Draft Wrap Up

       The 2016 NFL draft is done and in the books(sad face). Now its time to take a look at the picks that the Falcons made. Entering the day with five picks the Atlanta Falcons made six selections. With those picks the team hauled in a SS,LB,TE,LB,G,and WR, not to shabby.
      Well that depends on who you ask. As the picks where coming analyst give them grades, grades I tell you, how can you grade pick before the ink drys on the draft selection card. I mean grades for a player before year three seems silly to me much less before a college kid even gets to the building. None the less that is exactly what happens every year. This the media as a whole gave the Falcons a D. I think that's a little harsh, this draft from top to bottom really lacked the star power form the last few years draft class. The few guys who had the star talent you look for have ticking time bombs for knees in Jaylon Smith and Myles Jack. Both could be stars or both could never play a down.
      In a way that made this draft very interesting because teams could go in a lot of different directions. That leads me to the point i made in my last post about mock drafts and big boards, they are at best educated guesses. So armed with that knowledge mocks are a guess made by people who have never been paid by an NFL team to do this for a living, never had to put there lively on the line and say yes this is the guy we should take. So forgive me when I could careless what the Kiper/Mcshay, PFF's, and Analyst who have never worked in the NFL before have to say.
      As i sit here and write this the NFL network is playing "The Greatest Moments in Draft" on T.V. and the played the Kipper vs Tobin bit. In 94 Kiper said the Colts should have taken Trent Dilfer. Yes that Trent Dilfer the butt of all QB's need a Super Bowl win to be great argument. Which proves my point that no one not even the GM's making the pick know how these college kids are going to transition to the NFL. The best you can do is to pick the guys anf hope what you saw on tape will work well with what you have on roster already. When the coaching staff and the front office sits down and watches tape of the guy that is the most important part of the process. I mean a guy can test off the charts and be a dud on Sundays we see that all the time. But the opposite can happen a guy can test like and average joe but when the lights come on, on Sunday they turn into a monster. Now the scouts get a feel for the type of players the coach want and bring him the info on a guy that the coach may not know about. The country is big with a lot of player out there its the scouts job to dig that info up for the front office and coaching staff. What I am trying to say is no one has the right answer on how a big board should shake out. Every team is different with there own needs and own idea of who fits there system, so to say a player is a reach is just stupid. With all that being said lets jump into our teams "reaches" and "stupid" picks and i will take a stab at how i think they will fit with this team (giving you my stupid opinion)

Round 1 Pick 17 overall Keanu Neal SS  6'1'' 216lbs

Keanu Neal is a beast off a strong safety we cut Willy MO in the off season well here is your replacement. He is a in the box safety with coverage and blitz skill. He ran a 4.62 40yd dash at the combine and was a top performer with a 38'' vert with a 135'' broad jump. Explosion is the name of his game whether its speed and the violent hits he hands out on a regular basis. Neal should come and start day one, setting the tone in the middle of the filed, you know on those third down we saw last year with RB's and TE's running wide out. Not with Neal roaming out there. Some people said he was a reach at 17 and I call B.S. on that notion. It has been reported that had we waited until day two Neal would have been long gone by our number 50 pick. Both the Jets and the Steelers were taking heavy interest in Neal. So TD did what he is tasked to do he went and got the guy that Quinn wanted. Make no mistake this is the guy Quinn wanted, he spent reciuting him in college be for he went back to coach in the pros. So is this pick a reach, in a word NOPE. We got the guy we wanted. Here is a highlight of Neal


Round 2 Pick number 52 overall Dieon Jones LB LSU

Deion Jones is the type of player we have heard Dan Quinn talk about Fast and Physical he ran a 4.59 40yd dash at the combine and posted college stats of 152 tackles 20 for loss with 5 sacks, and that with out being a full time starter until his senior year. There is much more I can say about Jones that a highlight real wouldn't do better. I will say this though The falcons traded back a few spots here and pick up our six round pick that we traded to get Andy Levtire so good on you TD. Here that highlight real i was talking about.

Round 3 pick number 81 overall Austin Hooper TE Stanfford

Yeah he made that catch. Austin Hooper was our 3rd round pick out of tight end U I mean Stanford. This kid has the size and speed you look in a move tight end something we have mean missing since Tony G. hung it up. Now the Falcons could have made this and all defense draft and i don't think anyone would have cared, but they chose to go balanced and help the other side of the ball with a well rounded tight end. I watched the PAC12 championship game to get a better feel for this kid. Let me tell you that was harder than it should have been, but when you have a super start like Christian Macafrey you feature him early and often so i was not to upset. What i did notice how ever Hooper is a very willing blocker and when he was called to do so he answered the call. Hooper should come and start off the season ahead of Toilolo on the depth chart and get in on two TE sets with Tammie early on. The hope here is that by 2017 season Hooper is the starter with Toilolo backing him up and coming in to block on 2 TE sets.

Round 4 pick number 115 overall De'Vandre Campbell  LB Minn.                                                      

Campbell is a wild card to me. He has the size, speed, and agility to play all three LB spots. Now i am not going to sit here and tell you that i watch a ton of game film on him, but i did watch the Michigan game and he was all over the field. Tackles for loss, covering RB and tight ends. Heck he even rushed the passer a few times from a DE spot. During the off season he trained with former Falcon Chuck Smith to help improve his speed rush. I think Campbell has a chance to come in a blow the skirts off the coaches in a way they might not have counted on. AT 6'4'' 232lb he ran a 5.29 40yd dash but looked faster on film. High end could be a KJ Wright type player low at better version of Kroy Beriman. Sub package rusher for sure.

       I am not going to go in to to much detail on our 6th and 7th round pick not because I don't think there worth it. More because that late in the draft players tend to be more of a project and its hard to tell where they might end up.

      

       In summary I feel like the team addressed some major needs and when you couple that with the free agency period I think the Falcons have had a good off season so far. Only time will tell how these players turn out, that is up to the players themselves and the coaching staff. As always here at the Flacon's Eye View i just try to provide the reader with a different way to look at things, so keep your eyes towards the prize and #Riseup.