Falcons: We really do need a strong and full draft this year.

[Beef]

I've got a silly but interesting hypothetical idea, but I need to know who everyone thinks will for sure be the worst team NEXT year. Jacksonville? KC? Oakland? Buffalo? Tennessee?

Whoever it is, we give them our first this year and first and second next year for their first next year and we go for Jadeveon Clowney.

Yeah it's stupid, but man to have that guy. Whoever gets him is going to be getting the LaBron James of football level of crazy talent. Oh what a dream that would be.

[FullMetalFalcon23]

(01-15-2013 10:20 AM)mdrake34 Wrote:  It doesn't matter who we pick, but we've got to have a draft class with more than one contributor. This year we had Konz, that was it. We don't need a bunch more bullshti developmental players, we need impact players. Every good team has at least a few key rookie contributors.

I agree that they need to be impact payers but logic would impy the biggest impact created from draft prospects would be where you have the weaknesses in your roster and trying to get players to upgrade those positions. However if we were in a position to take a guy who would make a strength even stronger Im not sure we'd be wise to turn them down even if they made a lesser impact to begin with. Most people probably wouldn't be pleased if we took a corner prospect with our first but what if a corner who graded higher (Falcons grading) than our RB DE TE DL options fell to us at our pick. Would you want the team to trade out of the spot and pick up another pick or would you want to take the guy?

[mdrake34]

With your example, I have no problem whatsoever with us taking a corner at 32 because you can never have enough corners in this league, and with Asante's age, Dunta's contract, and Grimes injury, our CB corps stability is shaky at best going into next year.

[Beef]

Tony is so huge for us because he is the best possession receiver in the game and catches everything thrown at him. Losing him is going to be huge. It changes our offense tremendously and our 1st down conversion rate will suffer.

Coffman may be a godsend. The only reason he wasn't on a team is because it was taking him forever to recover from a bad injury and he just wasn't being givin a chance to come back and get into game speed. But now he just had a year of guidance and example under the best to ever play the position. It had to have an effect. It had to.

The guy was a Macky Award winner for a reason. He's 6'6 250 with long arms and incredible hands. He has several receiving TE records in college. He has by far the best potential to take over at TE and gives us very very little drop off from what Tomy really did best, and that's be a security blanket.

And don't forget Kerry Meier is still on this roster. The poor guy has had the worst luck with injuries, but if he can finally get past that, that kid can catch too. He can be another possession guy, maybe out of the slot. He's got way better hands than HD. And there's got to be a reason they're keeping him on the roster. They must know he's a special receiver, otherwise he'd have been gone by now.

Our biggest issues this year were running the ball(29th), stopping the run(27th), and pass rush(25th).

Now running the ball was supplemented by a much greater screen game than previous(our RBs had 400 more receiving yards this year than last while having 400 less rushing yards), so criticizing the run game is really sorta skewed and less of an issue than most realize. Even with the 29th rushing offense, we still had better 1st down conversion efficiency numbers, better YPP(yards per play), and more total yards overall than in previous years. That said, the eye test tells us Turner is on a drastic decline and we can only imagine even how much better our offense could/should be with a faster well-rounded RB to go along with Quizz. So it is still a huge priority.

Pass rush and run stoppage may just be bigger priorities, however. But rookies in this role who can contribute immediately are just so hard to find.

And don't forget our CB depth is shit. I doubt we re-sign Grimes and Franks. And I don't see us paying another FA CB a big contract yet again. So don't be surprised if we pickup a CB earlier in the draft than anyone expects and then go OL or LB or possibly even RB in FA.

[FullMetalFalcon23]

(01-15-2013 11:05 AM)mdrake34 Wrote:  With your example, I have no problem whatsoever with us taking a corner at 32 because you can never have enough corners in this league, and with Asante's age, Dunta's contract, and Grimes injury, our CB corps stability is shaky at best going into next year.

I'm glad you think that way. I think it is a realistic possibility that a guy like Xavier Rhodes could fall to us. I don't think we bring back Grimes.

So Our depth chart guaranteed for next season at moment is

Samuel
Robinson
McClain
Thompson

We could bring back Owens at limited cost.
A CB might be a good investment there.

Also what if we were to take a WR in the first or 2nd. And stick with the two tight ends we have taking another late in the draft. I say this because When Koetter demonstrated his 4 verticals offense in the film last year it was from 10 personell rather than 11 personell?

I think people wouldn't tke that too well till they saw the results

[Beef]

I don't see us taking another WR this draft with Drew Davis and Kerry Meier and Tim Toone still being on the roster.

Toone is raw, but he's Welker fast and has good hands. He just sucks at running routes and needed proper coaching up and development before he's ready, I think.

Davis and Meier are both 6'3 220 guys who can both play wide or slot and can block and catch. They are still on the roster for a reason. There's something going on there that we may not realize but the coaches obviously do and refuse to let them go.

[FullMetalFalcon23]

(01-15-2013 11:39 AM)Beef Wrote:  I don't see us taking another WR this draft with Drew Davis and Kerry Meier and Tim Toone still being on the roster.

Toone is raw, but he's Welker fast and has good hands. He just sucks at running routes and needed proper coaching up and development before he's ready, I think.

Davis and Meier are both 6'3 220 guys who can both play wide or slot and can block and catch. They are still on the roster for a reason. There's something going on there that we may not realize but the coaches obviously do and refuse to let them go.

Beef,

I get the impression our offense is going to evolve again too. You can't replace Tony's production with a year 1 TE it just won't happen. We may have struck gold with Coffman in getting a good possession Tight End. He doesn't have to burn up the field he just has to be savvy be able to work himself open. As you said the kid was on his way to being a good receiving Tight End before injury, and heck he may just turn out to be great for us in a year or two if he can stay healthy. I'm not talking about Tony Gonzalez in his prime production but a steady consistent chain mover.

I'll say this also, Davis does intrigue me. I think he could take Harry's spot. I did not know however that Meier was still on the roster, I thought he was relased. Did we injury settlement with him or something. I'm not a fan of Cone however, but you're right we have kept a lot of receivers around these lst 2 years including Toone and James Rogers too.

Our offense thriving is going to hinge on us getting through FA and the draft at least 1 dynamic all round ball carrier.

Who would be your choice at:-

RB
DL
CB
TE (assuming a late rounder here)

Considering we'll be picking in at least the last 4 each round by default pick selection

[takeitdown]

(01-15-2013 10:20 AM)mdrake34 Wrote:  It doesn't matter who we pick, but we've got to have a draft class with more than one contributor. This year we had Konz, that was it. We don't need a bunch more bullshti developmental players, we need impact players. Every good team has at least a few key rookie contributors.

Well, this is where it gets hard. A DE should contribute year 1 on D, but probably no other positions. An OG might contribute on O. Those are the two biggest needs.

However, if the draft went:

1) DE
2) RB/TE
3) WR
4) RB/TE

We would almost certainly have 4 players who contribute all year. A 2nd round RB would get a lot of carries. A 3rd round WR would spell HD or beat him outright and make the team more dangerous. Any decent TE will get 500 yards in this offense (not the 1000 Tony does) just due to the matchups.

Our most bang for the buck this year would be getting a TE (not as sure handed as Gonzo but faster to split the seam), RB (a true versatile back would make a hugde diffference), 3rd WR (Ryan needs a guy guarded by a LB/S who he can throw it up to when there's no time...a guy who plays the Colston spot (12 yards away from the QB and just put it up). Those guys would be the surest bets, but we badly need DE and RG, so it'll be an interesting offseason for sure.

I really hope they get a good OG and couple decent (cheap) offensive skill players in FA, so they have a lot of flexibility going into the draft.

[FullMetalFalcon23]

Our cap space is limited. We won't be big Free Agency players again this year. A key signing of a player who could blossom. But we won't be picking up a marquee name. Which as of late has been a bit hit or miss. Eg Tampa getting the Guard only for him to go down. Mario Williams. It's suspect there for sure. I think we are getting to that stage where we are like Pittsburgh and New England. Most of our players are going to come from mid to low tier FAs that fit us and solid drafts supplemented by the occasional established star free agent.

A guy is saying on twitter we are looking like a 4th for Lofton and 7th for Weems. I'll take 2 4th rounders. Could easily parlay that into our running back and 3rd tight end. If that was done picks 1 to 3 could be spent on defensive talent where the draft is deep.

Alternatively could be de/RB between rounds 1 and 2 and then 3 4 an 4 be used between corner/db TE and another DL or LB

[mdrake34]

TE's can come in and contribute as rookie's. The trend now is to draft a pair of them (Gronk and Hernandez in NE, Pitta and Dickson in BAL) and let them work together. Both of these teams will probably wind up losing one of the two, but they're getting several years of (excellent in the case of NE) and (solid in the case of BAL) TE play.