Terry Fontenot did not attend Senior Bowl but Falcons had ‘entire contingent’ of scouting, personnel department in Mobile

This is not a big deal, regardless of how it sounds.

One of the first Falcons stories I saw on Thursday was a story about Terry Fontenot being called out by Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy for not being at the annual showcase of college football’s top talent.

Now, on its face this sounds bad: The GM of a team that desperately needs an influx of talent this offseason didn’t even bother to go to the Senior Bowl?

Here’s the tweet the story referred to:

Now let me explain why this is a nothingburger.

I reached out to the team for comment, and first of all, Fontenot was not the only GM who wasn’t there. Bills GM Brandon Beane was absent due to exit meetings in Buffalo, per Jay Skurski of the Buffalo News.

Second, Fontenot did not attend last year’s Senior Bowl either due to the Falcons’ head coach hiring process. But thanks to the marvels of modern technology, any GM who doesn’t attend still has access to film of every single workout and each interview their group conducts. This might actually be more useful than being there in person, because limits on how many personnel from each team are allowed on the field often relegates team representatives to the suites instead of field level.

The bottom line is: Terry Fontenot didn’t miss out on anything by not being at the Senior Bowl — except for the free Reese’s cups.