Today, after postponing it originally, Dan Quinn and Thomas Dimitroff had their end of the season press conference. Their are a lot of questions to be answered about the Falcons. Here are the 5 takeaways from that press conference and what it means for next year!

Steve Sarkisian will be back

The most pressing question after the Eagles game was “Will Steve Sarkisian be fired?” I didn’t expect him to because I think Quinn an d Dimitroff want consistency for Ryan and they are hoping for the same second year jump as Shannahan did. Quinn opened his press conference by saying that Steve Sarkisian is being retained as the Falcons OC. Quinn also said that this year’s problems were not solely on Sarkisian and that “Placing blame on one person would be wrong in this instance, if this was about one person, that decision would already be made.” Quinn also added that the transition from Shannahan to Sarkisian was challenging and that he thinks another year will help Sarkisian better utilize his players. Dimitroff also had something to add when talkin about how the team did this year:

Thomas Dimitroff says "I don't think this team underachieved, this team played their ass off. I think we underexecuted, not underachieved." #Falcons — William McFadden (@willmcfadden) January 18, 2018

Dan Quinn will have a bigger role in Offensive and Special Teams playcalling

The defense played phenomenal but the Special Teams and Offense didn’t play as well as we needed them to. One of the problems that came up last year after the Super Bowl was that Quinn should have vetoed Shannahan’s decision to pass the ball. On Saturday, many people criticized Quinn again for not vetoing Sarkisian’s last playcall. Although Quinn isn’t an offensive coach, it is good that he will be more involved in playcalling.

Matt Ryan won’t have any input on the QB coach hire

This is one of the main things that concerns me. A QB coach isn’t a necessity but it’s important to get one who Matt Ryan likes. I was hoping that Matt would actually be able to choose his own QB coach or at least have some input on who is hired. I think Ryan needs someone who understands Sark’s system, likes Ryan, and who Ryan gets along with.

Matt Ryan will be here for a long time

Prior to 2013. Matt Ryan was given a 5-year contract worth $103 Million and has performed well the last 4 years. His contract ends after 2018 but the Falcons would like to lock him up before his final contract year. When asked about Ryan and his contract, Thomas Dimitroff said that re-singing Ryan will be the main focus this offseason. With Stafford and Carr earning over $25 Million and Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees poised for extensions, extending Ryan’s contract will be expensive. Luckily, the team has made it clear that they’re willing to pay for Ryan. In my opinion, the Falcons will attempt to essentially sign him to a contract until his retirement.

Beasley will move back to Defensive End permanently.

This is great news. After having a great 2016/17 campaign in which he led the league in sacks, he had a decline this year only getting 5 sacks and 1 fumble, Vic Beasley is headed back to defensive end. Falcons Dan Quinn said during his season-ending news conference that the third-year player will move from linebacker. “I have re-assessed it,” Quinn said. “He played six games at linebacker and two injured. I’m going to put him full-time, all-the-time back at pass rusher.” He is a great pass rusher who was hindered this year by his positioning.

Overall the future is very promising for the Falcons but there are still a lot of questions left to be answered such as draft questions.

Here is a a link to the full press conference:

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