The Falcons hired Mike Mularkey as their offensive coordinator Friday night, according to a Associated Press report. Mularkey, Miami's tight ends coach in this past season, is the latest hire by new Head Coach Mike Smith, who named Brian Van Gorder the team's defensive coordinator on Thursday.

The first test for Mike Smith, the former Jaguars defensive coordinator hired by the Falcons on Wednesday night, will be to outlast the 13-game stint of Bobby Petrino, the coach who quit during the season to return to the college ranks. "Mike possesses all of the key qualities we were looking for in a head coach," said GM Thomas Dimitroff, in his first month on the job.

Michael Smith of ESPN.com is reporting that the Atlanta Falcons could name Jacksonville Jaguars' Defensive Coordinator Mike Smith their next head coach as early as Wednesday afternoon. The team believes he'd work well with the team's new executives and staff.

The Falcons will interview Minnesota Vikings' defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier for the first time Saturday after Atlanta conducted a round of second interviews during the week, according to a Vikings' official. The Falcons also plan to seek an interview with Giants' Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo if the Giants are eliminated from the playoffs on Sunday. The Giants earlier denied permission to the Falcons because they were preparing for a playoff game.

Falcons' Defensive Coordinator Mike Zimmer was hired Tuesday for the same role with the Bengals, who have been dragged down by their defense for years. The 51-year-old Zimmer was available because of the Falcons' uncertainty over their next head coach. The Falcons hired Tom Dimitroff as general manager on Sunday and are still looking for a head coach to replace Bobby Petrino, who quit after 13 games.

Wasting little time in taking advantage of Dallas' divisional-round loss to the Giants on Sunday, the Ravens and Falcons both arranged for second interviews with Cowboys' Offensive Coordinator Jason Garrett, ESPN.com has learned.

Tom Dimitroff was hired as general manager of the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, leaving his job as director of scouting for the unbeaten New England Patriots. more stories like this Dimitroff, who has been with the Patriots since 2002, will direct the Falcons' football operations, including working with a new head coach on draft decisions, free agency, trades and other personnel decisions. The Falcons had a dreadful 4-12 season, one which saw star quarterback Michael Vick sentenced to a 23-month prison term after a federal dogfighting conviction. Dimitroff reports to president Rich McKay, the Falcons' former GM whose 17-month contract extension was finalized Sunday.

Tapping into the wealth of talent in the New England personnel department, the Atlanta Falcons on Saturday evening reached an agreement with Patriots' director of college scouting Thomas Dimitroff to be the team's new general manager. Falcons' officials on Saturday informed the five other candidates for the position of their decision. Details of Dimitroff's contract, which is not yet signed, were not available. A New England team official confirmed for ESPN.com before Saturday night's divisional-round playoff game against Jacksonville that Dimitroff has accepted the job. He will face a daunting task in rebuilding a threadbare roster and in helping to make viable again a franchise that this season drifted into irrelevance on the Atlanta sports scene. Dimitroff is expected to have considerable input into the Falcons' next head coach, and sources said he has already offered some analysis to team officials in that regard. With the general manager spot now filled, the Falcons could move relatively quickly to name a head coach to succeed Bobby Petrino, who resigned with three games remaining in his first NFL season.

Eagles' General Manager Tom Heckert still appears to be the leading candidate to get the Atlanta Falcons' GM job once owner Arthur Blank ends his wild goose chase for Southern California Coach Pete Carroll. According to two league sources, the Falcons could offer the job to Heckert as soon as this weekend. The team interviewed several other personnel executives in the last 2 weeks, including Patriots' director of college scouting Tom Dimitroff, Packers' pro personnel director Reggie McKenzie, Packers' personnel analyst to the general manager John Schneider, and Jaguars' director of college scouting Gene Smith. Chris Mara, the Giants' vice president of player evaluation, withdrew his name from consideration yesterday. He wasn't believed to be a serious candidate.

According to several reports, Pete Carroll is a candidate to succeed Bobby Petrino in Atlanta and the just-retired Joe Gibbs in Washington. Carroll, reached on vacation in Hawaii, said "I'm not talking. I'm not responding to anything." His agent Gary Uberstine did not return a phone call seeking comment. However, USC spokesman Tim Tesselone circulated the following statement: "As Pete told our beat reporters last Wednesday [Jan. 3], he understands that his name is going to come up for NFL jobs, as it has in each of his past years here, but that he was not going to comment about NFL openings because it would just lead to speculation." "'There's nothing going on, no reason to even talk about it," Caroll said. "Pete is out of the office on vacation this week, but he reiterated that to me this morning on the phone."