Report: Fontenot to be Falcons GM, Lake Charles native breaks into front-office job
Scooter Hobbs
A Lake Charles native will likely soon be leaving the New Orleans Saints’ front office to help rebuild the archrival Atlanta Falcons.
Terry Fontenot, an all-state player at LaGrange High School in the late 1990s who went on to be a team captain at Tulane, will take over the job as the Falcons’ general manager, according to a report by Ian Rapoport of NFL.com.
Fontenot, the Saints’ vice president/assistant general manager of pro personnel, was reported to be a candidate for the New York Jets GM job. He reportedly interviewed Saturday for the vacant GM position with the Denver Broncos.
NFL rules prohibit the Falcons from finalizing the deal until the Saints, who play Tampa Bay in an NFC divisional playoff game Sunday, have completed their season.
But the NFL.com report says that the Falcons have identified Fontenot as the choice.
This is Fontenot’s 16th season with the Saints, his sixth as director of pro scouting. Before that he worked his way up the ladder in the scouting department and the Saints selected him in 2012 to attend the NFL-Stanford Executive Education Program, a one-week, custom-designed course to prepare future business and front-office executives.
With Fontenot’s departure, the Saints will gain two third-round draft picks in consecutive years as compensation, thanks to an NFL initiative passed in November to reward teams that groom minority head coaches and executives.
After making all-state as a safety at LaGrange, he was a four-year letterman at Tulane, where he was a team captain in 2001 and on the Green Wave’s 2002 Hawaii Bowl championship team.