Not long after losing their season to the NFC South-rival Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the New Orleans Saints are losing their assistant general manager to another division foe.
As expected, the Atlanta Falcons are hiring Saints assistant GM/VP of pro personnel Terry Fontenot to be their next general manager, the team announced Tuesday.
NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported last Thursday that a deal wouldn't be put together until New Orleans was out of the playoffs and that came to be on Sunday with a Divisional Round loss to the Bucs.
Along with Fontenot, the Falcons interviewed in-house with their director of college scouting Anthony Robinson and outside with Colts director of college scouting Morocco Brown, new Lions GM Brad Holmes and former Texans GM Rick Smith. The Broncos and Lions also had Fontenot in for interviews.
Fontenot has been a mainstay within the Saints organization, having been with the club for the last 16 seasons. The latest season was his sixth as the director of pro scouting.
Moving on from a Saints organization that has won four consecutive NFC South titles, Fontenot will look to move forward a Falcons franchise that has absent from the playoffs since 2017.
With his arrival, Fontenot will replace Thomas Dimitroff, who was fired this past season as the team's GM, as was Dan Quinn as head coach.
Fontenot will join forces with first-year head coach Arthur Smith, who the Falcons brought on board Friday, to begin an eventful and impactful stretch for the franchise.
