MOBILE, Ala. – Terry Fontenot had already rented the car. A year ago, he was days into his tenure as the Atlanta Falcons general manager and was ready to head to the Senior Bowl for the first time in his new position running the football side of an NFL organization.

He was on the phone with his new coach, Arthur Smith, who was working in the team’s headquarters outside Atlanta trying to build a staff. So even though he was excited to go to see prospects that might become part of his first draft class, he called an audible.

“I changed my mind. I got my wife to drop me off, to bring the car back and flew to Atlanta,” Fontenot said. “So we didn’t come to the Senior Bowl.”

This is not entirely abnormal for teams in transition, but it did take him away from a game he knew well. So now, in their first Senior Bowl process together, everything is a little bit easier.

They are a year into knowing what they have on their roster and what they need. They also have a familiarity with each other and what the reports should look like and the grading system.

The Falcons do things a bit different, though, in that Fontenot doesn’t sit in prospect interviews during the Senior Bowl, leaving those interviews to his scouts who have prepped the work the entire season for.

“Sometimes it’ll be a little bit different when the scouts meet with the players and they gather all the information that they can,” Fontenot said. “And then when I’m in those meetings or the head coach is in those meetings or the coordinators are in those meetings, players can change a little bit.

“So we think is a valuable time to let the scouts focus on that, and we let them do that and as we get into the 30 visits and the combine and the Pro Days, we’re going to have plenty of time for myself and the head coach and coaching staff to meet with them.”

Fontenot said his scouts will talk to all of the players in the Senior Bowl, which is good, because Atlanta needs almost every position. Plus, with how Fontenot views the whole process, he knows within the next two to three years they are going to need to add at every position. So even if it's a player they don’t need right away, they are still going to look. Because anything can happen.

“It might not be something you need immediately for this year,” Fontenot said. “But when you think big picture, you take best player available. It’s going to pay dividends.”

With his own free agents and roster, Fontenot said he’s happy with the progress they’ve made on that evaluation, and they’ve been through several meetings with coaches to go through the roster.

But he said “it is a fluid process” with the variables they have to figure out. He did not, however, get into specifics on the futures of players such as two-time Pro Bowl defensive end Grady Jarrett or wide receiver Calvin Ridley, the former first-round pick who did not play after Week 7 to focus on his mental health.

Of course, this is just the start of the process -- the first full one for Fontenot and Smith.