Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank mentioned in a recent
interview that he liked his team as it is constructed and that the coaching
changes they have made will help them get over the playoff hump they have
encountered the past four years. I’m sorry to say it but that’s hogwash and he
knows it.
What he was really saying is that his team has done a poor
job of managing cap space and that his coaching staff must do a better job of
evaluating talent.
The Falcons have over-paid for sub-par talent and have done
a poor job of finding talent in not just the higher rounds but the lower rounds
of the draft during the four years that head coach Mike Smith and general
manager Thomas Dimitroff have been in Atlanta.
Name one rookie free agent, practice squad player or low
draft pick that has made a significant contribution to the Falcons over the
past four years. Sure you have undrafted players like Tyson Clabo and Brent
Grimes on the roster but this coaching staff didn’t find either one of those
players.
Both of those guys were discovered by a previous coaching
staff. Finding those gems is very important to building a roster though.
Just look at last year’s Super Bowl contestants. Both the
New England Patriots and New York Giants do a good job of locating talent
through the draft but look at the undrafted free agents who made valuable
contributions to their team.
The Patriots have Danny Woodhead, BenJarvus Green-Ellis and
Wes Welker who were all undrafted free agents that contributed to their Super
Bowl run. The Giants received big contributions from Victor Cruz, Jake Ballard
and Mark Herzlich.
It seems like Dimitroff would understand how important it is
to locate and develop talent since he was brought in from the Patriots’
organization. The draft is nice for finding talent to build your roster but the
Patriots and Giants have also located talent in other ways.
Welker was an undrafted free agent by the Miami Dolphins. He
was a backup receiver and return man for the Dolphins during his time there.
The Patriots brought him in and he ended up winning the starting position
alongside Randy Moss. The rest as they say is history.
Victor Cruz made an enormous impact for the Giants as a
big-play receiver. He made it possible for the Giants to let wide receiver
Steve Smith go during the offseason saving them money under the cap. The same
is true of Ballard whose presence allowed the Giants to let Kevin Boss walk in
free agency.
And while it’s a lot easier to name offensive players who
made it big without being drafted because they get more television exposure; good
defensive players come out of the undrafted ranks too. Defensive players like
Sam Shields of the Green Bay Packers, Erin Henderson of the Minnesota Vikings,
Akeem Jordan of the Philadelphia Eagles and of course Grimes who I mentioned
earlier were also undrafted.
Solid talent has also been found on other teams’ practice
squads. The Cowboys picked up Laurent Robinson off of the San Diego Chargers’
practice squad last year and he ended up having a great year. So great in fact
that it landed him a lucrative contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars over the
offseason.
But we haven’t seen this kind of effort by the Falcons to
locate talent that will help improve this team. Free agency isn’t really an
option for the Falcons since they have so little room under the salary cap
which means that the Falcons will have to find more low budget options in order
to continue building this team.
Or continue to rely on aging talent which is not a very good
idea. The Falcons have some very old players occupying key positions on the
team which means they not only need to fill the spots where they are weak they also
need to be grooming successors for aging players like Tony Gonzalez, John
Abraham, and Todd McClure.
And that’s not going to happen with the six picks the
Falcons have in the upcoming draft. The Falcons won’t have a first round or a
fourth round pick because of the Julio Jones trade which means they better get
more creative finding talent. If not they may end up taking a few steps backwards
in the next couple of seasons.
Roosevelt Hall is an NFL Blogger for The Sport Mentalist and an NBA Blogger for The Sport Mentalist 2. He is also a Sports Reporter for Pro Sports Lives. He can be contacted at RHall_TPFB@Yahoo.com and be sure to follow him on Twitter @sportmentalist.
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