Drafting in general and more importantly continuity in general, on offense as well as defense. Last year brought in a new (rookie) OC along with the new head coach and new QB. The three years with Arthur Smith/Dave Ragone had different starting QBs going into each of the three years. Before that the team had a steady parade of OCs and line coaches going back to when Dan Reeves was head coach. That matters - we often blast Kaleb McGary, but he was drafted for Dan Quinn / OC Dirk Koetter / line coach Chris Morgan. We've had two full changes in coaching staff since then. But yes, drafting in general has been an issue too, particularly with the picks in rounds 2-4 consistently not panning out. Look at the six years from 2017-2022, Dimitroff's last four drafts and the first two with Fontenot: Duke Riley, Sean Harlow, Isaiah Oliver, Deadrin Senat, Ito Smith, Kendall Sheffield, John Cominsky, Marlon Davidson, Matt Hennessy, Mykal Walker, Jaylinn Hawkins, Richie Grant, Jalen Mayfield, Darren Hall, Drew Dalman, Arnold Ebiketie, Troy Andersen, Desmond Ridder, DeAngelo Malone. That's 19 players selected in rounds 2-4 over six years, and only one (Dalman) became a clearly successful starter for Atlanta - and he just left in free agency. DEFINITELY a drafting problem there.
True. A few of these I definitely saw coming. But gotta be honest, I would have to own the miss on Jalen Mayfield myself. I was kinda high on his chances. Troy Andersen to a lesser degree. He’s looked good when actually healthy, I think.
I'm with you all the way on Andersen. I think he still has serious starting potential, and I'm hoping to see him rock out in preseason and force Ulbrich to start him. And then for his sake, I hope he stays healthy. This is going to be a make-or-break training camp for Andersen, Arnold Ebiketie and DeAngelo Malone. All three are essentially linebackers, and Ulbrich has a long background working with linebackers. But all three have also been victims of the team's lack of consistency. They are entering their fourth season in the league, and they have had a different defensive coordinator and scheme every year since they've been drafted. Seriously, Falcons, pick a scheme and stay with it for more than five minutes. I saw an article today that made me laugh a bit. A writer from SI actually called out a writer on the NFL.com site (Gennaro Filice) for his mixed-up assessment of Atlanta in ranking the draft classes. A big problem with the overall media assessments of Atlanta's draft this year is that so many of the writers and outlets want to have it both ways, saying it's great one minute and horrible the next - letting them be right no matter which way things turn out. Filice's writeup in ranking the draft classes went both ways at the same time. His writeup made it clear he thinks Atlanta picked up four instant starters. That gets an awesome draft grade, right? Nope... he ranked it as the 29th best draft class out of 32. Ummm.... what the what???
Probably a bit like myself, couldn’t get around the bias in his own mind that they needed to help the young quarterback in some way for it to get a truly good review
He becomes unrestricted in 27 - Drake London Contract Details, Salary Cap Charges, Bonus Money, and Contract History | Over The Cap
They just exercised the fifth year option on London for 2026. Kyle Pitts is on his fifth year option this year. As with the defense, the biggest question for me for the offense will be the coaching. I was disappointed with Zac Robinson as a rookie OC last year, particularly early in the season. I'm wondering what he'll do to adjust to the blind side flipping from left to right with Penix as the starter. McGary isn't terrible (anymore) but he could still use some help with chips, etc. The offense in a nutshell: Bijan Robinson backed by Tyler Allgeier at RB. London, Darnell Mooney and Ray-Ray McCloud as the top three WRs. Probably some two TE formations with Pitts and Woerner - hopefully with Pitts split out. So a formation might have Robinson as a single back, Woerner in line (next to McGary?), London and Mooney at WR with Pitts split out and perhaps in the slot. Matthews, Bergeron, Neuzil, Lindstrom and McGary on the line.
Falcons draft - Let's look at it from the possibility that the Falcons had a top 10 value on Jalon Walker, and a top 16 value on James Pierce. Let's also throw in a mid-second round value on Watts. If this was their evaluation of these 3 players, and I don't think it's a stretch to assume this is a legit possibility, then does the argument that they overspent for these players still hold weight?
The Falcons moved back into the first to grab a player that they had to have a first round grade on, maybe top 16. Howie's quip aside - I'm not seeing some kind of 'rip off' happening in that deal.
Not saying it's a rip off. He just made a quip that everybody wanted to trade down apparently the values went the other way. He was trying to trade up since 22. If your value is there your value is there. I always go back to the Seahawks refusing to trade with Dallas because they lowered their offer to get up to grab Paxton Lynch. After the draft Jerry Jones said he made a mistake. He was after Lynch for a while but lowered his offer after pick 25 because the pick value was much less. He missed out on getting a player he would have been happy getting earlier at the same cost. Draft lesson learned (and bullet dodged).
I think this hits a related question that hasn't really been covered in the media and the "instant grades". The Falcons did extensive background work on Pearce. They were comfortable with the "character" questions, which I think were the main thing knocking him down various prospect rankings, which in turn drives the idea that he went off the board way too soon and hence Atlanta overpaid. So here's the question: without any of that stuff about him supposedly having one foot out the door and not being coachable, how would he rank in your overall Top 50 or whatever, and where would he rank among the other edge prospects? My thought is hmmm... 4.47, most pressures in SEC in last two years, 23% pass rush win rate last year, gets raves for his ability to play run defense and set the edge... that seems like a definite first round grade to me. CBS had him #20, and the NFL.com prospect pages had him tied for the 20th highest grade. So without the coachability question, a top 20 seems plausible. Say he ranks #25-30 without the character question (bottom quartile of round one) and Watts ranks something like #50-60 (bottom half of round two). Full price to get them was the 46 (second round), 242 (seventh), 2026 first, 2026 fifth. That's... not terrible by any measure. And it gets better if he really does rate #16 or the #20 where CBS and NFL graded him. So the character question and the validity of the Pearce pre-draft valuation and ranking needs to be reconsidered.
