The Athletic has around-the-clock coverage of the NFL Draft. Follow our NFL Draft Round 4-7 live blog and round 2-3 winners and losers, round 2 grades and best available players.
In his final 30 months as Falcons general manager, even as things were coming to an unhappy end, Thomas Dimitroff always had the 2018 sixth round in his pocket.
Advertisement
When Falcons owner Arthur Blank would be upset about a draft pick who didn’t work out, Dimitroff said he would remind the boss of his 2018 jackpot.
Dimitroff had his share of hits — quarterback Matt Ryan in 2008, Grady Jarrett in the fifth round in 2015, Devonta Freeman and De’Vondre Campbell as fourth-rounders — and misses — a 2012 draft class that played in a total of 124 NFL games — in his 12-year career as the top personnel executive in Atlanta, but he never had a more surprising round than the sixth in 2018. Few teams have.
Dane Brugler’s The Beast, the complete 2023 NFL Draft Guide, is now available.
Within the span of six picks, Nos. 194 and 200, a range in which most teams are hoping to find some special teams help, the Falcons drafted two players who last year signed contracts worth a combined $75 million — LSU wide receiver Russell Gage at No. 194 and Yale linebacker Foye Oluokun at No. 200. Neither is a Falcon any longer, but both are rich.
Follow all of The Athletic’s NFL Draft 2023 coverage.
At the time, hardly anyone noticed. At NFL Mock Draft Database, the Gage pick got a “C” and the Oluokun pick got an “F.” In draft grades given out that year, NFL.com’s Chad Reuter wrote “Gage will be a special teams ace for the Falcons.” He didn’t even mention Oluokun.
These flashbacks aren’t meant to pick on the analysts. Even the Falcons didn’t know what they were getting.
“We thought given the depth at those two positions that we could wait and potentially grab someone in the sixth or seventh round that would add to the back end of our depth,” Dimitroff said. “We weren’t necessarily projecting hitting starters (in the sixth).”
GO DEEPER
Falcons 7-round mock draft: Getting bigger up front early, finding value late
How could they be? But they did. In fact, in Oluokun, they got a borderline star. A player whose ceiling was considered to be a backup linebacker and special teamer has led the NFL in tackles each of the last two seasons. He had 192 for the Falcons two seasons ago then had 184 for Jacksonville last season after signing a three-year, $45 million free-agent deal with the Jaguars.
Advertisement
Gage has played in 74 games, starting 25. When he finished his rookie deal with the Falcons after the 2021 season, division rival Tampa Bay gave him a three-year, $30 million deal in free agency.
These are things sixth-round picks aren’t supposed to do. Among all the sixth-rounders since 2000, no one has more tackles per game (8.01) than Oluokun, according to TruMedia. Gage is fifth in receiving yards per game (33.34) and 17th in offensive snaps per game (32.12) among all sixth-rounders in that same timeframe, according to TruMedia.
Only 26 of the 44 sixth-round picks from 2018 (including compensatory picks) are still in the league. Thirteen have started 10 or more games. Twenty have played more than 300 snaps.
So how did the Falcons find two players who have combined to start 85 games and play 6,378 snaps? Because they had people in the building pounding on the table for each player, Dimitroff said.
For Gage, it was Michael Ross, who was a regional scout at the time and was promoted to national scout with the team in 2021.
“He was a huge supporter,” Dimitroff said.
Gage was moved from defensive back to wide receiver midway through his career at LSU and caught only 26 passes in his college career. He was not invited to the combine, but his performance at his pro day in Baton Rouge, La., caught the Falcons’ eye. Atlanta already had selected Calvin Ridley in the first round, but wide receiver was a position of need at the time, Dimitroff said.
Under Dimitroff, the Falcons were looking for traits — “athleticism, movement, just pure football skills” — in the fifth, sixth and seventh rounds, he said. Gage checked all those boxes, Ross believed, and Dimitroff agreed, he said.
Oluokun’s advocate was on the coaching staff — linebackers coach Jeff Ulbrich, a former NFL linebacker who is now the defensive coordinator for the New York Jets.
Advertisement
“Just unbelievable intelligence” is what stood out about Oluokun, Dimitroff said.
Like Gage, Oluokun’s standing didn’t warrant an invitation to the combine. Maybe because his listed weight as a senior at Yale was 215 pounds. (He worked out for teams at his pro day at 230 pounds.)
“He could cover a lot of ground and was a real rangy player. In the sixth round, you think he can develop, and if he has the speed and toughness and smarts, he can also be a legitimate contender on special teams. We thought if we could somehow get him dressing Year 1 on special teams, that’d be great.”
GO DEEPER
Falcons NFL Draft Big Board 3.0: Projecting Day 1, 2 and 3 fits for Atlanta
Oluokun ended up making 89 tackles as a rookie, second most on the team.
“It was unbelievable,” Dimitroff said.
He credited Ulbrich.
“Your position coaches can make or break a player in your draft,” the former general manager said. “Don’t ever let anyone insinuate that position coaches are just down-the-line contributors. You have a chance to lose these players, so you need their support of a player coming out of the draft. We’ve had some really good coaches who have developed and coached very well over the years I was there and unfortunately, we had other coaches who honestly did not pull their weight on the development side and some of those players just fell by the wayside. There are so many good football coaches out there who are really good at scheme but aren’t really good developers.”
Dimitroff stressed he doesn’t want to make excuses for his misses but does wish NFL fans understood the importance of coaching staffs and front offices being in lockstep in the draft process.
“We want coaches to pound their fist on the table,” he said. “We want them to believe in the players they are pushing, especially in the latter rounds because that’s where you have a chance to hit on someone.”
GO DEEPER
Why Falcons QB Desmond Ridder has a chip on his shoulder and high hopes for 2023
NFL.com draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah likes the idea of that but warns that the strategy has limits.
“I think it’s interesting to put that into the mix. I would just say that the cautionary tale there is coaches change all the time,” Jeremiah said. “You go from being a secondary coach to defensive coordinator with another team. You get fired. You know, you go be a college head coach. So to me, you’ve got to be a little bit careful on being too married to a position coach with a specific player. I do think it’s important that you get their input. I do think it’s important that you lay out a collective vision for the player with the coaching staff, with the assistants. I think you’ve got to be real careful if you tailor it too much to that specific coach.”
Advertisement
Ulbrich stayed in Atlanta for the first three years of Oluokun’s career. By that time, Oluokun had firmly established himself. The next year, 2021, the linebacker led the NFL with 192 tackles and then bolted for Jacksonville when the salary-cap-strapped Falcons couldn’t afford to match the Jaguars’ offer.
By that time, the player and the Falcons’ plan for him had already exceeded almost everyone’s expectations.
“Your old-day GMs would pound their first and tell everybody to go get screwed and this is who they were going to put on the field,” Dimitroff said. “No way does that happen anymore. This is a group effort.”
Additional Reading
- NFL Draft live updates: Round pick tracker, Mock drafts, picks order, grades and trades
- A beginner’s guide to NFL Draft 2023: No. 1 pick, draft order, questions and sleepers
- NFL Draft 2023 Confidential: Coaches dish on C.J. Stroud, Will Anderson, Anthony Richardson and more
- 2023 NFL Draft Odds: How sports books see the first round playing out according to betting odds
- Why the 2023 NFL Draft only has 31 picks in Round 1
(Top photo of Foye Oluokun: Kyle Terada / USA Today)
