Under Terry Fontenot, the Falcons have become known as the team that reaches in the NFL Draft, rather than coming away with steals.
Just last year, Atlanta’s GM traded away a third-round pick to move up for Ruke Orhorhoro, which was ridiculed at the time and looks questionable a year later. Development is never linear in this league, though. It’s still too early to write off the Clemson product, but it does speak to Fontenot’s tendencies in the past. He’s never been afraid to reach for a prospect he takes a liking to, and oftentimes, it has not worked out.
However, that was not the case this year. The Falcons GM seemed to have actually stuck to his Best Player Available strategy and is being praised for finding value throughout the draft.
The Athletic’s Jacob Robinson included two of the Falcons’ five picks among the draft’s biggest steals, with third-rounder Xavier Watts coming in as the second-biggest value pick.
“The draft’s second-best top-50 value was snatched when Atlanta GM Terry Fontenot traded pick 101 and a 2026 fifth-rounder to move up five spots for Watts, a two-time consensus All-American. Ranking No. 50 on the board, Watts has athleticism, but 4.58 speed concerns. The Falcons had considered Watts a Round 2 prospect and expect him to fit nicely in their zone-heavy scheme next to Jessie Bates III.”
On the other end of the spectrum, the Falcons found some value in Jalon Walker with the 15th overall pick, who was ranked as the 7th overall prospect on The Athletic’s big board. That’s not usual for this organization.
Typically, under Terry Fontenot, the Falcons zig when everyone else is zagging, and it usually looks foolish in hindsight, but not this cycle. This year, they did the appropriate thing and took the elite prospect that fell for whatever reason in Jalon Walker, then doubled down on their biggest need by trading back into the first round for a prospect that could be the best pure pass rusher in this class. To then be able to get Xavier Watts in the third… this has all the makings of Terry Fontenot’s best draft class.
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