, without you know,
we we see you know, Jim mentioned Deshaun Watson, Carson Wentz.
But also it's not what the players are or some
(32:01):
of these NFL quarterbacks are going NBA style saying hey,
I want out and they're trying to flex a little
leverage right here. Is it a potential trend or are
these just unique situations? I think I think they're unique situations, um,
because it's it all depends and when there's so much
movement with with UH with different coaches and and and
(32:22):
different gyms and different schemes and and UH, I think
that that adds a little bit to it. Um. Look,
I would think I don't know if that's just something
that's just happened right now at this moment, or if
it's gonna be a trend moving forward. But but again,
definitely uncommon to say the least. All right, Terry, Hey,
we we appreciate you joining. You know, since it is
(32:42):
the first time, we weren't weren't gonna squeeze you too
tough when you came to political you and keep your
lance bottoms. You could be here her next speech writer.
But now this was great, man, this is great. We
really appreciate you taking the time because we know you're
super busy right now. We wish you all the best
at Jim. This man here converted some Saints fancies and
(33:04):
Falcons fans, So if he can do that, I think
the Falcons are in really good shape. I'm telling you,
I have a list of of of people all the
way from Late Charles Louisiana, where I grew up, all
the way through New Orleans that I have a list
of people that I've already told told my wife we
got to get them hats and shirts because because I'm
getting a lot of a lot of requests. So there's
gonna be a lot of a lot of black and
(33:25):
red um in Late Charles Louisiana all the way up
to New Orleans. How deep How deep is the list?
It's deep, It's deep. Dozen dozen's hundreds things Steve, I
don't know if they're gonna actually wear it, if they're
just saying that to be nice. And look, like I said,
with my dad, he's telling me he's all in, but
who knows. He might still be stuck on stuck on
(33:47):
New Orleans. But but look, there's a lot of I've
gotten a lot of awesome positive feedback. And uh, my son,
I've got a picture of him, my wife said the
other day, and he's sleeping with He's got one of
the flat black Malcolm's helmet, a really cool looking winning
Those are great. So it's uh, it's pretty cool. It's um,
my family's all in. There's a lot of people in
(34:09):
Louisiana that are all in. That's awesome. That's awesome, Terry,
thank you so much for joining us and all the best.
We're gonna circle back and have you on again after
the draft to see how see how things went. That
sounds great, That sounds great. Appreciate you guys. Steve was
(34:32):
an impressive guy. Um, I'm surprised after having this interview
with him that it took him this long to become
a GM but um, just somebody who's very thoughtful, very
learned and I'm I'm I'm intrigued to see what he's
gonna do, because again, I think they're not that far away.
But it's funny. The one thing I knew about him
(34:53):
going into the interview doing my research is that he
reads and listens to all of the media trying to
pick up nugget while not giving any out on his own.
And so that's why, you know, I kind of like
he said when I was smiling when he was answering
things because I knew, okay here. At times, it's kind
of that I'll almost say, it's almost like that Russell
Wilson talk where you know they're they're filling up your
(35:15):
notebook but not really saying anything, you know. But I
was kind of good though. He was just like, oh,
I listen and I read because you can. You can
get some good information right there. So that's a great sign.
And I'm telling you, Jim, if he can convert some
Saints fans to some Facons fans, even if he wears
the gear, I'm like, I said an interview, that's like
many hinds, but hands on somebody for his dad to
(35:40):
flip that, I mean, because he had just said just
last season told him, I'll be disappointed if you go
anywhere else, and if it's in the division. Basically, the
intimation was I'm not having it, you know. So it's
gonna be interesting when the Saints of the Falcons playoff,
particularly in New Orleans, how that goes down. Well, he
(36:00):
said he didn't want to interview with the Falcons because
they were the Falcons. But they read Arthur's book. It's
a good book. We both read it. So that that
that is that is absolutely hilarious. But we want, you know,
I just want to wish him the best because this
that's a challenging situation. Um, their cap situation is is
all over the place. They got the four pick, so
(36:21):
they're gonna be a team to watch come draft day.
I really think, um, you know, they could use the pick.
Could they go quarterback, could they move back to stack assets?
Gonna be very interesting to see what Terry Fonto does.
But we know that they think highly of him, and
you know, we know Arthur Blank too, and he clearly
is a culture guy. Here's that that and that's the thing.
(36:41):
This is why I'm intrigued by Terry Fonto because on
the one hand, you know, he's a guy who learned
under Mickey Loomis and Sean Payton. And the one thing
we know about those two, particularly even as it relates
to Drew Brees down the rope, down the stretch um
the finish of his career, is that they treated Drew right.
(37:02):
There was a respect there for the player in terms of, hey,
we know your players started to diminish a little bit,
but we're not gonna run you out of here. In essence,
We're gonna let you decide when you're ready. And now
he's got a guy like Matt Ryan who has done
so much for the franchise in terms of building the
bridge from Michael Vick to where they are now, those
(37:22):
sorts of things. How much does that come into play
in terms of what they do with him? If anything?
Same thing with Julio Jones. He's a franchise type guy.
He's gonna be a Hall of Famer one day. How
much does all that play into whether or not you
keep a guy or you let them go? And and look,
I covered the charges for a number of years, and
and the thing that was most disappointing is that many
(37:44):
times when their franchise players left, they left on bad
terms and there's some tough decisions sometimes that have to
be made, and I'm fascinated to see how the Falcons
handled these two situations. Yeah, Vincent Jackson online one't year
and JA sent you and you say Ol Ladany and Tomlinson,
I mean, Kellen Winslow. I mean, I could just keep
(38:06):
going down the list. It was so unfortunate that that
these guys didn't leave on good terms. It really is
all right, Jim, let's go ahead and wrap this up,
and hopefully we're gonna have some more general managers on
here as we you know, get into free agency and
get into the draft and to see how these guys
are scouting. Uh, and these just peculiar, you know, evaluation circumstances.
(38:27):
But Jim, why don't you go ahead and bring us home. Well,
once again, we we thank you for listening, We thank
you for subscribing. Please continue to leave comments, let us
know who you'd like to hear from, what you'd like
to hear us discuss. In that way, we can give
you more of what you're funking for. That's right, that's right.
(38:47):
We're gonna continue to have a strong lineup of guests
coming up in the off season. The games aren't being played,
but the Huddle and Flow is going to keep on
doing business. So don't turn your dial, don't be looking
for anything else, keep telling other people about it, because
we are going to keep bringing it to you. Are
There is a Huddle Flow podcast brought to you by
Into It, makers of Turbo Tax, The Mint and Quick
(39:09):
Books for Jim Trotter and Thomas Warrant. I am Steve White.
We are the Howard Mob and we are out
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