Terry Fontenot has gone by way of all of the situations. He has weighed a bunch of issues in his thoughts. However the Atlanta Falcons first-year basic supervisor nonetheless is not certain precisely what he’ll find yourself doing Thursday night time when his group comes on the board with the fourth choose within the NFL draft.
He may keep. He may commerce again. He may take a quarterback. Or possibly a good finish. The choices are there. Fontenot acknowledges that however insists there’s “positively no stress” heading into his first draft as a result of he believes the stress comes within the strategy of making ready for the draft, not the night time itself.
“There are nonetheless variables concerned so we all know the gamers that we’ll be discussing there and we are able to all anticipate the primary three picks however it has to truly occur,” Fontenot stated. “After which from that time we now have to weigh the choices of will we commerce again in comparison with the participant we may get at 4 or if we commerce again, what can be the worth so we now have to weigh all these totally different variables and all these situations so we all know the gamers that we’re speaking about.
“We have gone by way of the various things that may occur. However you by no means know what’s going to occur at that precise second however we all know the gamers that we’re speaking about.”
Fontenot did not go into particular gamers, though when requested about Florida tight finish Kyle Pitts he did say he is a particular participant. Frequent thought is the Falcons will take a look at quarterbacks — maybe North Dakota State’s Trey Lance or Ohio State’s Justin Fields — together with Pitts and the potential to maneuver down away from No. four to accumulate extra belongings to assist construct a youthful group in a cap conundrum. The Falcons, at this level, do not have sufficient cap room to signal their draft class so strikes shall be coming.
Fontenot stated Atlanta may have a big rookie class, and that’ll begin with whoever Atlanta takes at No. four or elsewhere within the first spherical in the event that they commerce down.
“It is actually case-by-case and we now have to weigh it,” Fontenot stated. “Wherever that group is and the belongings, the draft capital that that group would surrender and we now have to have a look at the participant we’d get at four in comparison with us anticipating the gamers that we’d be taking a look at, at that later choose and clearly bearing in mind the long run picks that we’d get. So it is actually a weighing course of at that time.”
If the Falcons keep at No. four, each Fontenot and head coach Arthur Smith must steadiness the short-term, win-now thought course of together with the broader plan the 2 of them have for the franchise past 2021.
They might take a participant they know would play straight away, like Pitts, or one which they know may sit behind beginning quarterback Matt Ryan in any of the quarterbacks.
“If you’re selecting at 4, we’re attempting to take an influence participant, whether or not it is a participant that is going to sit down or a participant that is going to play straight away, we wish to usher in an influence participant that matches the tradition, that has the appropriate make-up and that we now have clear imaginative and prescient for that participant,” Fontenot stated. “So whether or not that is somebody who’s going to sit down or that is somebody who’s going to play Day 1, we now have to have a transparent imaginative and prescient and we now have to really feel actually good about not solely the participant and the talent set but additionally the person who we’re bringing into the constructing.
Ryan, based mostly on his contract, is anticipated to be the starter in 2021 and because the group restructured Ryan’s deal earlier this yr, it may imply he finally ends up as Atlanta’s starter in 2022, too, which would depart a quarterback chosen Thursday — or at any level within the draft — having to arrange to sit down.
Even when the Falcons do not take a quarterback at No. four, it is seemingly one shall be chosen through the draft. Atlanta has one quarterback on its roster — Ryan — and Fontenot primarily stated the group has been scouting quarterbacks at each stage of the draft and identified that good quarterbacks have come from the center rounds, too.
“We perceive, we now have so as to add quarterbacks to the roster,” Fontenot stated. “And there is a whole lot of good ones and a whole lot of good choices.”
Fontenot additionally addressed the opportunity of an enormous transfer sooner or later for Atlanta, reiterating once more that the team has been taking calls on players for potential trades, together with star receiver Julio Jones. The wage cap scenario the Falcons are in all however means Atlanta has to hear and if there’s sufficient worth, maybe take into account a deal.
Fontenot did not wish to go too deep into the Jones dialog Wednesday, though it’s notable the membership restructured the offers for Ryan, linebacker Deion Jones and left sort out Jake Matthews alongside and had Dante Fowler Jr. take a pay minimize. Jones has been disregarded of that. Fontenot stated when it got here to the choice of who to restructure and who to not restructure, they did not wish to try this with everybody to create area — it causes points in future years — and that correcting the cap “will not be going to be an in a single day repair.” Nevertheless it does not reply why the group selected to restructure some gamers as a substitute of others.
“I do know we maintain speaking about Julio however I do not wish to make this about one participant, drill down into one participant. It is simply after we take a look at the scope of issues and we take a look at the circumstances we’re in, we make some choices and there is a whole lot of variables in it,” Fontenot stated. “And there is a whole lot of actually sensible individuals, I promise you, there’s a whole lot of actually sensible those who we mentioned it with and decided what to do.
“And it isn’t over. We’re nonetheless going by way of this course of however we wish to have steadiness and we wish to do issues the appropriate means and we’re nonetheless, it is all fluid and it is all in course of proper now.”