Former Kansas City Chiefs GM Scott Pioli has found a home in Atlanta over the last few years, taking up the mantle of assistant GM to fellow Patriots alumni Thomas Dimitroff. That time has now come to a close, Field Yates reports.

Pioli is a widely-respected personnel man around the league who has helped the Falcons build a very good team since he was hired in 2014. The questions now arise about the why and how of Pioli’s announcement- in particular, how it lines up with the Jets’ firing of Mike Maccagnan. According to Yates, Pioli has been thinking about stepping down for a while, and he likely wouldn’t have another gig lined up to step into immediately if that were the case.

Pioli did a great job in Atlanta, and they’ll miss him working in tandem with Dimitroff to yield further draft results. It will be interesting to see what his next step is.