I truly believe there's a strong chance that he's the pick at #8. Ditto for the Northwestern lineman. Eddie Goldman is out of retirement - for now - but he might not even make the roster given that he's proven himself unreliable by suddenly retiring so quickly after signing last year. Calais Campbell is a nice upgrade but he's short term and can't play every snap. Having him gives Carter and TaQuon Graham a pair of nice mentors in Campbell and Grady Jackson. I also think the character concerns related to the accident are overrated. I think the mental/emotional health aspects of it are significant, but he proved himself to be a dedicated team player when he came back from the high ankle sprain last year. If he's on the board at #8, he's likely to be the best player available by far. I'd pounce on him. If Fontenot goes with a need perspective, it's likely to be the offensive lineman. Left guard is still a huge question mark. The leading in-house candidate would seem to be Matt Hennessy, who struggled badly at center as a rookie in 2021 and lost the battle for the starting center role in 2022. The other contenders are also dicey. The wild card is Anthony Richardson. If he's there, do you take him? I don't see QB as a true need, but he'd be kinda hard to pass up.
The other thing that points to Peter Skoronski (OT from Northwestern, in draft lists as a guard) as a likely choice for the #8 pick is that left tackle Jake Matthews is 31 years old. Skoronski would start at left guard right away - filling the roster's most important need. After he's had a few years of experience, he'd be a strong choice to shift to LT as the eventual successor to Matthews. He and Matthews could potentially switch places if Matthews starts to lose a step at tackle. The media outlets all scream that edge is the top need, but that's short-sighted. It's purely because of the team's lack of sacks last year, but it's not considering the problems in the interior of the line or at secondary, especially after lineman TaQuon Graham and both starting corners got hurt. When the interior line is Grady Jackson and a pair of muppets, it's easy to focus the protection on the edge for the 1.5 seconds it takes the receivers to get away from the replacement cornerbacks. And in the meantime, the Falcons drafted edge rushers in the second and third last year, resigned Lorenzo Carter, and added Kaden Elliss and Bud Dupree in free agency. They've already filled that group. So it's possible, especially if by some crazy fluke Will Anderson fell to #8 (extremely unlikely). But ignore any article or TV twit pushing the idea that Atlanta NEEDS edge rushers. For a while a lot of mocks were pointing to the Oregon cornerback as the most likely target at #8. Then the team traded for Okudah. So now they have Terrell, Okudah, Mike Hughes and Casey Hayward as their top four, three more CBs in their top tier of rising backups (Dee Alford looks especially promising) and then another tier of prospects behind them. If they really think the Oregon CB is far and away the best player on the board, sure, it's possible that he's the pick. Doesn't seem likely though. The other wild card is the potential to trade down, especially if one of the top quarterbacks was still on the board. Atlanta could drop down to the middle of the round, then take one of the available OTs and start him at LG. Presto - top need filled plus a huge windfall in draft capital. I think anyone reading this already knows that would be my approach in a mock draft. I can safely reveal my strategy for #8 since I stepped aside again this year and let Joe's brother represent Atlanta. If I represented the Falcons, I'd be assessing my trade options. If I got a strong offer, I'd drop down to the middle of the round in a heartbeat. And then I'd look at the OT prospects to plug in as the starting left guard. If no trade offer was all that great, I'd look to see who was available out of Will Anderson (dreaming), Jalen Carter, Skoronski and Richardson.
Very much a possibility, But if you can land a o-line guy at #8, GO FOR IT!!! It really is the best move in my opinion. CB's are a dime a dozen this year and the Falcons defense has already been upgraded, so protect your future star in the making, Ridder would agree Im sure.
Absolutely! For me the question though is which lineman would be ideal. Skoronski is the top rated (typically around #7 overall). But Paris Johnson Jr, Broderick Jones and Darnell Wright are also all outstanding prospects - and I suspect that at least two of them will still be on the board somewhere around the #15-18 range. Wright ranks the lowest of the four on most lists, but I wonder if he'd be the best fit out of all four prospects for Atlanta's system. Con: in college he was much better at RT in his senior year than he was the previous year at LT. So did the right side vs the left make that big of a difference, or did it just "click" for him as a senior? At least for a few years, I'd have left guard in mind for him, and I think he'd be a MONSTER if he kicks inside. He's 6'5", 333, and he plays with raw power and a nasty demeanor. At tackle, he sometimes gets beaten on an inside pass rush move when he kicks out anticipating the outside speed rush, but he has good recovery capabilities and maintains a solid anchor point and square frame. I think he'll still be on the board even around #20, so I wouldn't want to take him at #8 in a mock. That's leaving too much value on the table. But trade down to somewhere in the #13-17 range first and then take him? Yes, please.
Well, well... just ahead of the draft, the Falcons have released cornerback Casey Hayward. I guess there was no trade market for him. He got hurt in midseason and finished the year on IR. Atlanta takes a $2M dead money hit this year, which is certainly bearable. So now the CB group is A.J. Terrell, Jeff Okudah, Mike Hughes, Dee Alford, Darren Hall, Cornell Armstrong, plus at least four true CB prospects and a few generic DB prospects that are already on the roster. In other words, it's still not exactly an area of need...
Side note... I found a source that listed Casey Hayward as having failed a physical. Apparently he's not considered injured but he's not in football shape at the moment. I found the contract details and Hayward's salary would have been $5 million. The $2 million dead money would have been part of the cap either way, so the team saves $5 million by getting him off the roster. So... age 33, coming off a season-ending shoulder injury, failed a physical, and a $5 million salary. No wonder there wasn't a trade market for him. For the Falcons, hearing about a failed physical reminds me of big Grady Jackson from around 2006. The team brought him in to sign him, but he failed the physical. He got into better shape over the course of the spring and was able to pass the physical and signed with the team that summer. He and Rod Coleman paired to make an impressive DT duo in Ed Donatell's 4-3 system. They also had John Abraham and Patrick Kerney at defensive end, plus Jonathan Babineaux as part of the rotation at either tackle or at end as needed. Good times for the pass rush, and Atlanta still hasn't ever been as effective at generating pressure since then.
and finally a positive story on the Falcons draft... Let’s Applaud the Falcons for Making the Fun Pick in Bijan Robinson There are people who will criticize the positional value of taking a running back in the top 10, but the move makes Atlanta appointment viewing and will help on the field, too. The NFL draft is an inexact science, and in some cases we’ll perform the equivalent of gnat surgery in analyzing a team’s decision making process; the kind of hair-splitting stuff that makes someone long for the excitement of a physics textbook. But there are certain situations in which it’s proper to applaud the continual acquisition of fun and shiny things. Things that we’re not sure can even exist together. Things that we’re not sure are a sound economical value given where they were taken. Things that may not ultimately lead to the winning of games. That’s because shiny things are fun. This is exactly why the Falcons are getting my highest possible grade. Something beyond an A-plus. Whatever grade you would give a day at the beach, a cooler full of your preferred beverages, the music of your choosing and a visit from Rob Gronkowski with a Slip N Slide. Simply put: Selecting Bijan Robinson, a running back, at No. 8 and throwing him into an offensive blender with Kyle Pitts, Drake London and Tyler Allgeier is going to be fun as hell. Beyond that? It’s anyone’s guess. Let’s get some gnat surgery out of the way before getting back to the party. This year, two running backs, Robinson and Jahmyr Gibbs went in the top 13 after the position was declared analytically dead. As I have written multiple times, I think teams should get a reprieve from that thought process as long as most defenses are going to continually play umbrella-style Cover 2 defenses, like the one popularized by Vic Fangio. One of the few things that consistently works against opposing coordinators who place a hard cap on big passing plays is checking the ball down to a sledgehammer of a running back over and over again. Robinson, who runs with the force of every demolition tool ever created, and also gained more than 10 yards per reception last year at Texas, is one of those players. This is why the Giants placed the franchise tag on Saquon Barkley. This is why the 49ers traded a massive chunk of capital for Christian McCaffrey. This is why the Packers spent a second-round pick on AJ Dillon instead of pacifying their formerly oppressed quarterback with a wide receiver. We can ask the boring questions, like Who will be handing Robinson the ball and distributing to all of these talented pass catchers? And for that, I would ask that you stop being such a buzzkill. In my mind, Robinson will force defenses to stagger to their kneepads, and then Allgeier will slide in on third-and-short to deliver a knockout punch. Let’s enjoy the Madden game playing in our collective heads for just a second longer. In all seriousness, the Desmond Ridder question is a legitimate one, but how much easier does one of the best on-paper running games make the development of a third-round pick QB? And how much better is it to succeed with a third-round pick at quarterback than to sacrifice all of your capital to move up for a rookie who may not be that much better? The Falcons looked at Lamar Jackson theoretically coming available this offseason, and they saw Will Levis and Hendon Hooker waving at them while they were on the clock at No. 8. They looked at a fair amount of draft equity burning a hole in their pocket—certainly enough to have moved up to the No. 1 pick if they chose to do so—and said No thanks, we’re getting weird. In an NFL where team building strategies can rapidly homogenize, it’s a kind of siren song for those of us who long to flick on a football game Sunday and see something truly jaw dropping. The Falcons managed to capture a bit of that sentiment a year ago with Marcus Mariota under center and Pitts missing a third of the season with an MCL tear. Now? Week 1 will be appointment viewing. The Falcons weren’t winning the Super Bowl in 2023 anyway. Throwing a party is the next best (shiny) thing. Conner Orr/ SI
The Falcons might disagree with those final two sentences. Here's something to consider when pondering the mathematics of the NFC South: this offseason, Atlanta's defense has improved more than the Tampa, Carolina or New Orleans offenses. Atlanta's offense hasn't exactly stood pat either, and a healthy Kyle Pitts and Cordarrelle Patterson will add even more to the arsenal. The Falcons should be considered strong contenders if not the outright favorites to win the Dirty South. And once you get into the postseason, anything can happen.
Quick updates... Bijan Robinson will wear #7. That was Michael Vick's old number. It was worn last year by kicker Younghoe Koo. Not sure if he wanted it and worked something out with Koo or if it was the team's idea, but it wouldn't surprise me if it turned out to be part of an effort to change the team culture and image for this season. Turn the page on Vick by having the Next Big Thing wear the jersey number. Also... the team is still working out WR prospects. Three of the six UDFA signings were WRs, and I have heard that if a potential WR#2 candidate becomes a cap casualty on June 2, the Falcons might still be in the free agency market and sign one to bolster the group. Of course, Arthur Smith loves to play 2-TE formations, so you almost have to think of Kyle Pitts as part of the WR group rather than as a TE. Pitts and Drake London are already a really strong pair of receiving targets.
Not exactly big news, but the Falcons signed one of the two WR prospects they worked out earlier this week. They signed Penny Hart, formerly of Georgia State University and the Seattle Seahawks. He'll compete with Frank Darby, Jared Bernhardt and other prospects for a potential roster spot as the #5 WR. The other news item of the week: behind the scenes, the Titans have hired away Atlanta's college scouting director, Anthony Robinson. The move makes sense. Tennessee's new GM is Ran Carthon, who was a pro scout with the Falcons (working with Les Snead) when Anthony Robinson first came aboard as a scouting assistant. When Snead became GM of the Rams, he took Carthon with him. Now that Carthon has become a GM himself, he's turning to someone he's familiar with to become his Assistant GM.
Cornerback Tre Flowers is the newest member of the Falcons. The team announced Flowers’ signing on Monday. It’s a one-year deal for the former Seahawk and Bengal. Flowers was a 2018 fifth-round pick in Seattle and he moved on to the Bengals as a waiver claim in 2021. He re-signed with Cincinnati last year and he had 27 tackles, an interception, and a fumble recovery in 15 regular season appearances. The Falcons have also added Jeff Okudah, Mike Hughes and fourth-round pick Clark Phillips to their cornerback group this offseason. The four newcomers join A.J. Terrell, Dee Alford, Cornell Armstrong, and Darren Hall on the depth chart in Atlanta. PFT
Bijan Robinson: Arthur Smith will use me everywhere, receiver and running back The Falcons drafted running back Bijan Robinson No. 8 overall, higher than running backs usually go in today’s NFL. But Robinson says coach Arthur Smith sees him as more than a running back. Robinson said Smith knows the best way to employ his skills, and that will include not just running back but also lining up at receiver. “He uses me everywhere, from receiver to running back,” Robinson said, via ESPN. “He lets me do my abilities and skill set the right way, whether it’s catching the ball, running routes, obviously running the football, blocking and doing it all.” The Falcons already had a 1,000-yard rookie running back last year in Tyler Allgeier, and it would be understandable if Allgeier isn’t happy with Robinson’s arrival. But Robinson said he and Allgeier have spoken and they think they’re going to work well together. “It was all love from the start,” Robinson said. “I was just like, ‘Yo, bro, like, I’m just happy to be here. Happy to get to work with you and kind of pick your brain on certain things and be a guy that will just compete, and we’ll both have fun in that offense.'” PFT
The term that Arthur Smith used in the press conference was "chess piece". And that term describes the team's entire approach to the offense very well. The QB ran a 4.52 and had 28 rushing touchdowns in college. The TE lined up more at WR as a rookie than at TE and had a 1000-yard receiving season. And Robinson? With other Falcons RB1s over the last 10 years or so (eg Mike Davis, Devonta Freeman or Steven Jackson), sure - they could catch a pass out of the backfield on a screen or as a hot read on a blitz. But you wouldn't really think of lining them up as WRs and sending them out on regular pass routes. They weren't THAT reliable of pass catchers, and they certainly didn't have route running skills. Ditto for Tyler Allgeier and Caleb Huntley in the current RB group. But Robinson can run every route on the tree as well as many slot receivers. If he slides over to the slot, you have to take it a lot more seriously than you would with the average RB. Ditto for Cordarrelle Patterson, who was a true WR for most of his career and was never a "feature" running back until last season in Atlanta. Expect to see him line up at WR a lot more this year. And take it seriously when he does - he's getting older now, but this is a 6-2, 220 guy who ran a 4.42 at his Combine back in the day. He's older, but overall he hasn't taken the wear and tear of most RBs or WRs at this point of his career. Avery Williams is another one. His primary role is punt returner, and he was listed as a DB when he was drafted - though he did offensive drills at his pro day as well as DB drills. So he was listed at DB as a rookie, and last year he was listed at RB. But in training camp and preseason last year, he took a surprising number of snaps split out wide as an outside WR, not just an inside slot guy or H-back. And the real joy of adding Jonnu Smith at TE is that it means Kyle Pitts is free to line up as a WR, like he did in 2021 and was Matt Ryan's #1 target after Calvin Ridley left. The big picture is the Falcons can play a lot of personnel groupings where you will have no idea what the formation will be when they break the huddle. Defenses will be forced to play nickel or dime more frequently because of the threat of having three linebackers all stuck in one-on-one coverage situations with Patterson, Robinson and Jonnu Smith. That opens the door for Atlanta to hammer the run game with Robinson, Patterson, and Allgeier.
Its a win - win situation to be that versatile. Thats why, as of now, Im stoked and really looking forward to watching them play. They have the 'chess pieces', horses and talent to do some real seriously cool stuff offensively. A lot of football fans, not necessarily Falcons fans, say they get bored with the quick hitter, run up the gut attacking system. Atlanta will put on a show that will captivate the fan base, let alone confuse and confound many defenses. The other reason Im looking forward to seeing the Falcons is you, Torgo. You've done a lot here to increase my interest in Falcons football (more than even Gerald Riggs)... you ought to be commissioned or something, lol. Next to the Vikings, I always dug those old helmets. I hope they bring them back a couple times this season.
Thank you kindly! Since he has become GM, Terry Fontenot has increased my own level of interest. It was our own GMO exercise in 2021 that really drove home for me just what he and new head coach Arthur Smith were up against. When we started that GMO, the Falcons were over the cap by $27.7 million. But the absolutely mind-blowing par of that is they had only 39 players under contract - and that included the returning practice squad. I'm a firm believer that a lot of the roster building process is inherently mathematical (an area of math that is sometimes called "operations research"). I don't know if he would explain his approach the way that I would, but a lot of what he has done fits exactly with the math-based philosophy. (Three key elements, without getting into actual math: the most important part of the roster is the weakest part, so put the most effort into fixing the worst problems. Plug holes with free agency and trades, so that you are free to go BPA in the draft. Keep an eye on the future - don't sacrifice a big part of tomorrow for smaller gains today.) It's impressive that they managed to stay as competitive as they did during the rebuilding years. I didn't think any real GM and head coach would be willing to bite the bullet and take the massive cap hit on Matt Ryan in just one year. But they did it, and now they get to unveil a whole new defense to go with a versatile offense. Win or lose, they truly should be a fun team to watch this season.
The Falcons added a veteran linebacker to the roster on Sunday. Andre Smith announced that he’s heading to Atlanta via a Twitter post with a photo of his contract signing. No terms of the deal have been disclosed. Smith had six tackles in five games with the Titans last season. He signed with Tennessee in November after being released by the Bills in October. Smith spent the previous two seasons with Buffalo, but was suspended for the first six games of the 2022 campaign for violating the league’s PED policy. The 2018 seventh-round pick played his first two seasons with the Panthers before being traded to the Bills in 2020. PFT
Slade Bolden - WR ATL Bolden signed with the Falcons on Sunday, Tom Pelissero of NFL Network reports. Bolden had a workout with the Falcons over the weekend and apparently impressed enough to earn the opportunity. The 24-year-old spent most of last season with Ravens after signing with the club as an undrafted free agent out of Alabama. Unfortunately, most of that time was on IR after he suffered an undisclosed injury in training camp. He'll now work to earn a depth role in Atlanta's receiving corps.
Defensive backe Natrone Brooks (Southern Miss) and Clifford Chattman (UTSA) are the other two new additions along with Andre Smith and Slade Bolden. Six players have been released to clear space on the roster: LB David Anenih, RB B.J. Baylor (waived/injured), CB Javelin Guidry, WR Ra'Saun Henry, defensive backes Dylan Mabin and Matt Hankins, and TE/FB John Raine.
And now a few more! The Falcons have signed three former XFL players: DT LaCale London, OT Barry Wesley and S Lukas Denis. Normally I would shrug it off. But I'm a firm believer that NFL-E made a huge difference in getting prospects valuable competitve reps back in the day. The XFL basically did the same thing for these guys, who were largely practice squad-caliber players from the outset and now have almost the equivalent of an extra college season of game reps. These guys should have a leg up on most of the undrafted rookies around the league. Barry Wesley (6-7, 310) mainly played guard at Colorado State but had starts at all four G/T positions. He played LT for the SeaDragons. If he can't win a roster spot now, he'd be in the running for a practice squad spot this year to groom him for the swing tackle role next year. LaCale London was an undrafted rookie in 2020 who was signed by the Bears. He spent 2020 on their practice squad, got hurt and spent most of 2021 on IR, then rejoined the practice squad and got called up late in the season (getting one full SNAP of actualy game experience!). Chicago released him near the end of camp in 2022. I haven't found any records of any other team picking him up. It looks like he missed the 2022 season. So outside of limited action in preseason games, the XFL season was his first chance in three years to show what he could do against live opposition. He was the XFL's Defensive Player Of The Week in the second week of their season. Something I find interesting about him... he was listed at 6'3.5" and 297 pounds in 2020 (Western Illinois apparently didn't have its own pro day, so he worked out for scouts at Northwestern). He now lists at 6'5", 320 and played nose tackle for the Battlehawks. That's part of what I find interesting about signing him - a second nose tackle prospect competing for the practice squad is a Good Thing. In theory David Onyemata (300 pounds) will line up at the main one-tech spot for Atlanta this season, with Eddie Goldman (332) as the big plugger coming in for run defense. Last year's undrafted rookie Timmy Horne (323) is likely destined for the practice squad. But all in all, I can't say I have full confidence that Goldman will stick around for THIS season, and I have strong doubts he'll be around for 2024. There might be room for both Horne and London to stick around. Can't say I know a thing about Lukas Denis. He basically vanished after initially signing with Tampa. Looks like he was out of the league entirely for several years before trying again with the XFL.
