ATLANTA — The Falcons completed their first NFL draft under general manager Terry Fontenot and coach Arthur Smith, and before we delve into the traits and commonalities of their nine picks and where the team goes from here, there are a few important things to understand.
One is that a team’s draft class is seldom as great as a team might say because players are drafted on athletic potential, not life’s realities, and sometimes having a fat direct deposit can crush effort and sledgehammer potential. Another is that no draft class is nearly bad as the fan sitting at home in his Barcalounger, screaming at the TV and asking why the general manager isn’t smart enough to look at the same cheat sheet of prospects he printed out 10 minutes ago. (Scouting is so damn easy.)
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Finally, there is the reality that we’re never really going to know what the plan was in some cases. We can only follow the obvious bread crumbs, like this: Atlanta picked tight end Kyle Pitts fourth after three quarterbacks were taken off the board. Pitts’ projected greatness is undeniable, but any theory that he was the preferred option all along seemingly took a significant dent the next day when the team signed vagabond A.J. McCarron to a one-year contract as Matt Ryan’s backup. McCarron may have been a mere contingency plan if the Falcons didn’t get their preferred choice: North Dakota State quarterback Trey Lance. There had been rumors before the draft that both Lance and Pitts were ahead of quarterback Justin Fields on the Falcons’ final draft board, but Lance was taken by San Francisco the pick before the Falcons. The McCarron signing followed the next day. Consider this amusing exchange to end a virtual news conference after the third round late Friday night:
Reporter: Had things gone a different way, would you have made the announcement (on McCarron)?
(Smith smirks. Fontenot smiles and turns to Smith.)
Fontenot to Smith: “What do you think?”
Smith (smiles): “You never know, I guess.”
Fontenot (chuckles): “We don’t strategically think of stuff like that. We just do it and announce it. Come on, man. You’re giving us way too much credit.”
So cute.
Now, for all who wish to only focus on the 2021 season and not the succession plan for Ryan or how the future beyond next season plays out, this first draft under Fontenot and Smith made a lot of sense. The new regime is focused on being creative on offense and multiple on defense. This draft class is jammed with players who can play multiple positions in different sets, week to week.
Pitts is like some beautiful mutant who can line up anywhere except quarterback (and, actually, he played that in high school). He’s also 6-foot-6, causing impossible matchups for defenses. Smith was reminded of Saturday when the former Florida All-American walked into the Falcons’ building for the first time.
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“It was good to have to look up at him,” Smith said.
“He’s a big man,” Fontenot said.
(There was no need to get their story straight on this.)
The Falcons also drafted two offensive linemen, tackle Jalen Mayfield, who may shift to guard (he’s 6-5, 320), and center Drew Dalman, who also started a couple of games at guard at Stanford. The Falcons had only one obvious starting job open (left guard), with tackles Jake Matthews and Kaleb McGary and guards Chris Lindstrom and Matt Hennessy (expected to shift to guard) set to start. But consider the words from Smith, a former offensive lineman himself and later coordinator at Tennessee.
“You can’t have enough guys who have the ability to pull the football — that center-guard flexibility (and) tackle-guard flexibility,” he said, referencing Dalman and Mayfield. “We’ll have competition and the best player will play, and you’ll have to have versatility if you want to get a helmet on game day.”
Read that sentence again: “If you want to get a helmet on game day …”
The Falcons are coming off three straight losing seasons. Entitlement is gone. Jobs are open. There’s no official depth chart now. Why would there be? Even guessing would be a waste of time.
Fontenot and Smith quickly have created competition. It doesn’t mean this team is going to be great or even a playoff contender next season. But the comfort level that became increasingly problematic in the locker room after the 2016 season is gone.
Again: “If you want to get a helmet on game day …”
Second-round pick Richie Grant from Central Florida can play both safety positions — and he will in Dean Pees’ defense because game plans may change drastically from week to week. It’s the Belichick blueprint. The Falcons had a need for defensive linemen, and it remains to be seen if they’ve improved their pass this rush. But they added defensive tackle Ta’Quon Graham and 6-4, long-armed edge rusher Ade Ogundeji (who led Notre Dame with seven sacks) and forced six fumbles in his college career. There were major holes in the secondary, where only cornerback A.J. Terrell seems assured of regular duty. So they drafted three defensive backs — Grant in the second, cornerback Darren Hall in the fourth and cornerback Avery Williams in the fifth.
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Williams, a former walk-on at Boise State, was a special-teams whiz with nine returns for touchdowns and five blocked punts/kicks. He’s 5-8. Smith also is considering using him on offense. All hail, the anti-Dirk Koetter.
They finished their draft in the sixth round with a wide receiver, Arizona State’s Frank Darby. They failed to add a running back but expect more additions. They’ll sign undrafted free agents. They’ll watch for post-draft and post-June cuts on other teams. Maybe they’ll spin a trade or two. (If Julio Jones is traded, it will be post-June to reduce the immediate “dead money” hit and create needed cap space for 2021.)
Smith again: “For us, the (depth) chart is never set.”
Getting the message?
The Falcons didn’t pick players based only size, strength, speed and three-cone drills. They valued intelligence, effort, consistency, versatility and running-through-the-wall hunger. They drafted Grant because they valued not just his physicality but also his instincts and tendency to be around the ball.
Confirmation from Grant: “You’re going to get a dog. You’re getting a playmaker, a leader, on and off the field. The ball just loves me. Maybe I just have a special relationship with it.”
Mayfield was a defensive lineman who converted to the offensive side. He sees no difference: “On defense, you’ve got to knock somebody back to make a play. On offense, you’ve got knock them back to prevent them from making a play.”
This is Atlanta. Falcons fans would settle for one of the two.
Bonds are already forming. Pitts worked out with Calvin Ridley before the draft. Grant worked out with Eric Harris. Pitts and Ryan have texted and plan to get together for lunch this week. Pitts also decided to pass on asking for his college jersey No. 84 from a new teammate.
“I wanted to keep my 84, but Cordarrelle Patterson has it, and I didn’t want to pay for that,” he said. He’ll wear No. 8, a bow to the NFL new rules allowing him a single-digit number.
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There’s a new front office, along with a personnel department, new coaches and new schemes. Those who were retained had to learn a new way of doing things and learn about each other. Fontenot found that out when he had a cluster of players he was looking at with his team’s pick nearing.
“You have five players and there’s 15 picks, and you get excited, and you have superstitions,” he said. “At one point, I was going to move the (name) magnets and stack them together.”
Kyle Smith, the team’s vice president of player personnel, stopped him.
“Kyle said, ‘Don’t touch them! You can’t touch the magnets, or they’ll go!'” Fontenot said.
It’s just a superstition. But turnarounds are difficult enough so why risk it?
(Photo of Kyle Pitts and Roger Goodell: Kirby Lee / USA Today)