The Atlanta Falcons currently hold the most unique pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.
The ‘Dirty Birds’ own the No. 4 overall pick, which is now very much in play after the San Francisco 49ers traded up to the No. 3 overall pick with the Miami Dolphins.
We know that Trevor Lawrence will be drafted first overall by the Jacksonville Jaguars, followed by BYU quarterback Zach Wilson to the New York Jets. With San Francisco trading up to number three, it’s pretty obvious that they’ll be drafting a quarterback. Nobody knows who the 49ers will select, but most insiders and draft gurus are certain that it will be Alabama quarterback Mac Jones.
There’s going to be two more quarterbacks likely available for the Falcons — possibly Trey Lance of North Dakota St. or Justin Fields of Ohio St. The question now becomes: Will the Falcons draft one of those quarterbacks, draft best player available, or trade down?
Atlanta can easily draft the next best quarterback available and sit him behind Matt Ryan for a redshirt year to develop, but that might not be the best option for a team rebuilding. They currently have nine picks in this draft, but can easily add more high-quality draft capital by trading down — which may be their best option.
The Falcons finished 4-12 last season and with a newly hired general manager running the show in Terry Fontenot, Atlanta must embrace the rebuild. The best case for Fontenot is to trade down in the draft and collect more picks.
Atlanta was strapped with cash this offseason and were unable to make any real splashy moves. The Falcons currently have three players that have a cap hit of over $20 million in Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, and Grady Jarrett, with the Cowboys being the only other team in the NFL in that same club.
Fontenot’s Falcons currently have just over $3 million in cap space, according to overthecap.com and might have to make more moves to free up cap space for the upcoming draft class.
With quarterbacks being valued more this draft and the possibility of four quarterbacks going in the top four picks, Atlanta can easily trade out of the No. 4 overall pick and get a haul of draft picks in return.
San Francisco jumped from the 12th pick to the 3rd pick by swapping first-round picks, a 3rd-round pick in this year’s draft, and 1st-round picks in 2022 and 2023.
If Atlanta can get that kind of haul in return it would definitely be worth it for a team that needs to rebuild.
There are multiple teams still in need of a quarterback as they enter the draft including the Denver Broncos at No. 9, and the New England Patriots at No. 15. Washington and Chicago are in need of the position as well, but are picking 19th and 20th, respectively.
Carolina solved their quarterback issues today in a trade with the Jets for Sam Darnold. It had been reported that the Panthers were going all-in on trading for Deshaun Watson before his current legal situation escalated.
Denver had been reportedly looking into trading for both Matthew Stafford and Deshaun Watson. General manager George Paton has also attended multiple Pro Days of the top quarterback prospects as well. Paton could pull off a trade to the 4th pick, but if the deal is too great for him, he can pull back and just roll the dice on Drew Lock for one more season.
New England has been aggressive this offseason, by spending more money than any other team in free agency. Bill Belichick has been known to be a little more conservative in the draft by moving back to collect more second and third round picks, but this could be the season that Belichick gets really aggressive and moves up from No. 15 to No 4 for his future quarterback. The Patriots did re-sign Cam Newton to another one-year deal, but that shouldn’t stop them from upgrading at the quarterback position.
Atlanta will have options to trade back, but they also shouldn’t trade too far down the board so they can still get a blue-chip player with their first-round pick.
With quarterbacks projected to be going in the first three picks, top notch players at other positions are going to fall in this draft and might even fall out of the top 10.
The best option for the Falcons is to trade out of the the fourth overall pick, embrace the rebuilding project, and collect picks for the future.
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