ESPN's Louis Riddick Reportedly Among Candidates for Falcons' GM Opening

ESPN commentator Louis Riddick, who played two of his six seasons in the league with the Atlanta Falcons in 1992 and 1996, is among candidates to replace Thomas Dimitroff as the Falcons' general manager, according to Jeff Schultz of The Athletic. 

Riddick, who has worked as the director of pro personnel for the Washington Football Team and the Philadelphia Eagles, has interviewed for general manager positions before, per Schultz.

The Falcons fired Dimitroff and head coach Dan Quinn in October after the team started the season 0-5 for the first time since 1997. Rich McKay, the team president, is serving in an interim general manager role, per ESPN's Vaughn McClure. 

Riddick, who was a ninth-round pick by the San Francisco 49ers in 1991, did not have his contract renewed with Philadelphia in 2013 and found his way to ESPN's NFL Front Office Insider show, according to Joseph Santoliquito of PhillyVoice.com. 

He told Santoliquito last week that ESPN is aware of his desire to return to a position with a team and he has interviewed "with a few places" over the past few years, but if he does head back to a front office, he wants to be in "a place where everyone is pushing in the same direction and people are confident and competent":

"What happens is the extreme circumstance show you a lot about people. When you're winning, people want credit. It's about people that run around saying, 'It's me, it's me.' When everything goes bad, they point fingers, 'It's him, it's him; it's not me.' In a team sport like football, you get a lot of sniping and back-stabbing, and I won't have that ever happen again in my life. If I have the chance, where I can set up with people I know and I trust to do it the right way, I'm 100-percent interested in a situation like that."

Per ESPN's Adam Schefter, Riddick is competing with former Texans general manager Rick Smith, former Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie and Chicago Bears assistant director of personnel Champ Kelly for the job.