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In his fourth season as President & General Manager of the Atlanta Falcons, Rich McKay played an integral role in leading the search to hire head coach Bobby Petrino while utilizing his draft expertise to spark excitement among Falcons fans everywhere and received high marks from various national media outlets.
"Rich McKay has been known as the best personnel man throughout this business for a long time," head coach Bobby Petrino said. "I think the number one thing that grew my interest (in coming to the Falcons) was Rich being here, the background he has and the fact that I had a previous relationship with him while I was at Jacksonville and he was with Tampa Bay."
With a 29-23 overall record, a NFC South Division title and a NFC Championship game appearance, McKay continues to lead the Falcons organization toward their goal of a Super Bowl.
McKay wasted no time in free agency strengthening the offense with the signing of wide receiver Joe Horn who will provide veteran leadership and experience to a young Falcons wide receiver core. McKay also improved the team with the acquisitions of starting fullback Ovie Mughelli, back-up quarterback Joey Harrington and kicker Billy Cundiff.
This offseason, McKay orchestrated a trade with Houston, which sent back up quarterback Matt Schaub and the No. 10 overall pick in the 2007 NFL Draft to the Texans in exchange for the No. 8 overall choice and No. 39 overall selection in the '07 draft along with Houston's second round draft choice in 2008. The trade allowed the Falcons to welcome highly-regarded defensive end Jamaal Anderson to the team along with powerful guard Justin Blalock.
McKay is no stranger to draft success. Along with selecting running back Jerious Norwood (633 yards, 6.4 average in 2006) in the third-round of last year's draft, he has also brought in two-time Pro Bowl cornerback DeAngelo Hall (40 starts), key reserve defensive end Chauncey Davis (18 starts and the most playing time of any defensive linemen in '06), starters in linebackers Michael Boley (25 starts, career-high 90 tackles in '06) and Demorrio Williams (27 starts, 277 tackles), as well as wide receivers Michael Jenkins (28 starts) and Roddy White (13 starts).
Of the 20 players McKay has drafted since the 2004 season, 15 are either starters or key backups with the Falcons. In addition, McKay's 2004 third round draft pick, Matt Schaub, is now the starting quarterback of the Texans.
Win and win often is what McKay has done during what has been a sparkling career as one of the game's top football executives. During his nine-year run as chief architect of Tampa Bay's football operations, McKay constructed teams that won better than 60 percent of their games. He recorded his 100th career regular season victory in 2005 when the Falcons defeated the Detroit Lions 27-7 on Thanksgiving Day before a nationally televised audience at Ford Field.
To further place into perspective the success McKay has enjoyed, one only needs to review the 10-year run the Buccaneers had before McKay took over as general manager. From 1985 to 1994, Tampa Bay compiled a record of 43-116, a paltry .270 winning percentage, including 10 consecutive double-digit losing seasons. Prior to McKay's arrival in Atlanta, the Falcons compiled a 10-year record (1994-03) of 70-89-1 for a winning percentage of .437.
But the apex of McKay's short, yet distinguished NFL career, took place in sunny San Diego, California on January 26, 2003 when he completed the overhaul of the Buccaneers - long considered one of the worst franchises in professional sports. Tampa Bay's 48-21 victory over the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII vaulted the Buccaneers from the basement of professional sports to the top of the NFL universe. It also firmly established McKay as one of the NFL's most gifted talent evaluators as the Buccaneers made the most of their first ever appearance in the NFL's championship game.
These days, all of McKay's energies and attention are squarely focused on building a perennial winner in Atlanta that can go to multiple Super Bowls and win them.
"As I said many times since I got here, our goal is to build a football team, and one that can win not just today, not just tomorrow, but can win into the future," McKay said. "Arthur (Falcons Owner & CEO Arthur Blank) has given us all of the necessary resources and components to get the job done. Now, it is all up to us. I like the direction we are headed. We will continue to build this team through the draft and turn those draft picks over to really good coaches who will make these guys great players. Good players help you win games."
McKay is looking to revitalize a Falcon team that finished with a 7-9 record last season. Petrino spent the previous four years as the head coach of Louisville, leading the Cardinals to a 41-9 overall record and bowl game appearances for four consecutive seasons.
"The best thing Bobby has done is be successful wherever he had been," said McKay. "Whether he was the assistant coach at Jacksonville or the head coach at Louisville, he had a solid reputation and was a very successful guy. To me, it was quite easy. He was a good fit. He brought what we liked from an innovation standpoint and from a discipline standpoint."
Prior to an 8-8 regular season record in 2005, the Falcons went on to post 11 regular season wins in 2004, which marked only the fourth time in franchise history that an Atlanta team had recorded double-digit victory totals.
The 2004 Falcons rolled to a 4-0 start and finished the season as NFC South Division champions. Additionally, Atlanta earned the conference's second seed in the playoffs, a first-round bye, and a nationally televised home game against the St. Louis Rams and their high-octane offense.
The Falcons used the fourth-highest team rushing total in NFL postseason history and a staunch defensive effort to defeat the Rams 47-17 to advance to only their second NFC Championship Game in franchise history. Atlanta rushed for a postseason franchise-record 327 yards and sacked Rams QB Marc Bulger four times en route to pitching a second-half defensive shutout.
Outstanding teams have been synonymous with McKay. In his last 11 seasons as an NFL general manager, McKay has directed six teams that have reached the NFC playoffs, three that have reached the NFC Championship Game, one team that won a Super Bowl title, and has worked with three different NFL head coaches (Tony Dungy 1999; Jon Gruden 2002; and Jim Mora 2004) in the NFC Championship Game.
Since arriving in Atlanta, McKay has been involved in every department within the Falcons organization. Whether it was the reshaping of the scouting and football operations departments, respectively, McKay has been at the center of transforming the Falcons operation into one of the most innovative and progressive organizations in all of professional sports.
McKay's astute eye for evaluating collegiate and NFL players, as well as his stealth ability to effectively manage the NFL's salary cap has been recognized by numerous national publications.
"Rich balances caring about his team's fortunes with caring about the League's fortunes as well as any front-office man in the NFL has done since George Young lorded over the Giants," said national NFL writer Peter King from Sports Illustrated. "He's intensely competitive, but he also sees the big picture of what's good for the NFL as a sport and a business."
McKay's formula for success has been a championship elixir that has produced an impeccable reputation and a total of 56 players who have gone to the Pro Bowl on his watch.
Between the draft and free agency, McKay constructed a roster that featured 12 Pro Bowl performers in 2002. In addition, Tampa Bay's 41 Pro Bowl selections between 1997 through 2002 were the most in the NFL. To put it into perspective, the Buccaneers had only 19 Pro Bowl selections in the first 21 years of their history leading up to 1997.
While many of the players McKay drafted have developed into NFL stars on the field, several have also been Pro Bowl performers from a charitable standpoint, as well. Warrick Dunn was the recipient of the 2004 Walter Payton/NFL Man of the Year award which is presented annually to the NFL's most philanthropic player as was Derrick Brooks, who was a co-recipient of the award in 2000. Last year, Dunn received the 2005 "Good Guy" award from The Sporting News. Brooks and former Buccaneer and current Denver Broncos safety John Lynch are also past winners of the prestigious Byron "Whizzer" White Award for their dedication to serve their team, community and country in the spirit of the late Supreme Court Justice.
McKay is the 2005 recipient of the Jack Horrigan Award, which is presented annually by the Pro Football Writers of America to the club or league office executive who is the most helpful and cooperative with the local and national news media that cover the NFL.
McKay and his family have substantially deep roots in collegiate and professional football, dating back more than 30 years to when McKay's late father, John, led the University of Southern California Trojans to four national championships and later was named the first head coach of the Buccaneers in 1975.
McKay has served on numerous League committees during his NFL career. Outgoing NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue named McKay co-chairman of the NFL's prestigious Competition Committee in 1998, replacing the late New York Giants general manager George Young and joining Seattle Seahawks head coach/general manager Mike Holmgren on the Committee as co-chairman.
McKay remains the Committee's co-chairman with Tennessee Titans head coach Jeff Fisher. Since 1994, McKay has served on this committee of NFL coaches and executives who study the game and recommend rules modifications to ensure player safety while promoting competitiveness in the league. In December of 2002, Tagliabue named McKay to a working group of five senior club executives as part of the newly-created NFL owners' committee on diversity in the workplace. For the past two years, McKay has also served on the NFL Management Council working group of league executives that helps advise on collective bargaining issues.
Prior to entering the NFL on a full-time basis, McKay was an attorney with the Tampa law firm of Hill, Ward, and Henderson, joining them in 1986. While in that position, he served as the Buccaneers' legal counsel for six years.
McKay, who also taught a course in sports/entertainment law at Stetson University's College of Law, earned his Bachelor's degree in 1981 from Princeton University. He graduated from Stetson's College of Law in 1984 and clerked for two years for Tampa U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges.
Born March 16, 1959 in Eugene, Oregon, McKay grew up in Los Angeles and Tampa, graduating from Tampa's Jesuit High School. An avid long distance runner, he has participated in and finished two New York City marathons and one recent Atlanta marathon. McKay and his wife, Terrin, have two sons, Hunter and John. |
