CBS is reporting the Falcons may trade up http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/blog/e...t-try-to-trade-up-in-first-round-of-nfl-draft Of course, cBS is a giant pile of steaming crap right now, so I'm inclined to believe the Falcons will do the exact opposite. That being said - the Falcons DO have eleven (eleven!) draft picks, the Falcons have traded up before (Sam Baker, Julio Jones) - and Dimitroff doesn't understand how to trade down - so it certainly is a possibility.
Yeah, I'm curious as to who they would trade up for. I'm sure it's defense related, or at least it should be. They just better not give up the farm again.
Hi, the Falcons have a few needs but the main would be: 1) Cornerback - released Robinson, Grimes left (he was injured all last year) and also Owens. Expected the top 3 Corners will go in 1st round. Milliner is top 10, Rhodes will be in the teens and Trufant in the 20s. So there is the potential that if Falcons want one of these three they may need to trade up. Other Needs 2) Defensive End - With the replacement of John Abraham (cut) with Osi Umenyiora this is slightly lower priority. However, it all depends on what the assessment of current DEs is internally and whether there is a chance of the defense rolling from 4-3 to more 3-4 looks. 3) Tight End - Have one more year with Gonzalez, but who is groomed to take over. The management has stated that they have been looking at the Tight Ends in this draft. Whether that means day one really depends on how the draft plays out. 4) Defensive Tackle - We lost Corey Peters who was our wide-body - if we want to use some 3-4 looks we really need an anchor. Also Babineaux one of our better tackles is getting older and heavier on the CAP. We need some new blood. 5) Offensive Tackle / Guard - Clabo was cut (partly a CAP casuality), McCure retired. There are replacements internally But again need new blood. 6) Outside Linebacker - In play-offs a coverage weakness was exploited by opposing tight-ends. Need to ensure this does not become a major problem when dealing with Pass-Option situations.
It's a bit of a myth that they gave up the farm for Julio, and you can thank the talking heads at BSPN for a lot of the conventional "wisdom". Sure, we now have the benefit of hindsight, but a lot of the criticism of the trade was pure baloney even in April 2011. Belief: the Falcons gave up their entire draft (in two straight years) to get one player, like the Saints did when they traded for Ricky Williams or like the Vikings did to get Herschel Walker. Reality: the Falcons drafted six players each year in 2011 and 2012. Those drafts produced five of our projected starters for 2013 plus our #2 running back, three key defensive backups (possibly one becoming a starter this year) and our punter from those two drafts. Does that really sound like we gave up our entire draft? Belief: in terms of the nefarious point chart, the Falcons gave up way too much value. Reality: two of the picks were future picks. There isn't a universally accepted method for discounting future picks, but it is beyond dispute that a future pick has less value than the same current pick. Here's the challenge... choose whatever discounting method you prefer (one round for one year, 50% point discount for one year, etc, etc - you pick) and calculate the point value of the picks that Atlanta gave up vs the pick they got. If you actually go through the exercise, you might find that Atlanta actually came out ahead on the deal in terms of points. At the very least, you'll find out just how bad the ESPN clowns are at math. The notion that Cleveland took us to the cleaners is a joke.
Hey, if you want to trade up to 10, the Titans are game. You can even keep your pick, too. We will take that Jones guy
What the Falcons might be looking for in the first round: Cornerback jumps out as THE top position of need. We now have Asante Samuel (who is getting old), Robert McClain (who emerged last year but is hardly a proven commodity) as a potential slot man, and... ?? Brent Grimes is gone. Dunta Robinson is gone. They were both of last year's opening day starters. Backup Chris Owens is also gone. The others remaining on the roster are Dominique Franks (who was so bad that we released him at last year's roster cut deadline before resigning him for punt return duty), Terrance Johnson (who played with the 2011 Colts - and wasn't good enough for them to bring back for 2012), and practice squad prospect Peyton Thompson. It's obviously a HUGE hole in our roster. If we don't address it via trade (some say we're in the hunt for Revis), it's a very likely choice for our first pick. Other possibilities: tight end (this year is it for Tony Gonzalez - and this time he says he means it), or somewhere on the defensive front seven. The catch with the defensive front seven is that the team is refusing to answer any questions about the defensive scheme for 2013. So they have a plan, but as fans, we're left guessing. Mike Nolan is a 3-4 guy, and outside of new DE Osi Umenyiora, virtually everyone we have on our roster in the front seven is as well or better suited to 3-4 than to 4-3. So I put forward the "3-4 conspiracy theory" that we will be mixing in a good chunk of 3-4 even if we don't make it our declared base system. To that end, we might be focusing on potential OLBs rather than true DEs.
Torgo - you've been trying to move us to the 3-4 for years Nolan may be a 3-4 guy, but Mike Smith is NOT. I'd be very surprised if we moved to a full-time 3-4 (although variations would be nice)
Going into 2011, I *wanted* to see us migrate to a single-gap 3-4. It fit our upcoming free agency situation a whole lot better than trying to stay 4-3. And in retrospect, if we could all jump back to April 2011, wouldn't you rather go that route instead of signing Ray Edwards? This year, I'm not saying I want to do it. I'm saying that the team's silence on the scheme (Smitty told the press not even to bother asking, as he would refuse to answer) combined with the moves we made up to the start of free agency sure makes it look like a change is in the works. I don't know exactly what that change is, but with Mike Nolan as our defensive coordinator, his "hybrid" style of 3-4 is a pretty strong contender. True, Smitty isn't a 3-4 guy. But then, the defense we ran with BVG as defensive coordinator really wasn't Smitty's true defensive scheme either - especially after we drafted Peria Jerry and went with sub-300 pounders at the one-tech. Signing Osi does throw a wrench into the 3-4 conspiracy theory. But I do still think we're at least migrating towards more of Nolan's "hybrid" system. All of the other moves we've made point in that direction - we have shed three DEs, keeping the three that project as 3-4 LBs. We also shed our highest-priced one-tech DT. Those are exactly the moves you'd make if you were planning on migrating to Nolan's scheme. And we played last season with just five LBs on the roster. One of those is gone, and another is a special-teams only guy who really doesn't count. Throw in that three of our other four DTs are in their final contract years, and the defensive front seven is truly a blank canvas right now. No matter what scheme they intend to play, the Falcons will be reloading the defensive front seven in 2013 and 2014 in a really big way. And if you're going to reload, it makes sense to bring in the players that will fit what your DC does best. After all, why on earth would you hire Mike Nolan just to make him run BVG's idiotic defense?
Dimitroff said in a pre-draft press conference that with their 11 picks Atlanta would definitely be active, and that "active could be up, down or around". Also potentially noteworthy, was that he said they might be a little more "understanding" of black-dot players (those with character issues). Its mostly generic "coach speak", with stuff about Matt's upcoming new contract, Brian Banks, etc., but if you haven't seen that its on YouTube- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzzAm_OX2aI
I don't mean this in a derogatory way, but imo ATL would be crazy to trade away anymore picks to move up in the 1st round. As good as Julio Jones is, he's not good enough to make up for 3 or 4 good players. ATL should show more confidence in their scouting and hold on to as many picks as they can. They need more than one impact player out of this draft if they want to evolve.
I agree with Rob Base, we need to work the magic in this years draft and fill some holes. With our cap space as it stands currently I dont think we can use the philosophy of using veterans to fill our holes. Especially not a corner and LB as we need atheleticism and younger players. I think this draft has a lot of depth with little drop off in talent
