Arthur Blank says he will make the final call on who Falcons hire as new head coach

ATLANTA — Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank and CEO Rich McKay addressed the media for nearly 90 minutes on Monday after the team fired its head coach.

Blank said he and McKay had a two-hour meeting on Sunday night with Arthur Smith after their loss to the Saints before they decided to part ways.

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Blank said the decision to firing Smith didn’t necessarily come down to one thing.

“Obviously not a snap decision. It’s one that you continue to ruminate on as the season goes on. What’s our record against winning teams? What’s our record against losing teams? Our record against losing teams this year was abysmal honestly. Lots of reasons. But we lost a bunch of games we probably should not have lost,” Blank said.

Blank told reporters that it’s never an easy decision to fire a head coach. He said that Smith is an extraordinary human being, but professionally the team didn’t meet the championship standard that they hoped to achieve.

McKay said the franchise wants to see results now.

“I think we like the direction of the team and the franchise. But I think we need results. And we need results sooner rather than later,” he told reporters.

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This will be the sixth head coach that Blank will set out to hire since he bought the team in 2002. During his ownership, the Falcons have made the playoffs eight times, including the Super Bowl in 2016.

Blank said general manager Terry Fontenot, who was in not attendance during Monday’s news conference, will be “heavily involved” in the process going forward as will others.

But Blank will have the final decision on the next head coach. The Falcons owner stressed there is no timetable for when that will be.

“The only timetable is to do this correctly. We’ll take our time. Be thoughtful. Do all of the interviews. Be respectful. Make sure we have a full diverse set of candidates that we’re considering in every way, and give each and every one of them an opportunity to express their vision for our football team, for our franchise, the roster and where we are,” Blank said.

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