Even with a first-time head coach, the championship expectations won't diminish in Atlanta.
The Falcons hired Dan Quinn away from Seattle after Atlanta suffered back-to-back losing seasons in a weak NFC South.
In a Q&A with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, owner Arthur Blank said he's not interested in a slow rebuild.
"I've said this to Dan. I've said this to (general manager) Thomas (Dimitroff) as late as tonight. We're not about tomorrow. We're not about rebuilding and building. We're about winning and we're about winning now," Blank said. "The Atlanta fans and the fans across the NFL are entitled to know that this ownership and this leadership team will do whatever it takes to put a winning team on the field. We will not wait any period of time to do it. We'll leave no stone unturned. We'll look at everything that we can that's possible to give us the best opportunity to win. We owe that to our fans. We owe that to the NFL."
"Matt has been here eight years," Blank said when asked about maximizing the prime of Ryan's career. "He probably won't play another (eight) years. Peyton (Manning) is 39 and still playing, but he's unusual. Matt is 30 now. We want to make sure that we have a great franchise quarterback. We want to make sure that we support him in every possible way that we can. That's from every perspective.
"You see teams around the league that have a lot of other pieces, but don't have a quarterback. They struggle and they bring in a quarterback and the quarterback can't make it. Fifty percent of the quarterbacks drafted in the first round are busts. They don't make it in the league."
Franchise quarterbacks are the scarcest resource in the NFL. While he has one, Blank wants all his chips pushed in the middle.
