Michael A. Lough: Retaining Thomas Dimitroff won't boost ticket sales

The gifts are still being handed out by Arthur Blank.

At this point, the problem is that it appears New Orleans, Carolina and Tampa Bay are among the recipients.

The gift? The retention of Thomas Dimitroff in, well, whatever his ever-changing job currently is. More so, Atlanta's retention of the status quo.

You would think applications for front-office jobs would be flowing into the Falcons' headquarters the past several years. Do a subpar job and fail to live up to expectations by all accounts, and get a demotion/promotion. Ah, people in charge.

It started with Rich McKay, who came to Atlanta from Tampa Bay with that perceived magic touch. He arrived for the 2004 season as general manager, and the Falcons went 11-5 and reached the NFC championship game but not with a boatload of McKay's draft picks.

Atlanta went 8-8, 7-9 and 4-12 the next three seasons. So McKay got bumped out of the job and upstairs to team president. Good work if you can get it.

In came Dimitroff before the 2008 season, and five straight winning seasons followed. But those 13-3 teams in 2010 and 2012 were of the quality of about 9-7 teams. The Falcons won 10 games those two seasons by more than 10 points and rarely really looked like a powerful 13-3 team that scared you in the playoffs.

Three non-winning seasons followed, punctuated with this year's enthusiasm-sapping 8-8 record. So disappointing was the finish that some started wondering about first-year head coach Dan Quinn.

I remember thinking about five years ago that Atlanta might be on the way to becoming something of a destination organization, in large part because of former head coach Mike Smith and yes, the front office with McKay and Dimitroff. But the front office let down Smith, who didn't help himself at times, courtesy of game plans and coordinators.

And here we are, wondering how a quarterback can struggle so much with yearly collection of quality receiver weapons and, more often than not, quality running backs.

Criticism of Dimitroff hasn't been of the knee-jerk mode, but backed up by pretty glaring facts. The failure of the Falcons' 2012 draft has been well-documented, and we're again looking at the Falcons needing another influx of newcomers.

There are the reports that one reason Quinn came to Atlanta was because of Dimitroff and that the their connection grew upon Quinn's arrival. OK, that's nice. Chemistry is mandatory for success. But let's look at the totem pole. Doesn't Quinn have basically more power than Dimitroff?

And didn't the Falcons give assistant general manager Scott Pioli more responsibility, especially for the draft?

So where exactly does Dimitroff help Quinn? The decisions, outside of the exceptional Julio Jones transaction, haven't been all that helpful to the Falcons, who again have to go through the roster and make changes.

Pioli has more draft duties, and Quinn has roster control. So where exactly does Dimitroff fit in, other than talking about money?

Getting along with the head coach is good, and there doesn't seem to be major discord in Atlanta's administration.

Nevertheless, keeping somebody whose success rate had dwindled drastically and seems to have little power is an odd business decision.

This isn't to say it can't work. But the skepticism is deserved when considering the common denominators of the Falcons' roller coaster ride.

Contact Michael A. Lough at 744-4626 or mlough@macon.com

This story was originally published January 15, 2016 at 3:35 PM with the headline "Michael A. Lough: Retaining Thomas Dimitroff won't boost ticket sales ."