Thomas Dimitroff became the Falcons’ general manager Jan. 18, 2008 and is the longest tenured GM in franchise history.
Under his watch, the Falcons have posted a 103-76 record, made six trips to the playoffs and one to the Super Bowl. He spent time after practice in the team’s museum reflecting on this turbulent offseason, his tenure and the future of the football operation with the season set to hit the first-quarter mark Sunday.
Here’s what he had to say in an exclusive interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Q: Please explain all of the offseason salary-cap moves?
A: At the beginning of the offseason, we knew that it was going to be complicated and it was going to take a lot of financial creativity to fit it all in. And we weren't expected to get done exactly what we did get done. We thought we were only going to have a specific amount of moves, but we continued to pull off some of our moves later in the free agency time frame with guys like (Allen) Bailey. Those were big moves for us and important moves for us.
Q: What was the hold up on Julio Jones deal?
A: The Julio deal took longer than we anticipated. It wasn't contentious at all. It was a complicated situation as well. ... It was complicated and staying true to what the whole offseason was with our free-agency moves, we had to be very creative with how we were going to get the deal done with such substantial money. We worked very closely with CAA on it. Both sides had to be understanding on how we were going to approach it. Unfortunately, it took to the very end. But we got it done and Julio is signed here for a number of years to come.
Q: With the rash of recent contracts how are you set up salary cap-wise for the future?
A: I believe we are in a good spot. We are anticipating, like we always will, that the salary cap will always be fluid. We have a really good idea of the players that are playing for us now and who's going to play for us into the future. That's a part of how we conclude. ... We are very focused on, not only the here and now when we are working on our deals, but we are also focused on year one, two, three and beyond into the future. Again, we feel like we have a really good view and vision of what we are going to do. I feel like we are in a really good place. With that said, we are going to have to be mindful going into years to come because you only have a certain amount of money under the cap. Again, we always feel like we always do a really good job of being creative with how we are going to fit people that we need to keep on this football team. We are confident that we can continue to do that into the future.
Q: Where are the Falcons with analytics being integrated into the football operations?
A: What we've done here over the last year and a half is we've created a football technology department that combines analytics, application development as well as video. Three major components within football technology. It's a really interesting and important part of the evolution of football technology within our league. Video has evolved beyond what any of us have imagined. So, we're again, very encouraged by our football technology group. We feel we're on the cutting edge in a lot of different ways. Some of what our groups are presenting to us on football technology to me is second to none with in the league.
Q: Have you reflected on you 12-year tenure with the Falcons?
A: We got there once. '12 was a tough one. I've reflected a number of times, but it fades away fast because I'm such a believer of being in the moment. I realize that you are always learning from your past mistakes. And you're learning from some of things we did well to get us to the Super Bowl in '16 and be consistently playing as a playoff caliber football team. I will say that it's amazing, you know the line, it's amazing how time flies. It's one of those things that has me back on my heels thinking about 12 years in this business. There are so many ups and downs. So many learning stages. Not only with player acquisition, but with how you are running organizations and the decisions that were made. I'm very proud of what we have in this building on so many levels. Our departments are always very well thought out. It's an intelligent group. It's not a flippant group. We work hard and we focus and concentrate on being the best that we can be. Of course, it's never perfect and we continue to focus as an organization on trying to get better. The great thing is that we have an owner in Arthur Blank, who is providing us with all of the resources we need to be the best that we can be i.e. this year we spent a lot of money on putting this football team together and we feel confident that we have a very good football team.
Q: How can teams get ready for the regular season by not playing in the exhibition season?
A: It will be really interesting to watch how we evolve as a league and how we change. We've talked again and again about the validity and effectiveness of using the (exhibition) season to help our players get ready. Some, it does help. For some, it's not necessarily helping as much because we may not as a league be using our veterans as much as we'd like to be, but we are trying to prevent injury and keep them as healthy as possible.
Q: Can we review the changes in the scouting department with the departure of Scott Pioli?
A: When Scott left, you had Steve Sabo in change as the director of player personnel. You have Shepley Heard, who's the director of pro scouting. Anthony Robinson is the director of college scouting. Then we have area scouts. We had guys who were area scouts move up to regional positions. We have areas, regional then a couple of national guys as well. Then Bob Kronenberg left and is working with the offensive line. I think it's always been his passion to coach. I think his time as a scout has really helped his ability as a football coach.
Q: Have you been able to get out and ride a little bit?
A: Not much riding, I've been doing some stationary-bike work. Trying to be smart about that because we have so much on our plates trying to work through what we are working through. We are in the process of, as you know, with some of the injuries that we've had, we're always out there looking on the pro side of things and what potential acquisitions we can make. We continue to do that. As an organization with Dan Quinn as a head coach, we are a lot more open-minded with this staff to go out and be aggressive in the market if we need replacements for injuries or for simply if a player is not playing up to their ability. I like where we are right now in our approach, meaning again we have a really good pro staff that is dialed in on providing us the right information when there are potential acquisitions that would help and continue to bolster our depth.
Q: What’s the early word on the 2020 draft?
A: Our scouting staff is smack dab right in the middle of it. Our scouting staff is really dialed in right now. They've been out for months now focused on this next wave. I've been smack dab in the middle of it when I get pockets of time during the day and during the week, which I really enjoy doing. It allows you to know what's out there. It allows me to hit X-amount of schools during the fall. Always communicating with the staff about what's out there and who and what schools are best suited for me to visit. There are some good football players out there, but it would be premature to get into positions. ... The draft is already real exciting for us. ... We'll have our first meeting probably within the next three weeks."
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