The Falcoholic
We’re getting down to the wire now. With the 2025 season nearly over, big decisions are looming across the organization. The team has being working with the consulting firm Sportology this fall and winter in an effort to audit football operations and figure out what needs to change to pull out of what now stands at an eight year streak of losing season. Among the decisions to come? The fate of general manager Terry Fontenot, head coach Raheem Morris, and the possible addition of Matt Ryan to the franchise’s power structure, with all the roster changes you’d expect in the wake of those decisions.
With those possible changes looming, reporting around the team’s process and decisions to come have been heating up. In the past few days, in particular, insiders ranging from Albert Breer to Dianna Russini have reported something genuinely surprising: Fontenot may be out, but Morris may stay.
Here are the relevant passages from those reports, starting with Russini:
(Sportology’s work) is expected to be weighed alongside the organization’s internal evaluations: two seasons (and a 15-18 record) under coach Raheem Morris, five seasons under Fontenot, how this year has unfolded, the perceived state of the roster and the franchise’s overall team-building approach. Many around the league expect the Falcons to move on from Fontenot and stick with Morris as coach. One potential added voice to the mix? Former quarterback Matt Ryan, who is in talks to return to the organization in a front-office role.
And Breer:
• The Falcons’ recent surge—they’ve won three straight, and four of six after a five-game losing streak dropped them to 3–7—has cast some doubt on the long-held assumption in league circles that owner Arthur Blank was preparing to clean house.
In recent weeks, the consulting firm Sportology, which has helped Blank with his soccer teams, has been brought in to run a top-to-bottom health check on the team’s football operation. My understanding is that it’s actually better than some on the outside might think. And the prospect of Matt Ryan coming aboard in a Chris Spielman–type role could be in play.
All that isn’t to say everyone’s safe. But the winning streak will likely help coach Raheem Morris, in his second year, more than GM Terry Fontenot, who’s in his fifth year (Atlanta last made the playoffs in 2018). If there’s a GM change, Bears assistant GM Ian Cunningham would be a name to watch, given the close relationship between Ryan and Chicago GM Ryan Poles, who was a lineman for the quarterback at Boston College 20 years ago. —A.B.
It is worth noting that other insiders are still ensure about Morris’s fortunes; Dan Graziano and Jeremy Fowler at ESPN have suggested he’s not a sure thing to be safe, and that he’d need to make staff changes even if he stays. But the Breer and Russini reports have come over the last 24 hours or so and match the sense that I’m getting from this...
