FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- The decision won't please everyone in the fan base, but Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank felt comfortable enough with the direction of the this year's team to retain coach Dan Quinn and general manager Thomas Dimitroff.
Does that mean the Falcons will be contenders in 2020? They had better be, even if Blank didn't demand such publicly.
Blank and team president Rich McKay -- newly assigned to oversee Quinn and Dimitroff -- addressed the media Friday and talked about the reasons they decided to keep the staff in tact. Perhaps the biggest was the Falcons' second-half turnaround where they went 5-2, which Blank kept pointing to as reason for optimism going forward.