Falcons’ additions will get them back into playoffs
The drafting of Sean Weatherspoon is one of the moves by Thomas Dimitroff that will get the Falcons back in the playoffs. (Brant Sanderlin/AJC)
FLOWERY BRANCH – Two years ago, we expected too little. One year ago, we expected too much. So it’s safe to conclude that even with all that Thomas Dimitroff and Mike Smith have accomplished during their brief reign with the Falcons, they’ve managed to keep at least one tradition in tact: The team is still keeping us guessing.
But not this time.
Last month, they signed a legitimate cornerback (Dunta Robinson). This allowed the Falcons to cut back on its janitorial stuff because now somebody won’t have to run onto the field to sweep up the ashes after every opponent’s pass play.
Then came the draft. They needed an outside linebacker who could drop into coverage, help create some mayhem on the pass rush and, if at all possible, hit somebody. They found Sean Weatherspoon. They needed linemen on both sides of the ball. They took a defensive tackle and two guards with their next three picks. Think of a draft as you would an exam. Nobody is guaranteeing an A. But at least we know the Falcons studied the right chapters for the test.
Loading ...At the very least, they will make the playoffs. If body parts don’t spontaneously combust as a year ago, they are capable of doing something special.
If reading that leaves you cross-eyed, think of this: What were the expectations of the New Orleans Saints a year ago when they were coming off two non-playoff seasons and a record of 15-17? Super Bowl champions?
Dimitroff isn’t the type to make guarantees. The most he would allow Saturday was: “There’s no question people should have expectations. Very solid expectations. We feel we’re going in the direction of a team that will be a perennial playoff contender.”
They went 11-5 when everything right. They went 9-7 when so much went wrong. Think about that: nine wins in a bad year. And then consider this:
♦ The schedule will be significantly easier in 2010. The combined record of opponents (127-129) ranks 20th, compared to last year’s schedule (150-105-1), which ranked fourth. Also, three outdoor road games in cold-weather cities – Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Philadelphia – all take place by mid-October. No snow.
♦ Logic says the Falcons will have better fortune on the injury front. Last year wiped out the seasons of Peria Jerry, William Moore and Brian Williams early, and dented Michael Turner and Matt Ryan late.
♦ Look around the NFC: Philadelphia jettisoned Donovan McNabb and will be transitioning to an untested Kevin Kolb at quarterback. Arizona saw Kurt Warner retire, which means Matt Leinart just lost his safety net. The Eagles and Cardinals are two of last season’s six NFC playoff teams. The Dallas Cowboys’ schedule is ranked as the most difficult in the conference and No. 3 in the league (opponents’ record of 139-117). The Saints will still be good. But they open against Minnesota, play at Dallas on Thanksgiving and have four night games on their slate — “rewards” for being a marquee team.
The Falcons are not without questions. Sam Baker hasn’t proved he’s worthy of being a starting left tackle, let alone a first-round pick. Defensive end John Abraham has to stay healthy (and preferably visible). There is a significant drop-off at wide receiver from No. 1 (Roddy White) to whomever is No. 2 (Michael Jenkins, Harry Douglas, street free agent to be named later).
Also, there’s the Matt Ryan question: Were the bumps in Year 2 just normal signs of the NFL learning curve?
Dimitroff wouldn’t call 2009 a step back, saying only, “We learned a lot about a very young football team.”
Then he reiterated, “People should have expectations that the arrow is pointing up. It’s not static or sideways.”
High expectations seem safe this time.
♦
Earlier Falcons draft posts
♦ Falcons still need linemen (and Weatherspoon video-palooza)
♦ Weatherspoon helps Falcons fix the right side of the ball
♦ Draft night (LIVE): Behind the scenes at Falcons’ HQ
♦ Draft day (Part II): Tebow top 15, Morgan to Falcons?
♦ Draft day (Part I): Falcon options; Berry rips Deion; Tebow to Vikes?
♦
Follow me on Twitter @JeffSchultzAJC and on Facebook.com/JeffSchultzAJC
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
325 comments Add your comment
jeff
April 25th, 2010
7:10 am
ma= May
Lilburn Dawg
April 25th, 2010
7:20 am
Jeff, “Fanhouse” disagrees with you:
http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2010/04/25/2010-nfl-draft-grades-final-verdict/?icid=main|htmlws-main-n|dl4|link4|http%3A%2F%2Fnfl.fanhouse.com%2F2010%2F04%2F25%2F2010-nfl-draft-grades-final-verdict%2F
2010 Falcons Draft Recap - The Recycle Bin
April 25th, 2010
8:17 am
[...] I am going to write some more on the topic, so let’s just wrap this article up some thoughts from Jeff Schultz (ajc.com). Last month, they signed a legitimate cornerback (Dunta Robinson). This allowed the [...]
Madlocks
April 25th, 2010
8:17 am
why is everybody trippin cause we didnt draft wideouts and runningbacks, when we were 11-5 a couple of years ago everyone wanted to blow TD, we are good, as if nobody noticed how far certain players dropped in the draft, I think we drafted what we needed< depth on the o-line and d-line! I felt like we could have taken Hernandez to replace gonalez but what the hell, there is next years draft hopefully! Hey look if you dont agree dont hate just keep all the bad comments to yourselves!
Madlocks
April 25th, 2010
8:22 am
Oh thats because the defense didnt play cosistant JEFF!Offense cant get in a rythm if the defense cant get off the field! I saw a lot of three and outs last year because the defense was incosistant on 3rd down getting off the field. I thought you guys watch the games. Team played good if it wasnt for that and all the injuries!
Mike
April 25th, 2010
8:27 am
I think H Douglas being back will help. Also remember Turner was off to a slow start last year. His first 4 games were terrible, and then he was hurt the last 7 games. Also we were on offense due to our defense being unable to get off of the field. With the addition of D Robinson, C Owens showing potential last year, B Williams coming back, and the addition of Franks…(don’t forget B Grimes is a very servicable nickel) our secondary is a lot better. With Jerry returning and the addition of Weatherspoon, I think we will be able to do a little more on Defense. I think Sidbury is going to only get better….the big thing is now hoping Abe is back to his old self this year. What I like is Lofton, Weatherspoon, Robinson, C Owens, W Moore (who was injured and did not play last year), and D Franks are all very physical players…. I think bringing in a couple of O linemen in the draft is huge. Our O line was riddled with injuries last year, so we really need to add depth. I am still hoping that Atlanta will give C Black OT a look from LSU.
Shadyman
April 25th, 2010
8:53 am
Good article Jeff, but you forgot to mention the injury to Harry Douglas last year. We really missed having him..
JSS
April 25th, 2010
9:07 am
@bigdawg
Welker as a reserve in ‘08, Largent as a starter in ‘89…
Jfreak13713
April 25th, 2010
9:08 am
“named” players? By the time you get to the 10th pick most of the players are pretty equal and status show 2nd round careers aren’t much different than first round. The Falcons went after needs and I assume the GM knows more about what he is doing than any of us??
The Falcons were are really good team going into this draft and with Spoon they are even better. The other selections are 50/50 but if they work out then we get our cake and eat it too!
Casey
April 25th, 2010
9:26 am
Hey Schultz. TRANSITIONING IS NOT A WORD!!! Why don’t you crack open a dictionary once in a while, since your job does involve writing words?
Genius
April 25th, 2010
9:29 am
http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/lists/nfl-draft-czar-report-cards-gallery-042410#sport=NFL&photo=11162462
Freakinfalcons
April 25th, 2010
9:31 am
O.K. DRAFT WE ARE GAMBLING ON BEIRMANN AND SIDBURY STEPPING UP IN THE PASS RUSH. I HOPE TD KNOWS WHAT HES DOING.IF HES WRONG WE WILL AGAIN STRUGGLE ON DEFENSE AGAINST THE PASS.
MAD ONE
April 25th, 2010
9:40 am
This draft didn’t stand a chance with Smith, Dumbmitroff, Mckay as your brain trust. After the weatherspoon pick they all got the “lil darryl syndrone”. It’s not about big names, it’s about letting good talent get away. This thing about character issue is starting to get on my nerves. everyone has some kind of character flaw. High profiled players comes out more than others. With that said the dumb trust of the falcons passed on improving over all team speed, playmakers, & team needs @ DE,SS,WR,TE. How many more DT’s do this team need.
Gen Neyland
April 25th, 2010
9:46 am
Genius : Thx for that. Gotta wonder what team will win the Ryan Leaf Award though.
Sid
April 25th, 2010
10:06 am
@Jeff who wrote: For all of you that are overjoyed with this draft and focusing on D and OL which I have stated many times on here we didn’t need. Here are the facts about our offense, We needed badly a good WR and RB in the 3rd round if not the first round.
Points PG – 13th at 22.7
Yards PG – 16th at 340.4
Pass Yards PG- 14th at 223.2
Rush Yards PG- 15th at 117.2
**********************************************************
The facts are these: The Falcons finished about 1100 yards in passing behind league leading Houston (congrats Matt, wished the Falcons brass had of realized you were the better QB when you were here), yet nearly tied them in points or points per game. The rushing leader last year was the Jets. The Falcons ran the ball 10 less times per game yet had almost the same average per carry.
The Saints led the league in scoring, 510 points on the season to the Falcons 363, the per game average was about a touchdown difference but the Falcons were ranked 4th in strength of schedule. The stats you mention are all fine and dandy but not what you draft by. We have an offense that can score points but if you can’t stop the other team the point is pretty much moot. I like our draft, some immediate help and contributors down the road. I swear, the WR from Kansas is going to be a game changer right out of the gate……….!! Why do you think we don’t have a good stable of running backs, you have to have a good O line to open those lanes. This will prove to be an excellent draft.
Mattrick
April 25th, 2010
10:09 am
Meier can help a team in a number of different areas; receiver, emergency QB, gadget plays, hold on kicks, and he can also punt and kick if needed. Plus, he is a great kid.
mountain_jim
April 25th, 2010
10:24 am
I just have to laugh at all the doom-and-gloomer-know-it-all-raggers in this blog. As a Falcons fan for 35 years, I have never seen a Falcon organization this well-run from top to bottom. I expect this and last year’s draft will continue to build the talent level and turn out alot better than what the Kiper’s and local trollers believe it will. And with better lines depth and better pass-defense and a more reasonable schedule 10-6 or 11-5 and playoffs for sure next year.
Freakinfalcons
April 25th, 2010
10:33 am
NO PASS RUSH HELP IN FREE AGENCY + NO PASS RUSH HELP IN THE DRAFT = CONTINUED STRUGGLE AGAINST THE PASS NEXT SEASON. VERY SIMPLE
ctogar
April 25th, 2010
10:44 am
Lots of folks seem to think we should have picked up Everson Griffen in the 3rd instead of Corey Peters. I thought the same until looking at their evals.
While Griffen is higher rated, his profile screams “underachiever”, whose hype is greater than his actual performance. Peters has some work to do, but has “improved every year” and comes in with a desire to prove himself as opposed to being annointed a pro before he even plays a game. I feel better about Peters now.
robdawg08
April 25th, 2010
10:47 am
Obviously the Falcons need another good WR and a kicker. Drafting core players like linemen on both sides of the ball is good. But Michael Jenkins doesn’t exactly take any pressure off Roddy being double-teamed.
Elam cost us two games last year and the playoffs. Get a damn kicker that can kick.
John
April 25th, 2010
10:53 am
LaGarette Blount (Oregon RB who assaulted the Boise State player) made it through all 255 picks without so much as a tease.
Here’s hoping the Falcons can nab him as a free agent.
To Blount’s credit, he served his penance and earned his to the team. And before all you holier-than-thou among us deploy your favorite descriptive for those of a darker pigmentation who possess character flaws, think for a moment about the quality of the Falcons’ running game when Turner is gimpy.
What’s a random cold-cocking of an opponent in the larger scheme of things anyway?
I forgive you, LaGarrette!
WreckinBall
April 25th, 2010
11:06 am
Little jeff @ 7:10am, you need to get an appointment with Mr. Arthur so that you can present your ideas and superior knowledge of NFL team management to him, then he can finally get rid of those morons Dimitroff and Smith. You can take over after that, and get this team striaghtened out to where the Falcons can win all of the SuperBowls for the rest of your life.
J-MAN
April 25th, 2010
11:11 am
Neil Rackers!!!!!
WreckinBall
April 25th, 2010
11:12 am
Also, there are a lot of contributors on this blog that you can hire as assistants and coaches. A great collection of geniuses on this rag. You
don’t see this much knowledge concentrated in one place very often.
Not Fooled or Drinking the Kool Aid
April 25th, 2010
11:23 am
Look Gentlemen:
Before you go calling people who stated there opinion on the draft “trolls” or “gloom and doomers” read what they say. Most of us are just as passionate as you are about the Falcons wanting to see them continue to improve. Matter of fact I liked Matt Ryan and last years draft they just had bad luck with injuries on defense. But by the same token I am not blindly going to say “I trust TD, Rich McKay, etc.”. They are human and they f**kup too. Quantify your response. Fact: Peterson out of Kentucky was a projected 5th round pick, period!!! Taken in the 3rd. Hawley was projected as a undrafted free agent, taken in the 5th. The two guys from Montana and Kansas sound wonderful but could they have been taken as undrafted free agents. There was a whole hell of a lot of talent left on the board at DT, DE, RB, WR who probably didn’t need a couple of years of developement. Get real with your responses and if you call somebody out back it up with facts not blind faith. I am not just a Falcons fan, I am a pro Football fan and have been watching it for over 30 years. Get real with your comments!!!!!!
tree rollins
April 25th, 2010
11:27 am
I’m still not seeing the answers at running back (Turner fizzled out with excess bulk last year), backup QB (if Ryan goes out again the season is pretty much over with the insurance salesman backing him up), possession receiver (Jenkins has shown he is not reliable) or pass rush. That’s still a lot of holes. The Falcons will work hard to get where they need to be but one extended injury to Ryan and the season is kaput!
Freakinfalcons
April 25th, 2010
11:38 am
Kroy Beirmann and Lawrence Sidbury will have to step up their games this season. I think both have great potential. This season will be put up or shut up time for them. I like TD and feel he has a goal in mind for this team,to be superbowl champions and be very competitive in the NFL for many years to come.We will and we will. Thank you T.D.
WreckinBall
April 25th, 2010
11:43 am
Koolaid- It’s America, everyone has a right to comment as they wish(up to a certian point) pull your panties out of your crack, it’s only football.
Sid
April 25th, 2010
11:45 am
Whopper Dawg, I didn’t get finished reading your first sentence and I knew you were a moron.
Sid
April 25th, 2010
11:48 am
Not Fooled or Drinking the Kool Aid:
You should practice what you preach. Didn’t you say quantify, why yes, I believe you did.
Troy Heinzman
April 25th, 2010
11:55 am
I think what this draft tells us is Dimitroff and Mike Smith have a lot of confidence in Jamaal Anderson and Harry Douglass still since they didn’t draft a single DE or a top notch receiver. Instead they focused on the interior lines.
Sid
April 25th, 2010
12:19 pm
@Not Fooled or Drinking the Kool Aid:
Hawley was projected for the 6th or 7th round. Peters (not Peterson) was projected as a 3rd or 4th round pick. Meir was ranked 345th, almost as fast as Dez Bryant, the #1 rated receiver in the draft. Franks was ranked as the 10th best corner in the draft. Mike Johnson was ranked as the 4th top guard. Weatherspoon ranked 3rd best OLB in the draft. And those are the facts.
Sid
April 25th, 2010
12:23 pm
Troy Heinzman:
Mark it down now buddy, Meir is a steal………a Steve Largent in the making. The Falcons brass have no reason to lose confidence in Douglass and they have moved Anderson to tackle, I think this is obvious they don’t have confidence in him on the end. He seemed to do a little better there last year.
Not Fooled or Drinking the Kool Aid
April 25th, 2010
12:41 pm
Sid:
You proved my point. Hawley 6th or 7th round is just about undrafted free agent. Peters excuse the spelling was not a 3rd or 4th round pick I saw him rated a lot later on several draft boards nfldraftcountdown, waltersfootball, and check the experts Mayock, Kiper,etc. And to mention Meier, check your spelling,in the same sentence as Dez Bryant is ludicrous I don’t care if he runs a 4.0 forty. He will never be Dez Bryant in the NFL. I intentionally didn’t mention Weatherspoon or Mike Johnson because I thought they were good value picks. The draft is about “value” remember that term. Getting a good player at a place where he is predicted to go or in a later round. When GMs reach a round or two early for a guy money is involved and a lot of the quality talent ends up becoming bust. So why reach for a guy a full round or two early who may not even make the team. While all the while your competition cherry picks talent you left on the draft board because you want everyone to know how smart you are and how you are only going to bring guys with so called (FBI)football intelligence. I got news for this guy if you need that much intelligence to play football you probably shouldn’t be playing football. And then you guys come on the message board and scream “in Dimitroff we trust”! Like the guy on Spartacus said “Remove from head from a** ” and yes quantify your comment!!!!!
robdawg08
April 25th, 2010
1:01 pm
Why not get a great QB like Ryan another weapon to go with Roddy at WR in the draft ? Where’s the DE they NEEDED ?
SCFalconsFan
April 25th, 2010
1:01 pm
It’s clear we need some idiots to ridicule, so let’s all get in a circle and point to the left. I’m amazed by the vitriol I see on these blogs because someone’s idea of a draft wasn’t met.
I’ll give you my take, then about half of you can jump on me. TD and MS drafted according to their evaluation of need (not ours) and their evaluation of talent (not Mel Kiper’s, or any of the other pundits). They clearly think that a healthy Perry and the continued emergence of Biermann and Sidbury will improve the pass rush on the DL, and they got the guy they wanted to shore up the weakness in the LB corps. They also believed that not every running back on the roster will be injured every year. Beyond that, they addressed other needs such as DL/DB depth and OL play, and they did it by their evaluation of talent and how well a player will fit into their system. Finally, they may be addressing some additional needs through FA. They may be wrong on some points, but I’m sure of this: they are not idiots. Some of the draft picks may have been available in later rounds according to Kiper, but they’re not drafting against him, and there were plenty of other teams that let “obvious talent” slide while they picked less promising players as rated by the pundits.
I’m not drinking the koolade, but I’m withholding judgment – we’ll know better in a year or two.
In the meantime, I continue to get entertainment value from all the comments.
Traviiiiiiiiit
April 25th, 2010
1:09 pm
sign T.O.
robdawg08
April 25th, 2010
1:22 pm
SCFalcons fan,
Everyone has the right to blog their thoughts about the topic. It is the purpose of a blog. I’m sure many of us will be right and many of us wrong about the Falcons picks or the picks they didn’t make and other teams picked. Hindsight is 20/20 but fans know a lot about football too.
Danno
April 25th, 2010
1:34 pm
I don’t know about a few of these. In the 3rd, E. Griffin and C. Wooten were still on the board as highly regarded DE’s, as well as B. Campbell at Tackle. If you were determined to go DT, then G. Atkins was on the board and received better grades than Peters by most. In the 4th, Hawley wasn’t even graded as a center by most, and was way down the list at guard. If he’s the center, tough to justify passing up on M. Tennant who was still available. If he’s a guard, we spent a 4th rounder on our #4 guard? And when we picked Meier, C. Mitchell was still available. Agreed we won’t really know for 2-3 years, but that doesn’t mean you get a pass for ignoring prevailing wisdom today.
SCFalconsFan
April 25th, 2010
1:36 pm
robdawg08,
I defend everyone’s right to comment, and your right to disagree with my take. I also defend my right to be amused by the vitriol. No offense meant.
Casey
April 25th, 2010
1:54 pm
Hey, Sid. You know so much. Why can’t you figure out the guy’s name? It’s Kerry Meier. Not Meir.
Genius.
BirdFan
April 25th, 2010
1:58 pm
You guys complaining about what positions we didn’t get do actually realize that we can still pick up players that get released, or UFA’s, before we start playing ….. right?
You also realize you can’t fill every need through a draft …… right?
It remains to be seen if this draft is good, a bust, or somewhere in between.
What I do know is that you win games, especially big games, in the trenches. For a team that was fairly weak in the trenches at times last year, I thought the Falcons did a pretty decent job of addressing that in the last few days, which shows me they believe winning the war in the trenches is important too.
They also fixed an AWFUL glaring deficiency at LB and hopefully we won’t have to see Peterson focking things up near as much this year. Dude should be relegated to back up and is just too old to play against the spread styles we see so much of in today’s game.
It also doesn’t seem those b!tching about WR realize we’re getting Douglas back who is going to be a BIG part of our WR corp. His injury last year turned out to be much bigger than originally anticipated.
Football 101 – Run the ball and stop the run…… and then go from there.
IMO, that’s exactly what the Falcons are attempting to do and IF they can stay healthy this year, that’ll bear itself out on the field to the tune of 10-11 wins if they can just find us a kicker that won’t lose us ballgames like last year.
Another thing those posting before me haven’t really mentioned btw. People fail to remember that as bad and frustrating as last season was, this very easily could have been an 11 win team with good kicking from the start of the season.
SKYROCK
April 25th, 2010
2:01 pm
I can only imagine what our record could have been without all the injuries. I’m happy with the draft because I trust our front office. Its so funny reading some of these arm chair coaches comments. Its scary to think what the Falcons would be if these guys ran the team…. maybe the smiths listen to these people. LOL
waynester
April 25th, 2010
2:13 pm
I’d like to associate myself with the remarks of the Gentleman from S. Carolina. No one should be surprised by this draft. It looks like a prototypical Diimitroff/Smith draft. TD cut his teeth on smaller program, high talent, high production good coaching high character, high upside, versatile players and working them out thoroughly and studying their film. He’s from a tiny school in Canada, himself and it’s obvious he prides himself on finding these guys few others have noticed. We can agree or disagree with his approach, but at least he HAS ONE that is consistant– a virtue he and Smitty have preached from the get-go. Trusting your decisions from the last few years and advancing toward completion of our 3 year plan. From the end of last season, through the draft they have said over and over that they had full confidence that the return of Jerry would signifigantly boost our DE’s sacks, pressures and hurries. They said again and again that they wanted to get bigger on the OL more urgent in the itermediate passing game and overall more consistent. All our draftees have a proven production record, were leaders on their teams and all seem to be up-tempo smart players. Just what they’ve been telling us they planned to do. We all have a “guy” that you think we missed out on–but you forget that they targeted THESE SPECIFIC players after working them heavily. Some of the remaining FA’s look promising–I like Leroy Vann from FAMU but there’s a method to the seeming madness of this draft…..
Mr. Turnip-Green Jeans
April 25th, 2010
2:25 pm
Some tidbits from Pro Football Weekly
With Mike Peterson aging and playing undisciplined football, Weatherspoon adds youth to the Falcons’ linebacking unit. He is big, fast and flies to the ball. His play dropped off as a senior after he bulked up, but he looked much more comfortable after dropping weight at the Senior Bowl. The biggest challenge he will face upon entering the pros will be keeping his ego in check and not alienating veterans in the locker room.
The Falcons concentrated on shoring up the the middle of their defense with the selections of Sean Weatherspoon and Peters. Peters is a developmental three-technique with the quickness to add some value on third downs. With the injuries that struck the interior defensive line last season, depth was much needed. THEN THIS: The Falcons’ choice of Peters was a questionable one. A year after taking Peria Jerry in the first round, the team added Peters, who is considered a developmental three-technique. A trench warrior with some more grit might have been a better option, and it’s also worth noting the team passed over LSU’s Al Woods and a trio of Georgia Bulldog tackles. THEN THIS: “Falcons make odd choice with selection of DT Peters” Unless the Falcons are less than confident that DT Peria Jerry is recovering well from a torn ACL he suffered in Week Two last season — and there’s no indication that he has encountered a setback — it’s hard to figure out their third-round choice of Kentucky DT Corey Peters. He projects to play the three-technique in the pros. With a glaring need at defensive end, the Falcons passed on a talented pass-rushing end in USC’s Everson Griffen. It’s nice to have depth at tackle, but Atlanta could regret passing on Griffen, unless he’s still available when they make the last pick of the third round (98th overall). Peters is a smart player. He lacks any impressive athletic traits, though, and could take time to develop before he’s ready to consistently contribute. After landing an exciting, fast-flowing player in Round One with the selection of WLB Sean Weatherspoon, the Falcons’ third-round pick feels like a bit of a letdown.
With Harvey Dahl and Tyson Clabo restricted free agents and Justin Blalock entering a contract year, the Falcons needed some depth on the right side of their line, and Mike Johnson could provide it. He was a versatile performer on a national championship line and has the toughness and competitiveness to function ably in the NFL’s trenches.
The Falcons had a need in the middle of their line with Todd McClure aging, and they may have found a suitable replacement in UNLV C Joe Hawley. He may not look the part, but he is tough, scrappy and competitive and has the type of football temperament to play in the NFL a long time. He could also provide depth at guard, where he played as a senior.
Oklahoma CB Dominique Franks could bring the most value to the Falcons as a return man. He looks the part and has an intriguing physical skill set, but too many inconsistencies showed up on tape in college. He could compete for a job as a No. 4 or No. 5 corner.
PMC
April 25th, 2010
2:33 pm
Did we really have expectations that were too high last year? Most everyone said 9-7 or 10-6 with a shot a the playoffs. They finished 9-7 and just out of it with a ton of injuries and a really young, thin defense and almost no secondary.
Good year on the whole last year. They have been building the last 2. This year they are set up well.
PMC
April 25th, 2010
2:36 pm
The Peters pick was extremely odd with who was on the board, but I think he fits the rotation of players they want on the line. They don’t want a big body obviously they want disruptive in that position. He gives them depth to play a similar style if anything happens to Jerry. Probably means they are not cutting Jamal Anderson.
PMC
April 25th, 2010
2:40 pm
I really think the pass rush will be vastly improved this year because of more push from inside. We’ve needed a stud linebacker outside since the decline of Brooking. Peterson was working out well last year until Williams and Jerry got hurt. Weatherspoon should really be able to help put an end to those mid range short pass conversions on 3rd down that are the bain of our existance.
Seattle Falcons Fan
April 25th, 2010
2:47 pm
———-And in the Second round the Atlanta Falcons select- TONY GONZALEZ
Did we forget!?! So we pick up a grade A linebacker in round 1…….A Hall Of Fame TE in round 2 (which we even got a year early)……. And one of the best DT and OT in the SEC in round 3…….
And you guys are complaining about a 7th round pick? Yes, I too was wondering about E. Griffen but obviously TD and the Falcons scouts saw something else.
Lets not forget we also signed Dunta Robinson too. I think we look way better…….
New upgraded positions-
Strongside CB- Dunta Robinson
Weakside CB- Brian Williams
Weakside LB- Sean Weatherspoon
DT Reserve- Corey Peters
OT Reserve- Mike Johnson
Injuries comming back-
Strong Saftey- William Moore
DT- Peria Jerry
I think we look alright……
Seattle Falcons Fan
April 25th, 2010
2:50 pm
And I forgot to add Hawley at C……… The guy was third at the combine for OLine in the bench press and we got him as an after thought