Falcons owner Arthur Blank has no regrets over Lamar Jackson, Deshaun Watson situations

The Falcons, meanwhile, went 7-10 for the third consecutive year, switched between quarterbacks Desmond Ridder and Taylor Heinicke and fired coach Arthur Smith at season’s end. The team was finally past its troublesome salary cap situation, but its lack of quarterback doomed its efforts to return to the playoffs.

So, was it a mistake not to pursue Jackson?

“I don’t think so,” Blank said. “It’s easy to say ‘yes’ given his year. He’s obviously an incredible player. We did not have the cap space. I think the coaching staff felt – all of us felt collectively – and certainly coach (Smith) and (general manager) Terry (Fontenot) that we had an answer in Ridder, a younger player without that kind of contract that would’ve kept us from building the team we wanted to build.”

When Blank says they didn’t have the cap space, he meant they didn’t want to allocate the majority of their resources to one position. The Falcons, after years of cap issues, had plenty of money to spend – and did – last offseason. As he’s previously done, Blank noted he didn’t want to spend a premium on a quarterback at the expense of other positions given what happened to the franchise after giving former franchise quarterback Matt Ryan his massive deal.

“What’s happened to us too often in the past … we’ve drafted well, brought them along, got to year 4 or year 5 and we had to let them go because we didn’t have the cap space,” Blank said. “It’s not a question of cash. We didn’t have the cap space so we had to let players go. That’s not a good formula. We want to be able to raise our own children and keep our own children the best we can. The result of that thinking was that let’s stay the course, continue to pursue the vision we have now, continue to build a roster and a foundation, offensively and defensively, and go from there.

“It’s not a criticism of Lamar. You can debate whether or not he would’ve been available or not – who knows whether they would’ve matched whatever offers were on the table (there was reported skepticism by teams that the Ravens would let Jackson go). I don’t know that. I’m not sure. But certainly a great player, for sure, and he had a great year.”

Falcons CEO Rich McKay, speaking alongside Blank, added: “Any time you’re dealing with a restricted free agent, which that’s what a tender does, you have to also decide, ‘Is there a chance this player is going to come, or not?’ Ultimately, you don’t get to make that decision. The home team does. So I would say with players like (Jackson), the internal answer was ‘no.’ … That discussion was had, but that’s what the answer was.”

While the team opted against signing Jackson, the offseason prior it chased then-estranged Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson, who also came with the legal baggage of 22 lawsuits against him alleging sexual assault and inappropriate conduct. The Falcons appeared close to acquiring Watson, but the player – who held control over his destination – wound up with the Browns, who traded multiple premium draft picks and gave him a fully guaranteed $230 million contract (a record). He’s since underwhelmed and been derailed by injuries.

The Falcons were heavily criticized for their efforts to acquire Watson, largely because of his alleged off-field conduct. And as part of the fallout, incumbent Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan wanted to seek other options, leading the Falcons to trade him to Indianapolis.

“We had to get the salary cap moving,” McKay said. “Matt was occupying over 20, 25% of our cap (Ryan signed a five-year, $150 million deal in 2018).” McKay noted that the Watson and Ryan situations were separate and that Ryan “could’ve been” the team’s quarterback a season ago if circumstances played out differently. In other words, he said the Falcons weren’t 100% committed to moving off Ryan regardless of whether they acquired Watson.

“But that discussion was ongoing as to what the timing was going to be,” McKay said. “Because at some point, you have to exercise the June-1 rule and put the dead money into the next year. For us, it turns out that’s what we did. But no, I’m not trying to tie those two (Watson and Ryan) together.”

With Ryan gone, the team signed Marcus Mariota, drafted Ridder in the third round and then failed to make the playoffs in a division that had an 8-9 champion (Buccaneers). It rolled with Ridder this past season, benching him twice for Heinicke – who was likewise ineffective – and showed again why quarterback instability is often at the root of a struggling franchise.

Blank, asked about how the failed Watson bid might’ve interrupted Smith and Fontenot’s plan, said the following:

“The decision at the time to pursue Deshaun to the extent that we did was a collaborative decision. … We pursued it to a point, and at some point it didn’t make sense for us.”

The team’s inability to replace Ryan has been at the forefront of its problems over the past two years. Blank praised Ryan, saying he’ll be in the team’s Ring of Honor, but echoed McKay in saying that the organization was faced with the decision of moving on from him given the “salary cap situation was so burdensome.”

“At some point, you have to decide: Should we move on and try to do a reset and have another 14-year run with another version of Matt Ryan, which is incredibly difficult to duplicate because he’s a special player and special human being,” Blank said. “So I don’t think looking back at that (Watson) decision, even looking back with hindsight, I don’t think we would’ve done anything differently at the time.

“It was not a long discussion we had about Deshaun. We went through a little bit of the process with him. We decided for a lot of reasons that we didn’t want to continue pursuing that.”

The Falcons, based on Blank’s comments and common sense, will be in the quarterback market again this spring. There are multiple accomplished veterans set to be free agents and, perhaps more importantly, this is considered a quarterback-rich draft class.