For the first time in Terry Fontenot’s tenure, he’s not picking within the first eight selections of the NFL Draft, with the Falcons owning the 15th pick.
As of now, Atlanta only has five picks. Among other reasons, many analysts have pointed out that the Falcons are prime candidates to trade back to acquire more picks because of that little draft capital.
This cycle has also been dubbed a “starter” class, one with few stars and a ton of starters. Albert Breer even went as far as to call the difference between picks 5 and 15 or even 4 and 20 not large enough to warrant a trade up the board.
“One thing that’s real obvious—Gonna be very difficult to trade down for teams in the Top 10 this year. Lots of teams in that range would like to. But with a class where the difference between 5 and 15 or even 4 and 20 is negligible, tough to see what teams would come up for,” Breer tweeted.
So there’s a real reason to believe the Falcons could trade out of their first-round pick for the first time under Terry Fontenot, but if he doesn’t, the team will make history. I’m not quite sure it’s the good kind of history, though.
If the Falcons only make the five selections they currently own, it will match the lowest mark the team has ever made, matching the 2006 five-player draft class. That cycle featured:
- 2nd round | 37th pick: Jimmy Williams
- 3rd round | 79th pick: Jerious Norwood
- 5th round | 139th pick: Quinn Ojinnaka
- 6th round | 184th pick: Adam Jennings
- 7th round | 223rd pick: D.J. Shockley
Here is where the Falcons are picking this year:
- First round | Pick No. 15
- Second round | Pick No. 46
- Fourth round | Pick No. 118
- Seventh round | Pick No. 218
- Seventh round | Pick No. 242
There’s more value in the 2025 cycle, but only having two top 100 picks isn’t ideal. If Terry Fontenot can move back without losing too much value from a prospect standpoint, it would greatly benefit Atlanta’s 2025 team.
