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FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot opened a Tuesday news conference that was scheduled to discuss the team’s NFL Draft plans by saying he was going to do no such thing.
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“We never really want anyone to be able to read this transcript and get any kind of tip about what we’re going to do,” he said.
Atlanta will pick eighth in Thursday night’s first round. Unless it trades up. Or trades down.
“We might not make a single trade in this draft, and we might make four,” Fontenot said.
If the Falcons do pick eighth, they might pick an offensive lineman or a cornerback or an edge rusher or a running back, or even a quarterback. Head coach Arthur Smith even joked about using the pick on one of the writers in the room.
“We are never going to close the door on any position,” Fontenot said.
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At least publicly. While trying very hard not to reveal any information about their own plans, Fontenot and Smith simultaneously are trying to glean as much information as they can about what the other 31 teams are going to do this week. It’s a tricky tightrope to walk.
“I was just on the phone with someone, another GM who I have known a long time, respect him a lot, he’s a great man, all that stuff, but he could have been selling me a bill of goods because at the end of the day, he’s trying to get the best desired outcome for their team, and we are trying to do the same thing,” Fontenot said.
Teams, Smith said, have only three options at this time of year: Say too much. Say nothing. Or flat-out lie.
“There are some comical answers that you know are not really the truth,” Smith said. “I’d rather be vague than sit here and lie straight to you.”
It’s not just the media who gets the mealy-mouthed treatment from the Falcons. Smith said he wouldn’t tell his “best friend” any part of his draft plans if they worked for another team.
“Naturally you’re going to have some conversations, but you’re very careful with what you say to people,” he said. “That’s just how competitive it is.”
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Determining what is real and what is not is “probably harder than ever because there is so much information out there,” Smith said. “There’s so much more coverage on the draft. Information, true or not, travels at warp speed.”
The Falcons have picks No. 44 and 75 on Friday and picks No. 110, 113, 224 and 225 on Saturday. Fontenot called the 2023 draft “the most uncertain” in his memory.
“You don’t really know what another team is thinking regardless of what is out there,” he said.
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Doing their homework
The Falcons have already discussed the potential parameters of a draft day trade with teams picking higher and lower than them in the first round, Fontenot said.
“We want to be open,” he said. “We want to be flexible. We talk through all the different scenarios, and it’s our job to be ready for whatever happens. … We are never going to be a team that sits on its hands. If we see a player we want, we are going to try to find a way to get them.”
They hope to have a plan for any of the possibilities that could arise in the first round going into Thursday night, Fontenot said.
“I’d be surprised if the phone would ring and it’d be somebody you haven’t talked to yet when you’re picking in the top 10,” he said. “When you get down to the third round, that’s when you get a lot of those calls on the clock that you are not prepared for.”
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Accelerated timeline?
In the first two drafts under Fontenot and Smith, the Falcons had low expectations, meaning they could afford to be patient with prospects they drafted, and the general manager and coach said Tuesday they will try to have that same mindset even though the 2023 team has realistic playoff aspirations after a spending spree in free agency.
“We are not just drafting for today or tomorrow,” Fontenot said. “We are not prisoners of the moment. We are going to have these players for the next four or five years, and your needs change day to day, so we want to make sure we are thinking long term and big picture.”
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The additions Atlanta made this offseason — including defensive linemen Calais Campbell and David Onyemata, safety Jessie Bates III, cornerback Jeff Okudah and linebackers Kaden Ellis and Bud Dupree — will make training camp more competitive than it has been in the past two seasons, Smith said.
“This may be a hard 53 (man roster) to make,” the coach said. “That’s a great problem to have. We feel good. We don’t feel desperate.”
Bounce back for Bud?
After being limited to 33 games in the last three seasons because of injury, Dupree said Tuesday that his health is “100 percent perfect” heading into his ninth NFL season. He missed five games in 2020 with a torn ACL, six games in 2021 because of hip flexor injuries and six games last year due to a torn pectoral muscle.
“Ready to put a full health season together,” he said. “I’ve got chips on my shoulder because I was hurt these last couple of years, so I’m going to play as hard as I can and as violent as I can.”
The Falcons told Dupree they want him to be an “edge rusher, run stopper on the end,” he said. The 6-4, 269-pounder has 46 1/2 career sacks but has had only seven over the last two seasons.
“I’m going to be real: Being a free agent was not good because I didn’t want to get released,” he said. “Things happen, injuries occur. Overcame that, went through a little tough time.”
Another homecoming
Dupree joins a long line of Georgia natives on the roster. He was born in Macon and played at Wilkinson County High School.
“When I signed with the Falcons, my phone had never blown up that much, even on draft day,” he said. “It’s crazy the people who want to see the Falcons do good just from my circle. I am going to have to get with the ticketing people and let them control that because I am not trying to be dealing with nobody trying to hit me up before the game for tickets.”
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Cornerbacks A.J. Terrell and Dee Alford, defensive lineman Grady Jarrett, linebackers Lorenzo Carter and DeAngelo Malone, running back Caleb Huntley, quarterback Taylor Heinicke, tight end John FitzPatrick and offensive lineman Justin Shaffer are all from the Atlanta area.
“The Falcons were my heroes growing up,” Dupree said.
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Fresh start
Okudah called his trade from the Lions “bittersweet” because of the relationships he established in Detroit. The Falcons swapped a fifth-round pick in this year’s draft for Okudah.
“I approach situations putting my best foot forward, but sometimes things don’t work out how you intend,” he said. “I take those lessons and apply them to the new situation, which is here. I’m excited for this new chapter.”
Okudah’s career in Detroit was hampered by injuries, which limited him to 10 total games in 2020 and 2021, but he started 15 games last season and said Tuesday that felt like he did his rookie year.
“I was able to sit down this offseason, take all those lessons I learned, apply them to now and I’m hoping to see huge growth,” he said.
Kicking the can
Fontenot declined to say if Atlanta will pick up the fifth-year options on Terrell and Okudah (who both work with defensive backs trainer Oliver Davis).
“We will keep that between those players and their agents for now,” he said.
Terrell was the Falcons’ No. 16 pick in the 2019 draft, and Okudah was taken No. 3 by the Lions in the same draft. It’s expected the Falcons will exercise the option on Terrell. The deadline is May 2.
The kicker
The quote that resonated with me the most from the day was this from Okudah: “I think the sky is the limit, but at the end of the day things can look good on paper, but it doesn’t really matter until you go out on the field and prove it.”
He was responding to a question about the potential of the rebuilt Atlanta defense. The player who was selected third in the 2020 draft and shipped out of Detroit for a fifth-round draft pick three years later has a particular understanding of that.
(Top photo of Terry Fontenot: Stacy Revere / Getty Images)
