Last Monday night, Rich McKay had a dead-center seat for a Monday night win over the Rams, between owner Arthur Blank and G.M. Terry Fontenot.
Today, McKay exited the position of Falcons CEO.
Officially, it ends his 23-year tenure with the team. He served as the General Manager from 2003 through 2008. In 2008, with the hiring of Thomas Dimitroff, McKay graduated to the role of president/CEO. After the team’s current stadium was launched, McKay became more involved (again) on the football side.
He remained the president and CEO until 2023, when Greg Beadles became the team president. As CEO, McKay remained responsible for the football operations. A year later, he exited day-to-day football operations of the Falcons, retaining the position of CEO and adding the title of CEO of AMB Sports and Entertainment.
Now, McKay will work solely as the CEO of AMBSE, with Beadles becoming CEO of the Falcons. Said Blank in the letter explaining the latest changes, “Rich will now be able to give full focus to critical AMBSE initiatives including: major events on the near horizon for Atlanta with the 2026 FIFA World Cup and NFL’s 2028 Super Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium (MBS); renovations to MBS and construction of a world-class training facility for AMBSE’s new NWSL franchise and the launch of that team coming in 2028; and other business development and organizational projects in various stages of planning.”
The end result is that McKay no longer works in any capacity for the Atlanta Falcons. Which raises an obvious question: Will he continue to serve as chairman of the Competition Committee?
He no longer works for the NFL’s Falcons. If he doesn’t work for the Falcons, it no longer makes sense for him to have a role that is so central to the ongoing effort to tweak the NFL’s rules and policies.
There had already been rumblings that McKay’s 30-year run on the Competition Committee would be soon ending. Some in league circles have said they’ll believe it when they see it, mainly because McKay’s influence at the league level inures to the benefit of the Falcons — and because (as some believe) McKay coordinates closely with the league office when it comes to selecting the various rules and policies that will be targeted for tweaking.
Of course, now that the league office has begun recruiting specific teams to make proposals that may otherwise stall in the Competition Committee (e.g., the Lions’ proposal to change playoff seeding and the Packers’ proposal to scrap the tush push), it’s possible that the Commissioner and his lieutenants can push their agendas without pulling the strings of the Competition Committee.
Regardless, McKay’s official exit from the Falcons leads directly to the question of whether it makes sense for him to serve on the Competition Committee, as chairman or otherwise.
If he still does, is he truly not working for the Falcons?
The new additions to the Falcons organization will go beyond a new head coach and General Manager.
In a letter to Falcons fans posted to the team’s website, team owner Arthur Blank said that the team will also be hiring “a new president of football from outside the organization.” Blank said that hire will “set the vision and identity for our team” and that they hope to move quickly on making that choice so that the new president will be involved in the other job searches.
“Our new head coach and general manager will report to the new president of football, and they will work collaboratively as a football leadership team on all football decisions,” Blank said. “Final decision-making authority will rest with the president of football.”
Blank did not mention any names, but word that Matt Ryan could return to the team in an executive role.
Blank also said that Greg Beadles has been elevated from team president to president and CEO and will continue to oversee the team’s business affairs. He will succeed Rich McKay as the CEO and McKay will take on an expanded role in the Arthur M. Blank Sports and Entertainment organization.
The Falcons made the news official on Sunday night, announcing the firings of head coach Raheem Morris and General Manager Terry Fontenot.
The two men met with owner Arthur Blank after Sunday’s 19-17 win over the Saints to end the season.
“I have great personal affinity for both Raheem and Terry and appreciate their hard work and dedication to the Falcons, but I believe we need new leadership in these roles moving forward,” Blank said in a statement. “The decision to move away from people who represent the organization so well and have a shared commitment to the values that are important to the organization is not an easy one, but the results on the field have not met our expectations or those of our fans and leadership. I wish Raheem and Terry the absolute best in their future pursuits.”
Morris was named head coach before the 2024 season, and the Falcons went 8-9 in each of his two seasons. He also served as the team’s interim head coach for the final 11 games in 2020, going 4-7.
Fontenot completed his fifth season in Atlanta after joining the Falcons in 2021. The Falcons’ record during his tenure was 37-48, with no playoff appearances.
The searches for the head coach and General Manager roles will begin immediately, the team said, with assistance from ZRG Partners in the head coach search and Sportsology Group in the G.M. search. No timeline has been set for completion of either search, but they will occur concurrently, according to the team’s statement.
The Raheem Morris era is over in Atlanta.
The Falcons fired Morris as their head coach today, just after concluding his second consecutive 8-9 season.
Also fired was General Manager Terry Fontenot, whose tenure will be remembered for taking two big swings for quarterbacks by signing Kirk Cousins and drafting Michael Penix, and missing on both those big swings.
Morris was hired by the Falcons two years ago in the hopes that he could turn around a franchise that hasn’t had a winning record since 2017, but he kept the Falcons where they always seem to be, mired in mediocrity.
Morris now has an overall record of 36-56 as a head coach, which includes the last two seasons in Atlanta, three seasons as head coach of the Buccaneers, and a previous stint as the Falcons’ interim head coach in 2020. It seems unlikely that Morris will get another shot at a head-coaching job.
Now the Falcons will begin a search for a new head coach and new GM, who will inherit a roster that has plenty of talent, but also has a massive question mark at quarterback. Until a general manager gets the quarterback situation figured out, it’s going to be hard for any coach to win in Atlanta.
Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins closed out the 2025 season with a win and his plans for 2026 came up at his postgame press conference.
Cousins started the final eight games of the season for the Falcons after Michael Penix’s season-ending knee injury and Sunday’s 19-17 win over the Saints meant that the Falcons went 5-3 in those contests. His current contract has a non-guaranteed salary of $35 million for the 2026 season and the Falcons would owe him a $10 million roster bonus in March, so it was no surprise that he was asked if he thinks this could have been his final game with the team.
“Hard to know. Hard to know,” Cousins said. “I would like to keep playing, but we’ll see how things play out in March or even after that. . . . I would love to be back here. We’ll see how things play out. At this point, just see how it goes.”
Penix’s recovery timeline is still coming into focus and Cousins played well enough in his absence to be a good insurance policy against any delays to Penix’s return. It’s an expensive option, though, and Cousins would likely have clearer paths to a starting job if he moves on this offseason.
