At Tuesday’s press conference introducing Dan Quinn as his team’s new head coach, Falcons owner Arthur Blank said that coach Dan Quinn had final control over the 53-man roster.
When asked about that during his Tuesday appearance on PFT Live, Quinn downplayed that power by saying he planned for things to be “a big collaboration” with General Manager Thomas Dimitroff and his assistant Scott Pioli. Dimitroff sent a similar message, saying that the personnel department has never “force-fed” a player on the coaching staff during his time in Atlanta and that he’s eager to work with Quinn.
“It’s not about who has final 53 or who has authority over one thing or another,” Dimitroff said, via the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “It’s about working together. It’s about nice equal footing and a partnership. Given the fact that this is Dan Quinn and he has all of his understanding of the defense and how he believes he wants to build a football team. I have no problem with how the set-up is. I encouraged it. … I think we need to spend a lot of time together talking about the specifics about system and the specifics about the football players that we are looking for.”
If all goes well for the Falcons, Quinn’s final say won’t be an issue because he and Dimitroff will have a good working relationship that never forces anyone to pull a trump card about a particular player. If they don’t, the Falcons probably won’t win and other people will have to figure things out in a few years.