Whether it’s an interior defender, an edge defender, or secondary help, Falcons fans will be irate if Terry Fontenot doesn’t draft a defender in the first round of the NFL Draft.
A popular name among fans is college football’s sack leader. How about that? Fixing the worst pass rush in football with the nation’s leader in sacks, Mike Green. That’s at least how the God Father of mock drafts, Mel Kiper saw it in his latest ESPN piece.
“Thirty-first in sacks with 31. Thirtieth in pressure rate at 26.9%. Twenty-seventh in pass rush win rate at 34.1%. Those are troublesome numbers for the Falcons’ defense, and the Matthew Judon trade before the 2024 season didn’t really lift the unit as expected. Green is one of the hottest names in the draft class right now, though, with 17 sacks (best in the country) and 51 pressures (tied for sixth) in his final collegiate season. I see incredible speed, bend and power in his game — traits that would be welcomed in Atlanta under new coordinator Jeff Ulbrich.”
After his viral video at the Senior Bowl, Green has become a household name, but there’s a caveat. Green has been the subject of off-the-field allegations, which he vehemently denied at the NFL Combine. The Marshall product faced two separate allegations of sexual assault, once in high school and once during his time at Virginia.
“There’s a lot of talk out there, and it’s just a bunch of people that really don’t know what actually happened,” Green said, via Daniel Flick of Sports Illustrated. “I’ve never done anything wrong. I’ve never been charged with anything. My main focus right now is just telling these teams everything that they need and want to know.
I’m sure the Falcons will/have done their due diligence. While there still might be some to do in interviews, Terry Fontenot and Raheem Morris probably have their minds made up about the young man one way or another.
There might be some questions about the off-the-field allegations, but there are certainly not many about the player. He led college football in sacks, was ninth in pressures and second in run stops en route to All-American honors.
“You can ask anybody that knows me how I am as a person,” Green said. “The first one in, last one out. I help guys. I’m a dude that just stays out the way. I’m a dude that is just committed to playing the game of football.”
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