Falcons GM Terry Fontenot among NFL personnel under most pressure in 2025

Very rarely do people keep their jobs after underperforming for four years, but that’s exactly what’s happened with Falcons GM Terry Fontenot.

Nobody really expected the Falcons to make the postseason in 2022, Fontenot’s second season in Atlanta, but the expectations in 2021 and 2024 were undoubtedly a postseason berth.

There’s plenty of blame to go around, and Fontenot is certainly deserving of some. Arthur Smith, Desmond Ridder, Jimmy Lake, and every other key factor in the underachievement over the years have come and gone, but Fontenot has stuck around.

The Falcons GM is now entering his fifth season at the helm and hasn’t put together a team that has had a record over .500, let alone capture a playoff berth. To be fair, Fontenot took over a pile of knots.

He had to first untie the team’s bloated and overpriced contracts. Once he cleaned the books, the Falcons started spending money and made four top 10 picks in a row. There’s been plenty of time and opportunity to put together a playoff-caliber roster. It feels like it’s put-up-or-shut-up time for Terry Fontenot in Atlanta, and ESPN’s Bill Barnwell agrees, including him among NFL personnel under the most pressure in 2025.

“The chips have been pushed into the middle of the table. It’s a little odd to talk about an 8-9 team going all-in, but when Fontenot traded a second-round pick and a 2026 first-rounder to the Rams to take James Pearce Jr., his second edge rusher in Round 1 of April’s draft, there was no going back. With hybrid defender Jalon Walker also joining the Falcons, Fontenot made a massive bet that a team seven years removed from its last winning season is two young pass rushers away from taking the NFC South.”

I didn’t even mention the tremendous gamble the Falcons took this past offseason, trading a future first-round pick to draft James Pearce Jr. Sure, if it works out how Atlanta foresees, it’ll be fine, but what if it doesn’t?

What if the Falcons miss the playoffs and finish with an 8-9 record? The Rams will own a draft pick right outside of the top 10, and the Falcons will likely be entering the offseason looking for a new GM.

“Fontenot’s future in charge of the Falcons will be decided by the two massive and much-debated decisions he has made over the past two offseasons. One is at edge rusher. The other is at quarterback, where he signed Kirk Cousins last March and then used his first-round pick on Michael Penix Jr. a month later. Cousins fell apart because of injuries by the end of last season, leading the Falcons to promote Penix, who showed some of the unbridled aggression that helped him thrive in college, averaging a league-high 10.1 air yards per attempt over a three-start cameo.”

The Falcons swung big the last two offseasons. Fontenot made sure to maximize his chances of fixing the quarterback position and the pass rush. Unfortunately, the expensive Kirk Cousins mistake hampered his ability to put a playoff-caliber roster around Michael Penix Jr., and it might cost him his job. But let’s be honest. If Penix flashes franchise quarterback stuff, Arthur Blank might not fire Terry Fontenot even if their postseason drought continues.

“In his fifth year on the job, Fontenot has turned over the vast majority of the roster he inherited from Thomas Dimitroff. The only players left on the roster Fontenot took over in 2021 are kicker Younghoe Koo, cornerback A.J. Terrell and offensive linemen Jake Matthews, Chris Lindstrom and Kaleb McGary. He has hired two coaches, hit on some free agents (safety Jessie Bates, wideout Darnell Mooney) and expensively struck out on his biggest move (Cousins). If Penix plays well, the edge rush finally shows up and the Falcons win their division, he’s going to be in great shape to get a contract extension. If not, there aren’t going to be many other places to put the blame for another losing season.”

Terry Fontenot has now been with the Falcons through two head coaches. It’s hard to imagine he’ll last past Raheem Morris. There is a lot to prove in 2025, but that also means there’s plenty of opportunity. Just as Barnwell says, a healthy contract extension could be waiting for Fontenot at the end of the rainbow if the upcoming campaign ends how Falcons fans hope — Michael Penix solidifying himself as the future and a playoff berth.