January 13, 2008 was officially the day the Atlanta Falcons turned their misfortunes around. No, that wasn’t the day they drafted Rookie of the Year Matt Ryan (that was April 26, 2008) or the date they signed free agent Michael Turner (March 2).
January 13, 2008 was the day the Falcons hired former Patriots’ director of college scouting Thomas Dimitroff to be their next general manager. Without Dimitroff, there might not have been a Matt Ryan, Michael Turner or Mike Smith, who recently won the NFL’s AP Coach of the Year Award.
On Wednesday, Dimitroff was named Sporting News magazine’s NFL Executive of the Year – and for good reason. Not only was he responsible for hiring Smith, signing Turner and drafting Ryan, but he was also behind trading overrated cornerback DeAngelo Hall to Oakland, releasing aging veterans Alge Crumpler, Rod Coleman and Warrick Dunn, as well as selecting Sam Baker, Curtis Lofton, Chevis Jackson, Harry Douglas and Kroy Biermann in last year’s draft, all of whom were major contributors as rookies in 2008.
There’s no doubt the Falcons were in bad shape in 2007. Michael Vick was arrested and sent to federal prison because of dog fighting, Bobby Petrino quit in the middle of the night and ran back to the college ranks, and players like Hall started to act above the team. Making matters worse, late in the year it looked like Bill Parcells would join the team as the new general manager, but as it turns out he was only using the Falcons as leverage to get the Dolphins’ front office job.
Heading into 2008, the Falcons needed a new general manager (Rich McKay was relegated to team president after the ’07 season), a new head coach and a new direction. So after the Parcells debacle, owner Arthur Blank hired Dimitroff, which turned out to be one of the best decisions Blank has made since buying the team in 2002.
Looking back, it was no surprise Dimitroff had so much success in just his first year. He came from a winning organization in New England, so he knew what it took to build a winner elsewhere. He hired Mike Smith because he knew he had to have a coach he could work with in constructing personnel. He drafted Matt Ryan because he knew most Super Bowl-caliber teams needed a Super Bowl-caliber quarterback. He parted ways with Hall, Crumpler, Dunn and Coleman because he knew their production probably wasn’t going to match their contracts and the team needed a new core group of players. And finally, he built an offense first because he knew dome teams have advantage on that side of the ball and that Smith (the Jaguars’ former defensive coordinator) could do more with less in terms of the defense, at least in their first year until Dimitroff had the chance to bring in better defensive personnel.
But it all comes back to Dimitroff’s previous success. He learned in New England what it takes on a day-to-day basis to win in the NFL. He had hands on experience in helping the Patriots win so when Atlanta came calling, he took that same formula and instilled it into the Falcons. And wouldn’t you know it – it worked.
