The Atlanta Falcons have their new head coach in Kevin Stefanski, and his staff is already coming together. Jeff Ulbrich will be retained as defensive coordinator, and Tuesday the Falcons announced that decorated veteran Bill Callahan, with whom Stefanski worked previously, will take over as offensive line coach.
Atlanta, though, still does not have a general manager. In fact, the Falcons have yet to even announce any completed interviews with GM candidates.
There are some reasons for things playing out this way, including the fact the Falcons are the only team in the NFL with a general manager opening and there were specific windows in which they could interview coaching candidates whose teams were still in the playoffs.
Former quarterback and franchise all-time great Matt Ryan was hired as the team's president of football -- a new position -- earlier this month. During the search to fill that position, the Falcons interviewed four other candidates: Chicago Bears assistant general manager Ian Cunningham, San Francisco 49ers director of scouting and football operations Josh Williams, Detroit Lions chief operating officer Mike Disner and Carolina Panthers executive vice president of football operations Brandt Tilis.
One of those executives is expected to be hired as the Falcons' new general manager. Cunningham and Williams reportedly are the front-runners.
Ryan is leading the GM search the way he did the coaching search that ended with Stefanski being hired Saturday night after a meeting at Falcons owner Arthur Blank's home in Atlanta. Blank, his son and Falcons executive Josh Blank, and team president and CEO Greg Beadles are also part of the search, as are the firms ZRG Partners and Sportsology. The hiring of Stefanski, the former Cleveland Browns head coach, also figures to have an effect.
"You're looking for two people that don't see the game polar opposite," Ryan said of the coach and GM searches during his introductory news conference last week. "I think it's difficult if you've got just a different view on how to best move forward. So, we're looking for people that are aligned in that vision. We're looking for people that work well together, and that doesn't mean best friends. You've got to have a professional and really strong working relationship."
Chad Chatlos, ZRG's managing director of athletics administration and coaching, was part of the search that led to Stefanski as coach and is also assisting with the Falcons' general manager search.
Chatlos, whose focus has been mainly high-level college football and basketball searches, was part of the committee that landed on Curt Cignetti as the Indiana University football coach in 2024. The Hoosiers, of course, just won the college football national championship. Chatlos has also been part of football coaching searches at Texas, Ole Miss, Oklahoma, Purdue, Michigan State, Arizona and UCF, per the ZRG Partners website.
Cunningham, as a candidate, has the clearest tie to the Falcons. He works under Bears general manager Ryan Poles, who played with Ryan at Boston College. Ryan and Poles remain close friends. Cunningham is also highly regarded. He has been part of two Super Bowl teams: the Baltimore Ravens as a scout and the Philadelphia Eagles as director of college scouting. Cunningham spent four years with the Eagles and could possibly bring staff from Philadelphia's front office to Atlanta if hired.
Williams is also thought well of in league circles, having participated in the NFL's Front Office & General Manager Accelerator Program in 2024. He has been with the 49ers for 15 seasons, advancing from the role of scouting assistant. San Francisco has made the playoffs eight times with three Super Bowl appearances during Williams' tenure. Williams, like Stefanski, has an Ivy League pedigree. He played wide receiver at Columbia; Stefanski played defensive back at Penn.
Stefanski will be officially introduced as Falcons head coach Tuesday at a news conference at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The general manager search should also be concluded relatively quickly, which was part of the team's plan.
"It's important we land both of these planes about at the same time, because there has to be collaboration between these two individuals," Blank said last week.