I guy I considered as well just because I think the niners will be very high on him. Wouldn't be surprised if he is the niners pick in a couple of weeks.
He was tagging me because I took Williams for Atlanta in the first mock... after trading down and getting a future first rounder.
I got two offers that roughly translated to slide ~5, move up rounds from now 30-60, and maybe a tiny sweetener. But I just couldn’t get as excited about another player as I am about Mykel. The kid doesn’t even turn 21 until a month into his rookie season, and his sheer power is already well above average. Plus the pass-rushing upside. He got five sacks playing injured all of last year. Which shows his toughness as well. The thought of him and Latu evolving together into a dominant duo was just too enticing.
Either way I took Williams the first time, so this time I was set to go a slightly different direction, or at least a different player no matter what... Falcons select Jihaad Campbell LB / Edge / chess piece Alabama
Atlanta's best edge rusher the last two years has been Kaden Elliss, who is theoretically a starting ILB but also lines up on the edge. The problem is that due to injuries to the other LBs, he was stuck playing the middle nearly full time and hasn't been able to play the outside rush role. So now I add a second player like him... Jihaad Campbell can also play ILB, OLB or edge rusher, giving this year's new DC (yes, we've had different defensive coordinators in each of the last FOUR seasons) two of those chess pieces.
I did something similar with Seattle last draft. I want him to eventually be more of a LB but he can play edge snaps if that's where the talent is needed.
I almost took him last time but decided to "save" him for this draft and took Williams instead. Fortunately Campbell was still on the board this time. My thought is Campbell plays LB and frees up the veteran Elliss to play edge. It's overlooked how effective of an edge rusher Kaden Elliss really is. The Saints moved him from LB to edge late in his final season there and he racked up six sacks in seven games. Then he followed DC Ryan Nielsen here. Nielsen did a really good job here, but Arthur Smith got fired the next year and the new coach brought in Jimmy Lake instead. Lake flopped, so now the coach is bringing back Jeff Ulbrich, who was previously here as LB coach under Dan Quinn.
Nice pick Side note Hope Bralen Trice comes back healthy this year was high on him last year and interested if he adds to your pass rush
That's something else that has me intrigued for Atlanta this year... the team has a LOT of young, still developing players. If Jeff Ulbrich can keep developing them and make the system fit the players that he has rather than trying to force them to fit the system (which is where last year's DC went horribly wrong), there really aren't many holes to fill on the roster at all. It's also incredibly frustrating as a fan... cornerback Dee Alford had been rock solid in Ryan Nielsen's system, and the team added a four time Pro Bowl safety (Justin Simmons) plus a veteran pass rusher (Matthew Judon). But they weren't system fits for what last year's DC Jimmy Lake wanted to do, so now all three players (all starters) AND Lake are gone. Ho hum... another year, another new defensive coordinator, yet more effing roster churn on defense.
I bet you wish you had Chris Ballard running the show. Almost never lets any homegrown player leave, even if they’re only average. And he tries to keep the same coordinators around
I noticed that when the Commanders played the Falcons that Judon be running around in coverage one 2nd down the out of breath on 3rd when it was time to get after Daniels and Simmons was in man more then I expected as it always seems he's at his best reading the QB in center field
