REBELS: How Terry Fontenot, the NFL's most fearless GM, is driving the Atlanta Falcons into title contention
"If you’re worried about pleasing everybody, you’re going to be a failure." He shocks the world every offseason. Now, it's time for the Falcons to win. Go Long sits down with a GM unlike any other.
FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — Football is a testosterone-fueled enterprise. The most alpha of alphas congregate inside a modern-day coliseum to legally whup each other’s asses for three hours. Seventy thousand fans cheer. And boo. And curse. And burn through their kids’ college funds on NFL-sanctioned gambling apps while sipping an $18 beer.
Football weeds out the physically and mentally fragile with its participants chiseling their bodies into killing machines year ‘round.
There doesn’t appear to be any room for emotional sensitivities, but you’d be surprised. Those who profess to “ignore the noise” in public too often seethe in private. OK, it’s hard to blame the Gen Z athlete who had an iPhone stuffed into his hand at age 9, but even the sport’s middle-aged lifers too often allow eggheads with 14 followers to rent space in their brain. Public perception becomes an obsession. GMs and coaches morph into politicians, skewing toward the safe choice. The popular choice. Whatever keeps their poll numbers high.
Then, there’s the general manager of the Atlanta Falcons.
Terry Fontenot does not give a damn what anybody thinks.
The opinions of anyone outside of this building are nothing but spam that land in his junk folder. All mocks, all grades, all takes. The only time the Falcons GM even watches draft coverage is in hindsight. He hits rewind each spring to see what talking heads said about past prospects. It’s always a hilarious exercise, and a friendly reminder that pervasive opinions — on anything in life — can be proven dead wrong.
“There’s an article about the iPhone,” Fontenot says, “and about how it’s stupid and it’ll never work: ‘You can’t have a computer in your pocket.’”
Welcome to an office unlike any in the NFL. Aesthetically, it’s not much different than those occupied by the other 31 GMs. There’s a gorgeous view. There are family photos. One MLK quote hangs on the wall. Understandably, there are a few white hairs sprouting from his goatee that weren’t around the day Fontenot first moved in. All power brokers in a high-stakes sport age faster. But the decisions made between these walls almost always run counter to the rest of the NFL. The Falcons have been rebels under his leadership and, in reality, the rebels should be most relatable. Because if you were an NFL GM, how would you build a winner? Accruing draft capital and overthinking “If X then Y” probabilities through an ultra-analytic, ultra-calculated lens is one way to conduct business. Perhaps there’s a top-secret algorithm inside the file cabinet that worked for a title team in the past. There are owners who prefer a GM with MBA degrees on the wall.
Or you could be Fontenot. Love a player? Draft that player. Sign that player. Light a match to the status quo.
Here, groupthink is toxic.
Here, thinking for yourself is the most treasured virtue.
“We empower our scouts. We empower our coaches. We empower our analytics,” Fontenot says. “We want to have a lot of smart people that are working really hard and are confident enough to not worry about the perception or the outside. We know it wasn’t popular to take Michael Penix last year. But we spent all the time on it and we had faith and belief in this building.
“The confidence in our building, our people and the process that we go through? We can ignore that outside and do everything we can do that we believe is going to get us to that championship that we’re seeking.”
This offseason, Go Long flew to Atlanta to get inside the mind of the NFL’s most fearless general manager.
Fontenot takes everyone through the seismic decisions he believes will vault the Falcons into NFC contention.
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Practically every major decision he’s made slays conventional wisdom. Drafting a running back (Bijan Robinson) eighth overall. Paying top dollar for a guard (Chris Lindstrom) and a safety (Jessie Bates). Choosing Drake London at wide receiver — not because he’s a highlight machine, rather a werewolf of a competitor who’d like to claw your heart out. Drafting a quarterback eighth overall (Penix) had a dangerous spontaneous effect on our nation’s mock-draftin’ grifters: they collapsed in seizures. Trading a future first-rounder for Tennessee’s volatile James Pearce, soon after securing Georgia’s Jalon Walker, did the same.
Decisions backfire. That’s how high-stakes gambling works. He’s not perfect.
But with the trust from ownership, he keeps swinging. And swinging. And five years of saying “hit me” at the poker table can now pay off.
The last time we sat down with Fontenot, we learned about the man.
Now, it’s about the plan.
At home, Fontenot repeats two words to his kids daily: Be uncommon. He never wants them marching to the beat of “everyone else’s drum” or blindly doing what everybody else deems the “right” thing to do. At work, he practices what he preaches and truly does not care if he’s vilified. When his name goes viral, he has zero clue. “I wasn’t raised to be like everybody else,” says Fontenot, pointing to a picture in the back of his office. This is the photo he referenced to us before. Right there is his father — Roy James Fontenot — smiling in a wheelchair ahead of a Falcons/Bears game in 2022. It was Thanksgiving weekend.
“And right there,” Fontenot adds, “my dad was dying. He didn’t tell any of us. He didn’t want anybody to know.”
Dad died one month later.
Whenever this job induces the slightest hint of stress, Fontenot pours himself a cup of coffee, gazes at that picture and thinks back to Dad working 16-hour days at a power plant with a hard hat, a (literal) lunch pail, no mask, somehow finding time to coach him in all sports.
He thinks back to that weekend in 2022 when Dad knew he only had days to live, and didn’t tell him because he wanted everyone to enjoy one last holiday.
“What the hell can I complain about, dude?” Fontenot says. “We’re not worried because we believe in the people here. The players. The building. The process. We believe in that. We can ignore the noise and know that — in every ounce of us — we’re doing everything we can to bring a championship team in.”
The objective is laser-focused.
The Falcons do not cast a wide net of players they “like.”
Fontenot wants this team targeting a select few they sincerely “love.”
This means taking action other general managers never dare… and that’s the point.
Bash Brothers
The 18-minute interview at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis felt like a dream.
Nobody associated with the Atlanta Falcons wanted to wake up.
Jalon Walker — Georgia’s ubiquitous linebacker — detailed his leadership style. He’d walk through the hallways in Athens, Ga., with a proud posture and a resolute gait because he knew underclassmen were watching. He declared that he wants to go down as one of the sport’s greats. The Falcons’ brass already loved the player on tape. The person was even more impressive.
On this day of interviews, Falcons team president Greg Beadles was also present.
Walker exited the room and Beadles turned to Fontenot to ask: “Is there a chance?” The GM assured him there was not. Just like that, a virtual alarm blared and the Falcons woke up to chat with a different prospect. A month and a half later, at their local pro day, Walker wrapped both Fontenot and Fontenot’s son in bear hugs. All of it felt too good to be true.
“When you meet him? You get chills,” Fontenot recalls. “You want your son to grow up and be like that guy.”
No way would Walker trickle down to them at No. 15 overall… right?
The Falcons are a franchise forever starving for a pass rusher. Inform the GM that the edge position is cursed here, and he cannot help but laugh. As if agreeing there’s voodoo at play. The last time the Falcons went back-to-back years with a player eclipsing 10 sacks — hardly a monumental feat — was ’07 and ’08. When the Falcons took a magnifying glass to everyone in this year’s class, it was easy to fall in love with Walker. Fontenot doesn’t think anybody compares to Micah Parsons, but he saw Micah-like versatility to Walker’s game. At Georgia, the 6-foot-1, 243-pounder excelled both on and off the ball in totaling 89 tackles (19 for loss) and 12 ½ sacks.
Easy to see why a coordinator would froth at the mouth for him.
Like the Cowboys’ menace, Walker can attack any gap along the line of scrimmage.
“You see exactly who he is when you watch the tape,” Fontenot says. “The way he plays. The physicality. The toughness. The instincts. The intelligence. It all screams off the tape. When you read all the character and the makeup on him — his Dad’s a coach. He grew up with a football in his hand. Unbelievable leader at Georgia. All those characteristics. All the work the scouts do? You don’t even need to get that information because you see it on the tape. And he’s such a versatile piece that he can play on the edge. He can play stack. He can rush from any area on the field.”
Everybody from Salisbury (N.C.) High School to Athens spoke glowingly about him.
Maybe it was 90 percent delusion, 5 percent reality, 5 percent prayer to the football gods. From the Combine… to Georgia’s pro day… to the Falcons’ local pro day, Fontenot allowed himself to picture a world in which Walker trickled down the board. The plan was to stick at No. 15, take the best edge rusher, and then address both the safety and nickel spots in later rounds. He might’ve broken Beadles’ heart in Indianapolis but the closer he got to the draft, the more it became clear that the only players Fontenot knew for certain would be long gone by 15 were Miami quarterback Cam Ward, Colorado’s dual-threat Travis Hunter and Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter.
“The way the draft was,” he adds, “it wasn’t as definite as you would expect. With us being realistic, we didn’t expect him to be there. But you just really didn’t know.”
The Carolina Panthers seemed like destiny. He grew up 45 minutes from Charlotte, idolizing Panthers legend Thomas Davis. Instead, GM Dan Morgan opted for wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan at No. 8 overall. They wanted to give quarterback Bryce Young a weapon. On camera, Walker was noticeably pissed. The San Francisco 49ers drafted a Georgia edge rusher. Their preference at No. 11? Mykel Williams. Other teams addressed other needs and Walker, indeed, fell into Atlanta’s lap. Over the phone, Walker recognized Fontenot’s voice immediately. He referred to the GM as “Terry” in the tone of an old friend. He’s emotional, inaudible. “It was meant to be,” the Falcons boss tells him. Walker fit a Falcons hat atop his dreads to his family’s cheers and aggressively smacked his hands together, no doubt envisioning his chance to play the Panthers twice a year in the NFC South.
At that exact moment, Fontenot shifted the team’s focus to drafting the player they would’ve taken if Walker was gone: Tennessee’s Pearce.
Ahead of the draft, the Falcons had already made calls to see what it’d cost to work back into the bottom of the first round.
“But to actually see both those guys there?” Fontenot says, “It’s like, ‘OK, let’s turn in Jalon right now and let’s figure out a way to get Pearce.’”
A transition that could give any evaluator whiplash.
These are two players with two very different reputations.
Here in the GM’s office, I point out that what Fontenot says about Walker’s character is essentially the polar opposite of what scouts told Go Long’s Bob McGinn about Pearce. One scout called him a “Lone Ranger,” adding that he stood by himself on the sideline, 20 yards from anybody else. (“Didn’t look like he cared at all.”) Another cited “emotional outbursts.” Another said coaches at Tennessee claimed they’d never bring Pearce to the pros. (“On his own program. The whole team’s working out and he’s in his apartment. They didn’t know where he was.”)
They describe a talent with terrible football character.
He came at a steep price, too. For the rights to Pearce at No. 26 overall, the Falcons sent the Los Angeles Rams a second-rounder (No. 46 overall), a seventh-rounder (No. 242) and a 2026 first. They also got a third-rounder (No. 101) in return. The trade was reported in real time as grand larceny. Especially considering the New York Giants were able to work their way back into the first round for quarterback Jaxson Dart without sacrificing a future first.
Fontenot begins by stating that his scouting department digs up everything on prospects.
Character. Medical. Brushes with the law. All conceivable intel.
“You don’t have all the information,” Fontenot says. “Sometimes you have information on people that’s false.”
I cut in to ask if the nugget about Pearce being a “loner” is false. Fontenot doesn’t want to get into specifics, but insists he’s got a ton of belief in Atlanta’s investigative process.
On Pearce, it was exhaustive.
The athlete is rare. At 6 foot 5, 248 pounds, Pearce ran the 40 in 4.48 seconds. If Pearce could’ve gone pro in ’24, he would’ve been a top 5 pick. In three years, per PFF, he generated a whopping 113 QB pressures. Yet, such red flags are not invented out of thin air. Something was amiss in Knoxville. Smoke typically hints at a fire — was it a full-fledged wildfire or one the Falcons could manage?
The Falcons began their pursuit by requesting an individual workout in Charlotte.
Typically, Fontenot must convince prospects to work out. Not here. Agent Tory Dandy responded immediately to say Pearce was in. The GM saw on the radar that it’d be raining heavily in Charlotte and called Dandy to say the Falcons didn’t want the kid to risk injury.
Dandy said Pearce didn’t care. He wanted to work out.
Fontenot reiterated that he couldn’t put Pearce in a compromising position, Dandy said they could try to find an indoor facility and — the more he thought about it? — Fontenot outright cancelled the workout. By simply wanting to work out in any conditions — monsoon, 95-degree heat, blizzard — Pearce passed his first test.
“He didn’t care,” Fontenot says, “and that’s unique.”
Instead, the Falcons flew Pearce in for a top 30 visit and got to know him on a 1 on 1 basis.
Twenty-four hours before the 2025 NFL began, they flew to Charlotte to meet his family. The GM wanted to know everyone in Pearce’s inner-circle. Right inside Pearce’s living room, Fontenot chatted with his mother at length. “We spent a lot of time with a lot of people getting to know him,” Fontenot says, “and getting to know the people that are around him.” This matters more to him than binders full of spreadsheets: People. His own character judgement. He wanted to look everyone in the eye one final time and trust his limbic brain.
His verdict: “This guy loves ball. He’s ultra-competitive.”
There was no hesitation to call the L.A. Rams with premium draft capital on a silver platter. Moments later, Fontenot called Pearce’s cell. “Are you sitting next to Ms. Kizzy?” the GM asks. “Ask her if she’s ready to get on a plane and fly to Atlanta.” In the background, Mom offers a resounding “Yes!”
And to him, it’s incumbent upon these Falcons to help this 21-year-old mature. In figuring out why players flourish or flop as pros, we too often overlook the environment. No way does Jalen Carter, a prospect with similar red flags, ravage elite NFL quarterbacks with, say, the Las Vegas Raiders because no prospect enters the NFL as a finished product. He needed the Eagles. On this particular spring day, Fontenot is fresh out of the Falcons’ latest “360” meeting in which everyone gathers craft a personalized gameplan for players: the head coach, position coach, strength coach, head of player performance, player engagement, trainers, nutritionist, etc.
“When you’re assessing players,” Fontenot says, “you’re not just looking at everything that they are, you’re looking at your building. We did that with James and we felt great about bringing him here and helping him grow and thrive. He’s a dynamic player and we believe in the person. So, we were ready to do it. And honestly? We were ready to take him at 15.”
No GM wants to sacrifice future draft capital, but Fontenot justifies this trade as using next year’s first-round pick this year. The offense is set, the defense needs pass rush and edge rushers are exceptionally difficult to find beyond Round 1 — let alone creatures built like this.
Critics see a jarring risk.
Fontenot? The opportunity to connect on a 100 MPH fastball.
“You’ve got the 6-5 freak athlete. That isn’t normal to run a 4.4 when you’re 6-5 with the twitch, the suddenness, the burst, getting off the ball, all the things he can do,” Fontenot says. “And he’s a violent, disruptive player. Run game, too. He is a violent disruptive player. Jalon, it’s a completely different element where he can come off the edge, he can move around, he can rush in the middle. He can be your green dot centerpiece of your defense at middle linebacker. So, they are different types of players.”
Securing that third-round pick in the deal was crucial, too. The Falcons plotted to find a safety or nickel at that slot and were stunned to see Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts available at the 96th overall pick, a player with 13 interceptions the last two seasons. He could pair nicely with the All-Pro Bates. And then at No. 118, they might’ve found a long-term answer at nickel in Oklahoma’s torpedoing Billy Bowman Jr. “The violence, the toughness. The Cobra strike tackling,” says Fontenot, banging a fist into his hand, “everything that he does.”
Every general manager in the NFL will boast publicly that a draft broke in their favor. Fontenot seriously could not have scripted a better scenario than finding four players who theoretically zap life into this defense. Believe it or not, analytics served a role, too. The Falcons do possess a formula that incorporates a bevy of metrics: scout grades, analytic grades, team needs and positional value. The opinions of everyone are inserted into an equation to produce a Falcon-centric value on prospects.
Fontenot doesn’t draft off this specific model but does enjoy seeing what a robot spits out.
Let’s just say Walker and Pearce were both very high on this list.
The GM is quite familiar with doubling up at a position of need, too. Last year, he supplied arguably the greatest draft-day shock of the century. Two months after signing Kirk Cousins to a contract worth $100 million guaranteed, he selected Penix. In unison, the NFL world shrieked in horror. Beyond your social-media timelines, too. Chicago Bears GM Ryan Poles — an exec with a rotten track record — was caught on camera with his mouth agape in the war room. At his presser, Poles then laughed at the Falcons’ expense. Even Kyle Brandt, the NFL Network’s official mascot for all teams, skewered the pick.
Fontenot knows his livelihood, hell, the livelihoods of everyone in his building were tied to Penix the second he turned in the card.
“If you don’t have that franchise quarterback,” Fontenot says, “nothing else matters.”
It’s been a journey. At times, unwatchable. But these Falcons were uncommon the night of April 25, 2024 and firmly believe they’ve hit the jackpot on the most important position in sports.
‘Foxhole’ quarterback
He never would’ve forgiven himself. If Terry Fontenot passed on Michael Penix Jr., he would’ve been laying in his bed at night with his eyes wide open. Restless, sleepless and — perhaps — fired.
That’s the most succinct way to explain the most consequential decision of his football life.
The more the Falcons GM learned about this quarterback out of the University of Washington, the more he realized Penix needed to be his QB. The opinions of those outside of Flowery Branch were irrelevant. The fact that the ink on Kirk Cousins’ contract was hardly dry was a minor detail. In a “perfect world,” Fontenot admits, Penix would not have played as a rookie in 2025. Or even 2026. The Falcons wanted Cousins to be their QB1.
But when the Falcons were on the clock at No. 8 overall last year, the mentality was to secure the future of the franchise.
“Think about it,” Fontenot says. “If we had that level of belief — if we believe this guy was a special franchise quarterback — and we don’t take him last year, and then we’re sitting here right now, how does that feel?
“We see him somewhere else and say, ‘We had a chance.’”
There is no worse feeling for any GM in any sport.
From ‘21 to ‘22 to ‘23, Fontenot was never struck by Cupid’s arrow. So, he waited. He talked himself into competing on the cheap at quarterback and patience dangerously approached the realm of negligence from a 37-year-old Matt Ryan to a recycled Marcus Mariota to one quarterback (Desmond Ridder) that cannot even find work on a 90-man roster. Enough was enough, and the GM was granted full autonomy. When Fontenot set the stage for Go Long at the ’24 NFL Combine, you may recall the GM picking up a bag of Skittles to illustrate Arthur Blank’s support. “If we can tell him, ‘Hey, look, these Skittles cost a million dollars a bag, but if we get these Skittles, we’re going to be able to win a lot this year,’” Fontenot said then, “he’s going to say, ‘Go get a box of Skittles.’”
Three straight 7-10 seasons of slipshod quarterbacking was all the Home Depot founder needed to see. Blank was willing to invest whatever it took.
So, no, that viral clip isn’t what we all thought. Moments after selecting Penix, the GM was captured on ESPN seemingly explaining to Blank why his Falcons drafted a quarterback eighth overall after paying another quarterback $100 million guaranteed. It’s a serious conversation. The GM moves his hands all over the place and, at one point, the owner interjects. All to the knifing soundtrack of Louis Riddick’s criticism. Turns out, the two weren’t even discussing the pick. Rather, Fontenot was explaining what it’d cost Atlanta to leap back into the first round.
Spend enough time around Fontenot and it’s strange when he doesn’t talk with his hands. He’s animated by nature, which added to the theater of the night’s Shyamalan-level plot twist.
“If anybody knows this building,” Fontenot adds, “Arthur knows everything we’re doing.”
Fontenot vowed to attack that do-or-die offseason with an open mind, and genuinely fell in love with this southpaw bomber by refusing to ingest one kernel of rat poison from the draft industrial complex.
The intangibles were platinum. Penix bounced back from four straight season-ending injuries in college: a torn ACL in ‘18, dislocated SC joint in ‘19, re-torn ACL in ‘20, and a dislocated joint in his throwing shoulder in ’21. That final season at Indiana nearly broke him. Penix considered quitting football, telling the Pac-12 Network that he’d lay on the floor the morning of games and cry to God. “Praying,” the QB said, “that he’d protect me that day. Because I knew where my head was at that time. A lot of tears, man.” He was never medically cleared from that second ACL, and played anyway.
On the other side of those tears, Penix took over a Washington Huskies program and won 25 of 28 games with 9,544 yards and 67 touchdowns. He reached the national title game and finished second in the Heisman voting with a distinctive magnetism. Fontenot calls him a “multiplier.” The season before his arrival, UW went 4-8.
There were only two problems. In comparison to the other studs in this quarterback class, Penix played with cement in his cleats. He did not freestyle like Caleb Williams, rev 0-to-60 like Jayden Daniels or improvise like Drake Maye. Could Penix realistically function in the modern NFL? Pockets get muddy. Then, there was his loaded supporting cast. UW was sending not one, not two, but three wide receivers to the NFL. Rome Odunze (No. 9 overall), Ja’Lynn Polk (No. 37) and Jalen McMillan (No. 92) were all drafted in the top 100. Was Penix simply lobbing go routes to elite receivers in a non-SEC conference? Rookie passers almost always take over poverty offenses.
Fontenot refused to join the monolith. To him, these were puzzles to solve. Not problems. He interpreted all of the UW film the same way as the West Coast scout who told us on the eve of the draft that it’s actually Penix who made those receivers look good. Not the other way around. Look closely and you’ll see those passing windows were very tight. And, sure, he played with a bulky knee brace. Fontenot does not deny the reality that Penix operated exclusively from the pocket. He even describes Penix as a “stationary” quarterback those two seasons.
But he realized this was out of necessity. The kid who was crying on the floor Saturday mornings was trying to adapt.
When Fontenot and the Falcons scouts mined through more film — before the two ACL tears — they discovered an explosive athlete. Early on at Indiana, he used his legs. And back to high school in Tampa, Fla., wearing No. 9, he was known as “Tech N9ne.” A nod to the rapper who is, as the kids say, turnt up. This was no statue. Fontenot saw a quarterback “running everywhere.” One play in high school, seen here, Penix rolls right, slams the brakes to Olé! away from one charging bull, sprints forward, spins left and breaks free all in one breathtaking motion to scramble and complete a pass downfield.
NFL scouts predicted that Penix would run a 4.9 at his pro day.
Instead, they clocked him at a blistering 4.58.
Genes are at play. Michael Penix Sr. was a college running back at Tennessee Tech. Enshrined into the school’s Hall of Fame, he rushed for 100+ yards in 13 games, including a school-record 261 against Southeast Missouri in ‘93. Former Falcons head coach Mike Smith was actually on that Tennessee Tech staff as the defensive coordinator and recently shared old stories with Fontenot. The second the GM met Penix Sr., he saw why Penix Jr. is such a “tough, physical, competitive dude.”
Everyone on staff detected an athletic arrogance this team has been lacking at quarterback.
“He’s a football player. He’s transparent,” Fontenot says. “He’s not trying to be something he isn’t. That’s why he’s a natural leader because he’s just being himself and he’s out there competing. Mike wants to win, whether he is handing the ball off 40 times a game or we’re throwing the ball 40 times a game, that dude wants to come out with a win. So the intangible qualities, the physical traits, all those things really married up.”
Of course, Fontenot’s foundation as a scout are his 18 seasons with the rival New Orleans Saints. He was on the personnel side for the duration of Drew Brees’ 12 Pro Bowls, 68,000+ yards and 491 touchdowns in the Big Easy. He didn’t see Brees break into the NFL with the San Diego Chargers, but witnessed firsthand how this quarterback revitalized both a team and a hurricane-ravaged city.
Fontenot learned exactly what to look for in a leader — and that’s Penix.
Adds Fontenot: “You look next to him, you say, ‘OK, that’s the guy I want to be in the foxhole with.’”
The Falcons were all-in and didn’t give a damn what anybody else thought.
The Denver Broncos — and Brees’ former coach, Sean Payton — were picking at No. 12. Armed with multiple first-rounders, the Minnesota Vikings were bound to trade their way up the board. The Las Vegas Raiders, at No. 13, needed a QB. The Falcons, owners of the No. 8 pick, worked back channels to figure out which teams liked which quarterbacks but teams always emit smokescreens. He knew stuff he was hearing was BS. To him, it didn’t make any sense to manuever down the board, add a pick or two, and select Penix later in the first round.
Because that was the real risk. Losing Penix.
To explain, the GM uses an analogy relatable to everyone.
“It comes down to the player,” Fontenot says. “If you have that much love and conviction in that player, then you do it regardless. Because if you don’t do that and you’re worrying about, ‘OK, am I getting him for the right price?’ It’s kind of like if you’re bidding on a house: ‘OK, maybe I can get it for less…’ Do you want it or not? And is this going to make the family happy? OK, we’ll do it. If I got it for cheaper, that’s fine. I’m not worried about that. Because we’re going to really enjoy living in this house. It’s like with him. Once you have conviction and you have belief — in the building — you don’t care about, ‘Oh, could I have gotten him a little later?’ That doesn’t matter. If you believe in the player, take him there.”
All of the usual suspects lectured the franchise with indignation. Pundits believed Atlanta missed a golden opportunity to draft a defensive player — Dallas Turner? Laiatu Latu? — that’d more quickly help a Cousins-led team compete.
A fair point. But those critics didn’t see this franchise breathe through a tube at quarterback for three straight years like Fontenot. The best GMs also know the best time to draft a quarterback is when the world declares you do not need one… even if it pisses off the starter. When I bring up the Green Bay Packers, the team that selected Aaron Rodgers in 2005 (with Brett Favre fresh off a 4,000-yard, 30-TD season), then Jordan Love in 2020 (with Rodgers fresh off a 4,000-yard, 26-TD season), Fontenot points out that the 2020 class was loaded: Joe Burrow (No. 1), Tua Tagovailoa (No. 5), Justin Herbert (No. 6), Love (No. 26) and Jalen Hurts (No. 53).
The closer he studied the ’24 group, the more he saw similar potential.
Green Bay doesn’t have an intrusive owner demanding a Day 1 starter that fans will approve.
In Blank, neither does Atlanta.
Fail to strike gold in a QB-rich class and there’s a good chance your franchise is left behind. You’re the coward who drafted a safety or a tackle or a running back instead. Fontenot never felt this rush of adrenaline in ’21, when five QBs went in the top 15. Four of those five passers are on different teams. Florida tight end Kyle Pitts has not panned out — and Atlanta missed out on multiple All Pro talents, Parsons included — but pinning himself to Mac Jones or Justin Fields could’ve been a Day 1 death blow. Nor did he have this feeling in ’22. That group’s top pick, Kenny Pickett, is on his third team. In ’23, the Falcons weren’t in striking range of a quarterback. His controversial pick, running back Bijan Robinson, has a realistic chance to go down as the best player in the entire class.
Meanwhile, Atlanta built a powerhouse of an offensive line. The GM inked an offensive guard to a five-year, $102.5 million contract. Chris Lindstrom proceeded to assert himself as the best in the business.
He paid up for safety Jesse Bates (four years, $64M) and re-upped cornerback A.J. Terrell (four years, $81M).
Draft, to draft, to draft, Fontenot knew his roster wasn’t ready to break in a rookie quarterback.
Until ’24.
Until Penix.
“If you take a quarterback and you don’t have an offensive line or a run game,” Fontenot says, “the hit rate’s low. It’s 50/50 with the first overall pick at quarterback. Everything has to align.
“There’s not a guarantee that every year there’s going to be a franchise guy there. When you’re evaluating players — and when you’re evaluating drafts — you always look at the next year and what the expectation is. That can help you navigate that. But you can’t guarantee there’s going to be a guy say, ‘OK, we'll take one next year and we'll have multiple picks.’ It just doesn’t work like that. So, if there’s a guy you truly believe in, you got to do it.”
At the NFL owners meeting, I asked Falcons head coach Raheem Morris which Penix quality went underappreciated. He pointed to the poise, the calm, how Penix was never rattled by being designated “The Future.” Frankly, Penix could have cursed the football gods. No true competitor would enjoy walking into a room that features a newly minted $100M Man — the Falcons told the world they didn’t want Penix seeing the field any time soon. By the time he’s a QB1, Penix could’ve been 27, 28. Yet, less than 24 hours after the pick, Penix called this all a dream come true and insisted he was fine backing up Cousins for as long as it took. He brought up the Netflix series, “Quarterback” and said he was “super blessed” to be in the same room as someone so dedicated to his faith and family. He vowed to be a force of positivity.
Rewatching the press conference, you see an adult who’s unbelievably comfortable in his own skin.
“Everything I’ve been through,” Penix said, “made me the person and the player I am today.”
Cousins swag-surfed through his way to a 6-3 start and was swept away by a current with one TD and nine interceptions the next five games. Shoulder and elbow injuries did not help. After a win vs. Las Vegas — still in the NFC South hunt — the Falcons benched the vet. This was never the plan. Nor was this fun. Fontenot held out hope that Cousins would turn it around, and the quarterback never could.
Now, roles are reversed. Cousins is the No. 2 unless another team’s starter gets hurt and the Falcons have a trading partner.
“Mike showed his maturity throughout the whole thing,” Fontenot says. “He was just a really supportive, good backup and he’d come out there and run the scout team. His maturity is what really stood out. And then he goes in there and he’s going in there raw. It’s not like he works with these guys constantly. It’s not like he had a whole offseason. But right away, he went in there and competed.”
It's easy to see why the Falcons aren’t looking back. Penix’s left arm was dynamite through a three-game cameo.
In an overtime loss at Washington, he wasn’t fazed. Facing fourth and goal from the 13-yard line — down 24-17 with 1:23 left — Penix gunned a game-tying score to Pitts through a sea of burgundy jerseys. In a 44-38 loss to Carolina, Penix earned PFF’s fourth-best performance for a quarterback all season with seven “big-time throws,” defined as throws with exceptional location, timing, downfield into tight windows.” Good luck finding a laser quite like this 24-yarder to KhaDarel Hodge up the left sideline.
He's got a muzzleloader.
Best of all, he’s the rare young quarterback with a chance to showcase that muzzleloader.
The only player not returning on offense is center Drew Dalman and the Falcons had a winning record through Ryan Neuzil’s eight starts. Fontenot cites one “improbable play” in a TNF shootout win over the Buccaneers that likely went unnoticed. As the clock ticked from 4 to 3 to 2 to 1 in regulation, Neuzil quickly spotted the ball to tee up a tying 47-yard field goal. The offensive line is rock solid.
Robinson, fresh off an 1,887-yard, 15-TD season, is the engine. Take him No. 1 in your fantasy league. Tyler Allgeier is the bludgeoning complement. London is a budding superstar — with a twist. He embodies the ethos this GM craves. “A receiver,” he says, “with the mindset of a linebacker.” London could put up 200 yards and five touchdowns, and Fontenot knows he’d be pissed. (“The dude literally blacks out for games. Don’t talk to him during games because he’s angry. All he wants to do is beat the hell out of the other team.”) The team’s No. 2 wideout, Darnell Mooney, once eclipsed 1,000 yards with a combination of 34-year-old Andy Dalton, a rookie Justin Fields and Nick Foles as his quarterbacks, then nearly did it again as Cousins broke down. Even No. 3 Ray-Ray McCloud, on his sixth NFL stop, was a revelation.
Zac Robinson is back in Year 2 as OC.
Now, the Falcons wholeheartedly believe Penix is the future and the present.
That’s what compelled Fontenot to deal a first for Pearce.
“If you’re worried about pleasing everybody, you’re going to be a failure,” Fontenot says. “We’re not looking for that outside validation. It’s about this building right here, doing what we believe is right. Having that true faith and belief in our building and our people and our culture. Not caring what the outside says.”
He pauses for a moment.
“We know we’ve got to win games.”
No excuses
Let’s calm our Falconpalooza for a moment. Anything less than legitimate NFC contention will be a disappointment because one more losing season would send this franchise into scary territory. The last time these Falcons suffered five straight losing seasons was 1986- ’90.
Arthur Blank greenlit this unorthodox build.
Most GMs do not have such a luxury because most owners get antsy.
If Penix busts, Pearce sulks and the Falcons go 6-11, even the most romantic daydreamer here in Flowery Branch will start to view this GM as more heretic than hero. His zany order of operations will be used as a cautionary tale, not inspiration. The eternal optimist Fontenot, of course, does not see regression as a remote possibility. These Falcons, he vows, will “walk in silence.” That’s been the team’s refrain since the ’24 season ended.
Staying silent, however, is not easy for the GM. He has “a lot” of belief in his players and that belief is at the heart of everything: identifying exactly who they want and doing whatever it takes to secure that player. There’s a good chance it’ll cost more money and more draft capital than other teams are willing to spend. But who cares? The Falcons aren’t interested in balancing a budget or agonizing over depth. There’s no hot sweats at 3:30 a.m. when the playmakers you coveted are in-house.
Fontenot brings up the 360 meetings again. All conviction is rooted in Atlanta’s “holistic” approach.
“There’s a real faith and belief in our vision for this program,” Fontenot says. “It’s everybody. It’s the coaches, it’s the scouts, it’s the analytics, it’s everybody in this building. When we have real conviction on players, then we’re going to be aggressive and go get ‘em. Because we do believe in our culture.”
The Falcons acquired 16 players in all through draft weekend — five draft picks, 11 undrafted free agents. Five of those 11 UDFAs made the team’s draft board, too. Which is another reason why they were OK chasing Pearce. He knew they’d get quality players through the free agent scramble.
Like a proud father, Fontenot rattles off forgotten names on his roster.
In addition to Walker and Pearce, the Falcons signed Leonard Floyd. The Eastman, Ga., native has 48 sacks the last five years. He brings up Bralen Trice, a ’24 third-rounder who tore his ACL in the preseason. One day while watching film of this University of Washington edge rusher last year, Morris FaceTimed Fontenot out of the blue. He couldn’t contain his excitement around Trice. (“Man, we got one,” he said.) Arnold Ebiketie came on late. And at inside linebacker, Kaden Elliss had 22 pressures, 16 QB hits and five sacks.
He’s confident Atlanta loaded up on players who’ll hit the QB and take the ball away.
The Falcons will count on draftees Woods and Bowman in the secondary, and the GM also singles out UDFA corner Cobee Bryant. At Kansas, he created 16 turnovers.
“And it’s not like we’re going to just draft ‘em leaving to their own devices,” Fontenot says. “There’s that development piece of it. And that’s the critical part. That’s where we have so much belief in our building to identify players and get ‘em here and make sure they’re growing the right way.”
He’s visibly trying to hold back enthusiasm because he knows words are only words.
Falcons fans want action.
“But,” he adds, “we truly do believe in what was here and getting the right pieces to add to it. We truly do believe in that.”
Everything boils down to the quarterback. Always has. If Penix is everything they say he is, the Falcons will compete for an NFC title. Go ahead and look at Fontenot and Morris and teammates like they’re aliens from another planet. When it comes to the most important member of the organization, belief runs deeper than an 18-yard out route delivered on time.
Fontenot watched how Penix handled himself all season long.
In truth, the GM sees a lot of himself in the 25-year-old quarterback.
“He didn’t blink,” Fontenot says. “He was prepared for those moments and went out and competed. All the maturity, the intangibles, the makeup, all those things that really sold us on him, you saw those things shine through — not just when he was playing at the end of the year, but the way he handled the in-season. Talk about ‘ignoring the noise.’ He’s the ultimate person that ignores the noise. All he did was show up and worked his tail off.
“He fits with the guys we drafted. These truly are championship-caliber mindsets.”
These Falcons haven’t been able to incorporate that word — championship — into their lexicon for nearly a decade. The night Feb. 5, 2017 is one everyone from the GM to the janitor would rather forget. The “28-3” PTSD is real. Just last month, the social media team tweeted, then deleted a picture of teammates in No. 28 and No. 3 standing next to each other. Since its Super Bowl LI collapse to Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots, this has resembled a team in need of a psychologist, an exorcist, David Goggins and Jermaine Dupri in no particular order.
The man who saves these Atlanta Falcons just may be a general manager who thinks unlike any other.
The road’s been tortuous.
No guarantees are made as our conversation winds down.
For now, Terry Fontenot will just nod toward that picture in the back of his office and smile like Dad.
“We’ve got to walk in silence,” he says. “We’ve got to prove it.”
Thank you for making Go Long your home for longform.
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