ATLANTA -- Falcons owner Arthur Blank said he plans to evaluate coach Dan Quinn's status over the next few weeks after a 1-7 start, but also stated he has no immediate plans to make a coaching change.
Blank addressed the media in the hallway following Sunday's 27-20 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, the Falcons' sixth consecutive loss.
"I would say, much like the coaches said, I'm extraordinarily disappointed in the season,'' Blank said. "Nobody would have anticipated 1-7, and the lack of consistency. Today was a prime example of that. ... So, we'll take the next couple of weeks during this bye period of time and evaluate where we are. Whatever decision we have to make will be made for the right reasons for the long term.
"We certainly have a lot of intelligence on this coaching staff here. Besides Dan, we have [three] other head coaches [Dirk Koetter, Mike Mularkey and Raheem Morris]. We have three general managers in the building beyond Thomas [Dimitroff] -- actually four including Rich McKay. The knowledge base is here, but the performance is not. And this is a performance-driven business. I understand that. And they understand that as well. So we'll continue to look at everything we can and make the right decisions where we have to make them. I'm not bashful about making those decisions. In almost 20 years, I've had to [change coaches four] times, so I understand the responsibility that I have to the fans and to the sponsors and to the players and the coaches to put a winning team on the field. We're still committed to that 1,000 percent, and that's not going to change.''
Asked to clarify if a coaching change is not going to be made for a least a couple of weeks, Blank reiterated his initial statement.
"We are going to do something: We're going to continue to think really hard and evaluate everything that we can do, as an owner and as a senior management team, and figure out if there's anything we can do to make some decisions any earlier or any later that would help the process. But we have no plans of making any change right now.''
Blank naturally is disappointed to see as many empty seats in Mercedes-Benz Stadium as he has seen in recent weeks.
"It's very painful,'' Blank said. "I understand that. I'm always going to be here. I'm going to be in my seat. And hopefully, the great majority of our fans will as well. I think they understand our ownership has re-committed for almost 20 years now in doing the right things for the franchise. Look at our record over that period of time compared to the prior 36 years and it's extraordinary good.
"And even for this staff, it's hard to imagine, but we played in the Super Bowl two and half years ago and the year following, when we weren't supposed to be competitive, we were 5 yards away from playing for the NFC Championship Game. And last, we had a number of injuries. That's all history. It's nice to understand that and appreciate that. But this is a now business, and it's a now game.''
Blank went on to say the players believe in Quinn, although the results aren't there. He praised Julio Jones for making an emotional speech about accountability after last week's loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
"I think he touched a lot of players and the whole staff by doing that,'' said Blank, who was in the locker room for the speech. "But that has to convert to a different record.''