The Sports Xchange

Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank expects to see a winning team on the field this season.

Blank hired head coach Dan Quinn from the Seattle Seahawks after the Falcons suffered back-to-back losing seasons, including 6-10 in 2014.

Blank has told his new coach and general manager Thomas Dimitroff he isn’t interested in taking small steps and building for the future. He wants to win now.

In an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Blank said he doesn’t plan to watch Super Bowl 50 “sitting in a suite watching somebody else play.”

“I’ve said this to Dan. I’ve said this to Thomas as late as tonight. We’re not about tomorrow. We’re not about rebuilding and building. We’re about winning and we’re about winning now,” Blank told the newspaper. “The Atlanta fans and the fans across the NFL are entitled to know that this ownership and this leadership team will do whatever it takes to put a winning team on the field.

“We will not wait any period of time to do it. We’ll leave no stone unturned. We’ll look at everything that we can that’s possible to give us the best opportunity to win. We owe that to our fans. We owe that to the NFL.”

Blank said the Falcons need to maximize their ability to win during the prime of quarterback Matt Ryan’s career.

“It’s extraordinarily important,” Blank said. “I made that point, that exact point to Dan and Thomas both. Matt has been here eight years. He probably won’t play another (eight) years. Peyton (Manning) is 39 and still playing, but he’s unusual. Matt is 30 now. We want to make sure that we have a great franchise quarterback. We want to make sure that we support him in every possible way that we can. That’s from every perspective.

“You see teams around the league that have a lot of other pieces, but don’t have a quarterback. They struggle and they bring in a quarterback and the quarterback can’t make it. Fifty percent of the quarterbacks drafted in the first round are busts. They don’t make it in the league.”

Blank made it clear his goal for the 2015 season is reaching the Super Bowl.

“My expectations are like 31 other owners, that we want to be (in Super Bowl 50), too. I don’t want to be there sitting in a suite, watching somebody else play. In that regard, I hate to do coach-speak on you, but you do have to take it a game at a time, a play at time, a quarter at a time, half at time, game at time. That’s what you have to do. You just can’t get focused on the Super Bowl. If we do the things we’re capable of doing, we’re going to be a very competitive team. Let’s get to the playoffs first, then we’ll go ahead and compete and see where it takes us.”