The Atlanta Falcons made some organizational changes early Monday, announced that Rich McKay, who has been the president and chief executive officer of the Falcons since 2011, will remain as CEO and be in charge of the football operations of the team, according to ESPN’s Michael Rothstein.
While McKay will keep his CEO role, he handing off the business side of operations to the franchise’s new team president, Greg Beadles, who has worked with the Falcons organization for more than 25 years and has been the chief operating officer of the Falcons since March 2022.
McKay, 63, will also become the CEO of AMB Sports and Entertainment, a role previously held by Steve Cannon, who will become vice chairman of AMBSE and still oversee Atlanta United of Major League Soccer.
“There’s a time to do succession planning,” McKay said. “And make sure people that have earned their way get their opportunity. And I think that this was that moment for us.”
McKay said he’s “as confident or more confident” in head coach Arthur Smith and general manager Terry Fontenot.
“What I’ve seen is they described a plan and the way they were going to play games and the way they were going to build a roster and they’ve really followed that and not varied from it,” McKay said. “And the hardest thing in this business, in my time, for people to do is to stay to the plan, because usually something happens.
“There’s a distraction; there’s an opportunity; there’s an injury and you change, and they have not done that. They have stayed to the plan.”
“You can have your expectations for next year, and you can have your idea that we’re in a better place now,” McKay said. “We’ve got more cap room, all those things. It doesn’t mean that all those variables are going to line up that way. That’s my one thing, I always say as a caveat. When somebody says they have to go to the playoffs, or you got to win this many games, I think all of that is not appropriate. I love it in the media.
“Internally, that’s just not the way we look at it. Internally it’s, ‘Are we going in the right direction? Are we following the plan?’ And are we making progress, dealing with the variables also.”
The Falcons are expected to have at least $75 million in cap space for the 2023 offseason.
