NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 225. Fixing The Atlanta Falcons

Episode Date: January 17, 2024

Hosts Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers take a deep dive into the Atlanta Falcons. They get into what went wrong with Arthur Smith and how that plays into what owner Arthur Blank will do for their next head coach/path for this team. They also examine the swings and misses Atlanta has had at quarterback over the last three years, and all the ways they could fix that this offseason. plus, end with a Flacons 3-round mock draft.

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It's awesome. Sign up now at youtube.com slash BS, device and content restrictions apply. Local and national games on YouTube TV. NFL Sunday ticket for out-of-market games excludes digital-only games. Welcome to the NFL Stock Exchange Podcast. In this episode, we are fixing the Atlanta Falcons.

Bit of a different fix your franchise here. We gotta talk about the owners, the general managers, the history of this team before we really get into who the next head coach is going to be, what the vision of this team is going to be. We'll talk about their quarterback situation, how they haven't fixed it in the past, how they'll fix it in the future. We'll talk about free agencies and of course, give you guys a three round Falcons mock draft to wrap it exchange podcast i'm trevor sycamore that is connor rogers joining you on a tuesday look at that appreciate you guys being a little patient

with us we had the super wild card weekend so we were enjoying a lot of the games go bucks by the way uh and so we are a day late but we're coming to you with another Fix Your Franchise episode. It is, by popular demand, the Atlanta Falcons. And the Atlanta Falcons got very, very interesting when they immediately fired Arthur Smith after the season was over. But this is a team that a lot of nice young pieces. That's why you move on from Arthur Smith, because he was not keeping up his end of the bargain with some talented players on this roster. But an older defense, what do they do now? What do you do a quarterback?

What do you do on the defense? What do you do in free agency? And then, of course, we finish every Fix Your Franchise episode with a mock draft as well. So a lot of questions to answer as we fix the Atlanta Falcons here on this episode. Connor, how you doing, my friend? I'm good. It's so funny to me. I was thinking about this while watching the Bucs throttle the Eagles, how it feels like not that long ago, you and I fired up the draft order and we were like, oh, the Jets and Bucs back to back.

And it was like back to back at like nine and ten. Yeah, it was right, right around there. And then how quickly the tides turn, especially in the NFC South. My goodness. But shout out to a lot of redemption stories with the Bucs. Todd Bowles felt like he was kind of coaching maybe for his spot this year. 100%. I mean, that's putting it lightly. Yes. Baker Mayfield playing for his career.

Now we get the former number one overall pick bowl with him and Jared Goff not playing for the teams that drafted them, which is one of my favorite storylines of the entire football season. And then, of course, today, the Atlanta Falcons, who I are a very unique fix your franchise because I don't think this is a bad roster. It's when we do fix your franchise. And I've seen it's awesome. Everybody's just hounding us in the mentions. I've seen fix the Giants, fix the cowboys so fix the cowboys people ask us to fix the eagles

the eagles and the super bowl last year they were 10 and 1 at one point this year we are going to do our best to to accommodate and then And then we send a packet, baby! All needs. But right now, we do need to get to franchises like this that are picking in the top 10. And it's nice because it's not all the same. We're not going through, they need a new front office. We're not going through, they need a new roster. We're not going through, hey, they're picking in the top two. Here's the two quarterbacks they're going to take.

They got to get creative with that. So I'm really looking forward to this one. And of course, all of the noise behind that, hey, Bill Belichick's in play for this team as well. Right, right. That's a little teaser, obviously, getting into it. It's less of roster building, I think, with the Falcons and more of just we're setting the direction of the compass, right?

Where is the North Star? How do we get back on track with this team? And I think that's a good segue into how I want to start this. Their owner is Arthur Blank. And Arthur Blank, one of the richest owners in the NFL. He is somebody who has owned the franchise for over 20 years, bought the Falcons in 2002. This will be his sixth head coach that he will be hiring so he has

gone through this process many times before but you know when you really look at life in the NFL 22 years of being an owner and just hiring your sixth head coach you've done pretty well I think that you've done pretty well for yourself and I think the Falcons franchise over the last 20 plus years has has kind of showcased that. Obviously, they make the Super Bowl with Dan Quinn. They come up just short. But the process that they were able to put in place got them to that point. And so some information again on Arthur Blank.

I mentioned that he's on the team for more than 20 years. He is involved in this franchise. He's going to be involved in the coaching search. He's involved with what Terry Fontenot, the general manager, is doing. Rich McKay, who is the CEO of the Falcons, those two, him and Blank, are together on a lot of decisions that happen, that trickle down throughout this franchise. They are not totally hands-off owners. And he said earlier, I think this was a couple of weeks ago, quote, there's no timetable. He said when explaining to how they're going to go about this head coaching

process, the only timetable is to do it correctly, take our time and be thoughtful. Back when they hired Arthur Smith in 2021, they interviewed seven candidates and the Falcons and how they went about that hiring process, the different types of coaches that they went out and they interviewed coming from different backgrounds and different areas of expertise, the time that they took to finally land on Arthur Smith, that was seen as one of the more thorough processes in the NFL. And I believe Roger Goodell himself kind of came out and talked about how the Falcons head coaching process was one that should be praised and looked at as an example of just how thorough they and thoughtful they were. And it feels like that has always been the Falcons mantra. Even when Thomas Dimitrov was the general manager, everything seemed to have a purpose with Atlanta.

And I think that that is the theme that I wanted to talk about at the beginning of this podcast and moving forward is that they are going to be intentional about what they do. And the reason why I say that is because there was a quote by Rich McKay himself, again, the CEO of the Atlanta Falcons, who said their mission is to, quote, win sooner rather than later. And that'll get into our head coach discussion, which I want to open up to you. You know, we can talk about Arthur Smith

at this time as well. It truly feels as though they want to hit the ground running. Although the Bucs did win this division, although they did win their wildcard playoff game, I think the Falcons believe that this, this division, the NFC South can be theirs for the taking next year. And that's why Arthur Smith got fired.

And I think that will heavily go into who they end up picking as their head coach. I think so too. I mean, you look at this team, right? And it feels like there there's two sides to the seesaw here. There's the side that they've spent a lot of money and had a lot of early round picks

that this roster, in theory, is ready to win in a division that is not a powerhouse at all. And then you look at it. I mean, even the team that just won the division, the Bucs, I'm assuming Baker's going to be back next year, but it's not like you look at the Bucs and you're like, ah, man, we got to get through, you know, Lamar Jackson or Patrick Mahomes every year right now.

So then the other side of it is they have massive question marks at two key areas in quarterback and head coach, of course. And I just, it's kind of ironic to me. We're doing a fix your franchise for the man's franchise that founded Home Depot, co-founded Home depot arthur blank it's true it's true that's how he got all this money he should be able to fix it himself right just we're going to we're going to home depot to fix the team that you bought with home depot yeah and we need to put a lot in the cart so right it's with arthur smith the thought was obviously build this modern offense

they've been building this offensive line they drafted a lot of players that are truly unique mismatch players right you look at Kyle Pitts that's the obvious one but even when you look at Drake London he was kind of a unique prospect at wide receiver that he can win even when he's not open. And then you look at Bijan Robinson, who at the end of the year, we saw this. The whole thought with Bijan was he's a gifted runner, but he's a game changing pass catcher, pass catching threat. And while they got all the right ingredients there, it felt like they never fully unlocked all of them. It was never humming all at once. You'd have the Drakeondon had 100 yards this week we've been waiting for this kyle pitts finally caught a touchdown right john finally got a carry inside the goal like

inside the five but it was never oh man the defense is trying to take away this and now it's opening up this for this player that balance was never there so now i look at this trevor and wonder do they say we actually do have the right ingredients we just need a coach that is gonna unlock them and also understand that what we've been doing at quarterback is simply not good enough or do we just go that ceo route and we could get a guy that might oversee might be thought of as a defensive guy but is the CEO of the team and we'll be able to hire that offensive coordinator to work under him and figure out all these things I find their coaching search fascinating at the end of the day what I land on with this coaching search is that Arthur Blank is 81 years old, man.

He is going to turn 82 very early next season. I think you would think patience right now in this situation is not necessarily where it lies. I don't think this is the franchise that, and honestly, I think these guys are going elsewhere anyway, that go, you know what, let's build it with Bobby Slowik. Let's build it with Ben Johnson. Let's go build it with a court. Let's go get Mike McDonald, right?

I look at this franchise that goes, especially the GM and Arthur Blank that we like what we're doing with this roster, but we need more from the head coach as we think we're going to get the quarterback spot right. I agree with you. I think that this team believes that they are in the win now window. And I think that's why you saw Arthur Smith get fired at, what was it, like 12-0-1? Like 160 seconds into Black Monday, they got rid of Arthur Smith. And it's because over the last three years, okay, Arthur Smith, he was hired in 2021, seven and 10 in each of the last three seasons. So did not get better.

They've been picking number eight overall for the past three years. But what really, what'd you say? Almost did it again. Oh no, they're eighth. They are eighth. I was just thinking, I'm like, I think they're ninth. No, they're eighth. Third year in a row that they are picking eighth.

Dude, this is insane. I cannot wait for them to take Brock Bowers. It's going to be awesome. So I think the problem with, geez. So the problem with, I almost let that just get totally over my head. I thought you were just sick of it. You're like, this joke sucks move on let me guess jutavian sanders in the second corner god get new material oh man so and then they'll take michael pratt on day three and they'll have it all figured out

as tight end yeah um no shout out to michael pratt uh didn't mean it didn't mean for him to catch a straight he does not deserve this i think the biggest problem with Arthur Smith and Arthur Blank, I think, said as much, it was the inconsistencies. You mentioned it wasn't. It's not like Drake London didn't have games that you could point to that were like, oh, yeah, this guy went off. Same with Kyle Pitts. Same with Bijan Robinson.

There were performances, and I think you could flip it over to the defensive side as well. There were times when the Falcons defense, albeit a veteran unit, was able to play really well the problem is that it was never able to come together at the same time the falcons never won more than two games in a row under arthur smith in three years they never won more than two games in a row there was no like winning streak to go on it was always just up and down for this team and that's how you get to that seven and ten consistency record but that's consistency it's consistently being inconsistent they were

two and six this year against opponents who finished with a sub 500 record that's also a glaring you are not taking care of business the way that you need to when you are two and six against teams below 500 it's not good ultimately i think that you are correct taking care of business the way that you need to. When you are two and six against teams below 500, it's not good. Ultimately, I think that you are correct in initially what you said about Arthur Smith. He was brought in to be this offensive innovator. Look at what he was doing with the Tennessee Titans to hopefully get them a new quarterback and to ascend whatever quarterback it was going to be. And we're going to get to quarterbacks in a second, folks.

But Arthur Smith's EPA per play as the offensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans in 2019 and 2020 combined was a 0.129. So a positive EPA per play. In his three seasons with the Falcons, it was a negative 0.057. And his worst EPA per play was this past year in 2023. So not only was it not even as good as it was with the Titans, it was worse and getting worse. It was not getting better. And I think a lot of those things were arrows pointing in the wrong direction. It's why you move on from Arthur Smith. So their head coach options, we can have this conversation here. This is the list of head coaches that they have either requested to interview or have already interviewed the ones that they have already completed interviews on bill belichick which we have read was on arthur blank's yacht not so sure these

other guys were able to do theirs on different interviews very like wolf of wall street rather than like you got to go to the facility. And when you're done, you can go down to the cafeteria and you can have some chicken. Bill Belichick's telling him how he's going to get Tom Brady to come out of retirement. They're going to win a Super Bowl. And Arthur Blank's just like, can you say that again? Yeah. Just the way you said it.

Right. Perfect. Perfect. So Bill Belichick, obviously a candidate that has been interviewed already. Brian Callahan, the offensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals. That's been completed. Jiro Evereau, the defense coordinator for the Panthers. Steve Wilkes, the 49ers defensive coordinator.

Anthony Weaver, who is the Ravens defensive line coach, as well as Mike McDonald, the Ravens defensive coordinator. They also have requests in for Aaron Glenn, the Lions DC. Raheem Morris, the Rams DC, Ben Johnson, the Lions OC, and then Antonio Pierce, who is the Raiders interim head coach right now. So in that list, given what we think the Falcons are going to do and where we think ownership believes they are, is an easy you give bill belichick the bag there's there's no other head coach on that entire list that would give you the pedigree and the peace of mind that they're going to be able to come in here and know exactly what they are doing from day one all these other coaches could be great.

Right. But you have to put the word could in there. With Bill Belichick, you're like, if you were Arthur Blank, you mentioned he's 81, he's about to be 82. When you hire Bill Belichick, you're not hiring him thinking that he's about to, he's got to learn the ropes. You know, oh, we're going to go draft a rookie quarterback. And, you know, he's just going to learn the ropes for a few years. And they're both going to come along. And then the offense is going to be humming in two to three years. When you hire Belichick, you think you're going to go draft a rookie quarterback and he's just going to learn the ropes for a few years and they're both going to come along and then the offense is going to be humming in two

to three years. When you hire Belichick, you think you're going to hit the ground running. You think that he's going to make the most of that veteran defensive unit. Like you mentioned, a lot of the offensive pieces are already there. You just got to go get some sort of quarterback. So I know in previous fixture franchises, we've gone back and forth. We've had deep conversations about these head coach candidates, but I can't point to one of them other than maybe Steve Wilks because he's been a head coach before. Who is a legitimate candidate other than Bill Belichick

for where we think the Falcons are going to go? I don't think it exists on this list. Again, other than if you think that that could be Steve Wilks, maybe. But I don't think that Steve Wil be steve wilkes maybe but i don't think that steve wilkes is gonna have again the same sort of uh pursuit courting if you will that belichick's gonna get from arthur blank i agree i feel like it's kind of obvious what's going on here now now if bill chooses to go there like that's the part we don't know. The people I've talked to when I ask about this job, they keep deferring like, ah, that feels like Belichick's spot.

But the problem is we just don't know what Belichick is looking for necessarily. Is he at the age where it's, man, I got to go somewhere where a quarterback is figured out because I just don't have that kind of patience or time or interest in that. Or is he just let's be honest, too. We don't know. This isn't a market where every team that needs a coach is after Bill Belichick, right? It's not. It's not.

It's that that sounds crazy to say about arguably or a lot of people definitively say the greatest coach in football history. But that's the reality so the and the falcons there's a lot of reasons why it makes sense as you outlined the only other way i could spin this conversation trover because i agree with you about the candidates list is is there somebody that hasn't been fired yet that you think would move the needle. Mike McCarthy, Nick Sirianni, the only one would have been Tomlin. And now it's time to Tom and the Tomlin safe. Right. I agree.

If Pete Carroll, no, no. I mean, Pete, Pete moves the needle for me. I think Pete's a great head coach, but like even,

even getting up there in age, like I think Pete is wonderful at dealing with players i think he's i i still think pete is a really good head coach i was very surprised that seattle ended up making the decision that they did um so i would consider pete carroll but i don't think i just don't think he's going to do it if tom was if again if tomlin got fired by the steelers i think that's one that you would seriously consider but you know the other ones with head coaching experience, Dan Quinn, which is funny because we can't really put him here to Atlanta. We put him to basically every other team, but we can't put him to Atlanta.

If Nick Sirianni gets fired, I don't think Sirianni would be a candidate. I don't think Brandon Staley is a candidate. I know. That would be such a tough sell that would be such a tough sell i just don't i don't i i keep just i can't not fall back on belichick the only reason i keep spinning this conversation around is what if he's not at the end of the day after these meetings he's's like, you know what? It's not for me. But I think he's, I think this is the spot. I wonder if that point, I wonder at that point, does Raheem Morris then get a shot?

Because Raheem, when was he there? He was with the Falcons as their defense coordinator and interim head coach back in 2020. Wow, so actually I didn't realize he was there that long he was the assistant head coach and past game coordinator from 2015 to 2019 he was also the wide receivers coach for a little bit in between there and then he moved over as defense coordinator and still remained as the interim head coach so a lot of those titles of him being like assistant head coach interim head coach were under dan quinn because then he left in in 2020 when the team moved on and then hired

arthur smith but still he's been in the building before arthur blank knows him well and maybe the fact that blank didn't hire him in 2021 is a sign that like he didn't believe in him but morris has done well for himself since then he's done really well for himself over the last three years so maybe it is a different conversation that's the only other one amongst that name the names that were listed that i feel they would be able to fall back on and he he's so well liked everywhere. Right, right. Either him or Wilkes. Him or Wilkes are the two that they have interviewed that if you swing and you miss on Belichick, I think it's probably going to be one of those two.

So obviously you and I align. We think it's going to be Belichick. Yes. Yeah. And the good thing is, whether it is or isn't, the needs of this team does not change at all. No. Okay, so now would be a good time to transition that into the quarterback conversation and the Terry Fon now, their general manager conversation. But before we get to that, if you've got a family and you're listening out there,

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really saying is belichick for a long time has been a uh you know one man wolf pack if you will whatever he says goes and that's just not going to be the way things are done in Atlanta even if he goes to Atlanta so we'll have to work with uh with general manager Terry Fonda who's been the Falcons general manager since 2021 came in right before Arthur Smith did, but they came in the same year. You know, the biggest question mark with Vaughn now, who I like a lot of the draft picks that they have made. I like a lot of the decisions because when he came on in 2021 and especially 2022, they're coming off of that Matt Ryan contract and we'll get to the Matt Ryan situation in a second, but they had so much dead cap that they were working with, I think both in 2021,

certainly 2022 as well. This year, 2023 was like the first year that they actually got all that dead money off the books and they were able to go get a lot of their guys and they signed a lot of big name free agents. And I think they made nice additions to the team. So I don't hate what he has done from a roster building perspective overall. I think he has built this roster in a healthy way. The issue is this team has had a handful of chances to fix their quarterback position, and they have not been able to do it since fontenot has been in charge as their general manager okay they had matt ryan through the 2021

season but then and so it during that draft they went with kyle pitts at number four instead of drafting say a justin fields justin fields ended up going eight mac jones went a little bit later but justin fields is kind of the one that stands out to you because even the way that Matt Ryan's situation ended in Atlanta, Matt Ryan was getting up there in age. So if they would have been able to draft Justin Fields, let him sit behind Matt Ryan, I felt like that could have been a perfect situation.

We talked about that pre-draft as a situation for them. They don't. They end up passing. They go with a skilled player over the quarterback. Matt Ryan plays in that 2021 year. 2022 offseason comes around. They start meddling for Deshaun Watson and the Deshaun Watson stuff comes up and then all of a sudden like Falcons were very quiet about it and then it became very public okay Deshaun's basically going to the Atlanta Falcons and then it falls flat on their face Cleveland offers Deshaun a fully guaranteed contract.

He picks the Cleveland Browns. They get a massive haul of picks back. The Texans do. And the Falcons are basically called with their pants down. So now they had to trade Matt Ryan. They traded Matt Ryan days after because they were already shopping him and they were already giving him permission to like, you know, seek spots with other teams, things like that.

So now all of a sudden you don't have to show watson and you know i met ryan so they really fumbled that situation they end up signing marcus mariota and he's fine for a little bit but then we know how that worked out later the year in that draft they drafted desmond ritter in the third round so they weren't very aggressive for a quarterback although that was a tough class to be aggressive with right and then this past year 2023 offseason they along with everybody else in the nfl had the opportunity to potentially negotiate with lamar jackson now it is to be seen well i guess it's not to be seen we'll never know whether or not the ravens would have just matched whatever offer another team would have given to lamar jackson because they would have been able to do that by tagging him the way that they did.

But nobody even offered. And the Falcons were the very clear and obvious candidate. They had cap space for the first time ever. They had like $60 million in free cap space. They could have absolutely gone after Lamar Jackson. And look, I got to call him out here, right? With all due respect to Arthur Blank and to Rich McKay they said a few weeks ago in a postseason press conference they were

asked about the Lamar Jackson situation and not going for him and they said quote it's easy to say yes it was a mistake given the year that Jackson has had he's obviously an incredible player but the year brother don't get me started how could we see this coming don't do not get me started what we're not we're not even to the best part of the quote yet oh god he's obviously an incredible player but we did not have the cap space hold on I'll get to that in a second I think the coaching staff felt you know coaching personnel all of us felt collectively but certainly coach arthur smith and terry that we had an answer in desmond ritter oh no after four games at the end of the season you let four games at the end of the season

you're trying to tell me that those four games kept you from trading for lamar jackson and then they say at the end of the quote, this is Arthur blank, a younger player without that kind of contract that would have kept us from actually building the team we wanted to build fellas. Oh no. Again, with all due respect.

And I kind of think they needed to just get up there and say what they needed to say, because I think the entire league colluded against Lamar Jackson, but that's a bigger topic. So they're kind of just saying quotes here, but I'm a poke hole in the quotes. One year prior, when you had much less cap space, you had like 50, 60 dead cap, million dollars in dead cap the year before. You were about to trade for Deshaun Watson for a bigger contract and for more draft picks y'all understand what Deshaun Watson ended up going for

the Deshaun Watson contract or the Deshaun Watson trade was like three first round picks Cleveland gave back three first round picks to the Houston Texans just to then sign Deshaun to a fully guaranteed deal to sign Lamarar Jackson, they're going to say, we would have had to trade draft picks and sign him. You would have had to trade less first round picks to go get Lamar Jackson and you would have had to pay him less than what you were already down to do a year prior with Deshaun. I just had to call it out because when I read that quote,

that was wild to be. This team has had, has, has been in a quarterback carousel hell. If you will, for the last two seasons, you had a guy on a silver platter who was right there, who would have been perfect for your team.

Perfect for the Falcons. They had the money to do it. They had the draft picks to do it. And their team was where it needed to be. Sure, yes, they would not have been able to spend as much probably on the defensive players and free agency. But you're signing Lamar Jackson to a flexible deal anyways. Look at his deal with the Ravens.

It's backloaded. You figure he's going to be with your team for a long time. So you play out the first half of the deal and then you restructure it. You do what all the other teams are doing. This got me heated when I read that. Sorry to go off had to go off oh it's no good that's for sure yeah i mean you you summed it up there's not much left to say it's one of those that and they're not the only ones you know here that it's just unexplainable, not great quotes on it. Now, quotes at the end of the day, these get up there and say things. I mean, nobody really, ah, that's a tough one. There's not a lot of ways around it. Honestly, there's just,

it's just really, really, it's a big miss. It's and it's OK. So what there is to say about it is that's a bad process, right? You don't in this league, in my opinion, you don't draft guys where they took Ritter, which was in the third round. But to be fair, it was picked. OK, pick 74. And say, like, we're going to bet it all on this guy that feels really bold. That doesn't work very often. I don't know. It's a missed opportunity.

Obviously, they know that. The fans know that. And I think the point is why we're harping on it so much is they can't do that this offseason with the opportunities in front of them. Is that a time to segue to the quarterback conversation, Trevor, of what their options actually are? Yeah. No, I would love to do that. You want to talk like potential free agent options?

Because we'll talk draft options when we kind of start doing the mock. We could do pro market and then look at obviously the draft market because both are fascinating. Yeah, okay. So I'll just open it up to you quarterback situation for atlanta you tell me which options you might like that might be available either in the pro market or the draft so in the pro market the obvious and i know a lot of their fans are behind this and rightly so i love the idea of getting justin fields on this team because there's a couple of reasons one it kind of goes back to their quote right they

apparently one of the things they were concerned about with an endless pursuit of lamar was that if they got him it was going to take emptying out all their resources and which is it's a that's bad thought process, but that was their thought. Or at least they say, if you go after fields, who let's be fair, it's not Lamar Jackson and not a lot of, nobody really is.

You don't have to do that. This doesn't cost the eighth overall pick. I want to make that very clear. The bears are not getting a top 10 pick for Justin fields. Yeah. Yeah. So that means to me, to me, if Justin fields was worth a top 10 pick, Chicago is. Yeah. Yeah. So that means to me, to me,

if Justin Fields was worth a top 10 pick, Chicago is not trading. Right. Exactly. Exactly. If he's, if he is worth a top 10 pick to even some team out there, I think that he,

he would be considered good enough to where you just keep him. I completely agree. So when you sum all that up he's a nice option for them because he made big strides this year we think the coaching will be better in atlanta there's weapons there there's a line there so that's great for him and it's an effective option that, once again, doesn't spoil your resources. Where at eight, you can get a really good player. You could trade out, maybe, maybe, and get more resources. You look at that, because the other option to me,

and I know we want to spend more time on the pro market, and we'll go back to it in a second, is that you're going to have to move up from eight, right? There's just not a world to me that at eight, one of Caleb Williams, Drake May, or Jaden Daniels is sitting there. And I like Michael Penix as much as literally anybody, I think, that covers the draft. But I don't know if Atlanta, if you just sit there at eight

and you're like, we're going to take Pennix. I don't know if that's the needle mover for where they are right now. I'm intrigued. What intrigues me with this offense, honestly, is somebody that can run because I think it makes their offense so multiple and how they can attack you, because I think they're going to be able to turn the turn around and hand the ball to be John Robinson and Tyler Algier

with their offensive line. I think they're going to be able to work the pass game with London and Pitts, and there'll be more additions there. If you add in a quarterback that has the threat of the run, it just enhances all of those things I just went over. I think they're a team that, and if you're hiring, say, Belichick, and you have a lot of faith that this defense is going to be very, very capable, I don't know if you're hiring, say, Belichick, and you have a lot of faith that this defense is going to be very, very capable, I don't know if you're a team that needs to be dropping back 45 times a game, right?

That's not what you're asking Justin Fields to do or Jaden Daniels to do. But that element doesn't necessarily exist with the next tier of quarterbacks, in my opinion. If they went with Pennix, Nix, McCarthy, i don't see that element with those guys for this offense i certainly you and i have talked about the justin fields um idea for atlanta i like it if um i almost like it if it's not belichick right right? I like the Justin Fields idea if you're hiring Bobby Slowik or Ben Johnson or Brian Callahan or somebody like that. Because if you're hiring Belichick with the idea that you're immediately going to turn it around, Fields is fully capable of doing that. But is that a for sure i don't know and then all of a sudden you're trading you know a couple of day three capital pieces for fields which the

falcons can do because there's some draft pick flexibility that we'll talk about here when we get to the mock draft but i like the fields idea i do i i just like there's a little bit of there's a little bit more of a pros and cons to it i think then just yeah home run do it make that happen i agree i don't think it's the slam dunk of the of the entire you know big picture the two other ones that i'll throw out there for the pro market you know kirk cousins is one where okay if you put kirk in this offense it probably does pretty well like kirk knows how to distribute the ball for as much as people want to look at kirk and be like you know, he can't win a Superbowl. I mean,

like he's very good. Yeah. Kirk, Kirk put up numbers in this, in, in a system. I've also talked about this previously on this show and other shows. I,

Gino Smith, now that Pete Carroll is out and now that Shane Waldron could potentially be out as well to go get a coach gig somewhere else or an offensive coordinator gig somewhere else. Smith might be a little flexible here because now these next two years of his contract, very high on the cap, he's above 30 million in both of those years. You might be able to call them up and say, Hey, we'll give you a day to pick, you know, like whatever the extra Jags pick ends up being a third round or second round or whatever. We'll give it to you for Go. We'll get him off of your books.

And then the Falcons are probably restructuring Geno's contract, probably adding maybe a third or fourth year to it, which you can. I mean, he's not that old yet. So you've got to move the money around a little bit, and then it can make sense where you could Geno again on this team, I think, playoff offense, right? I like Geno there. If you're hiring Bill Belichick,

I think that you're exploring that option as well. When you look at free agency for this team, now this is an effective cap space, which I think some people on the Bears episode got on us about this because if you go look at other sites and you just type in Bears cap space, it'll sometimes just give you the raw cap space, and the Bears raw cap space is a lot higher.

But that's also because they don't have as many players under contract right now. So if you go to over the cap, their category of effective cap space is basically a projection of what it would be like if you got to 51 players on your roster, plus signed whatever your rookie contract would be, given the given the um draft picks that you have because both of those things need to happen you need to do both of those things so it's it's a little disingenuous looking at raw cap space numbers knowing that you

have to spend that money it's not like oh i can spend this on chris jones and brian burns and jalen johnson and boom like there's like 60 million okay we're good to go no you have to fill out the rest of your roster so that's why the Bears number that we went with in that show is a little bit lower and the one that will go off of this show the effective cap space for the Falcons is around 15 million dollars they have some players that they can cut Taylor Heineke cutting him saves you seven million Johnny Smith cutting him saves you six and a half million if you wanted to be more savage about it and you wanted to cut Grady Jarrett Taylor Heineke cutting him saves you $7 million. Johnny Smith cutting him saves you $6.5 million. If you wanted to be more savage about it and you wanted to cut Grady Jarrett because he's getting up there in age, although he's still playing okay,

you save $12 million if you end up doing that. So that's potentially, what is that there? Like another $26, $27 million on top of that. So that gets you into the 30s. That gets you a lot more free agent flexibility. That could go get you a Kirk Cousins. That could be more flexible for a Geno Smith. So you can do all of those things if you want to, if you're Atlanta.

But to me, those are the options. I think that it's a Fields trade. You're signing Cousins or you're going to trade for Geno Smith because I don't think Baker Mayfield is getting out of Tampa. I think he likes it there a lot. I think the Bucs are prepared to give him a contract that he's very happy with. So I don't think that he's getting out of there. Jacoby Brissett and Garner Minshew, who are also unrestricted free agents,

they don't really move the needle for me. So, yeah, those are my kind of pro quarterback options before we end up talking about some draft options for him. No, I think it makes a ton of sense cousins i mean they they there are options for this team i think is the overall point that now i'll say this too i i like something you said there don't go into next year and be like hey we got gardner minhew or Jacoby Brissett and like this is you know maybe we'll draft someone but we don't know if if they can't afford to do that if they're going into well I don't think that they would do that anyways because even if you go into the draft thinking we're going to be hella aggressive to go up and get a quarterback right you're not going to sign

one of those guys you're just going to keep Ritter right Ritter's already on the roster you don't need to you don't need to spend any more money he's already on the rookie contract so i almost don't even think that's an option right i think so too all right so draft stuff draft stuff because this is where it can get really fun yes and there's a lot of flexibility here before we get into it gotta tell you about our friends over prize picks the largest daily fantasy sports platform in north america easily the most exciting way to play dfs it's just you against the numbers you pick more you pick less it is that easy instead of battling thousands of players including pros and sharks you just pick more or less on anything between two to six players their stat projections and you watch the winnings roll in our

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roster needs. Let me know if there was anything glaring that I missed. Quarterback is the obvious, the desperate one. I think edge rusher, pretty huge for them. I looked it up this past year. They ranked 23rd and 24th in total pressures and pass rush win rate from just their edge rushers, so not good. Got to get a lot better at that area.

Interior defensive line, you get Calais Campbell, you got Grady Jarrett, but they're up there in age. Wide receiver, specifically a speed option next to? I think they need a number two. Yeah, definitely need a number two. Ideally, somebody who can get a little vertical for you, but it has to be. And then probably another strong safety, unless you like DeMarco Helms a lot,

who's playing next to Jesse Bates. And if you do, I think that that's lower on the list. But yeah, I don't know. Those are the ones that kind of came to my mind with this team. Is that how you see it as well? Yeah. How about this, though, with the Falcons that I want to highlight? It's so rare to look at a team that needs fixing

and say, you know what I am confident about? They're five starting offensive linemen. Yeah, man. It's nuts when you look at... So Bergeron and Lidstrom and Jake Matthews all played over 1,000 snaps this year. Drew Dahlman, their center, played over 900.

And then Caleb McGarry, their right their center played over 900 and then caleb mcgary their right tackle played over 800 so storm norton had to fill in a tackle a little bit but those five guys they not only played they played at a good level i mean there's not a spot on this line where i'm like damn at eight they really got to take you know olu fash. Or I think that's just rare for teams picking in the top 10 to sit there and go, no way, no way do they need to use a resource on offensive line. And that gives me, as I do this, I'm like, man, Bill Belichick should kind of like this job, honestly,

considering what's in front of him. So also we have to keep in mind with Belichick because there's been a lot of dallas talk the owner dynamic with him is so important here and arthur blank is one of those guys that i feel like he's involved you said it at the top but it's not aggressive to the point where i think the football people are turned off right where like you go to Dallas, for better or for worse, and they've done a lot of great things. Jerry and the Jones family, I mean, there's fingerprints everywhere,

which is their right. They own the team. Will McClay obviously does a heavy hand of the draft and scouting all of that. But if you're the head coach going there, like, you are, like, the Joneses are every bit there every day in the football operation. Yeah, I think Belichick needs to go somewhere that he whether they have a GM or not. The GM thing is fine, but he is a lot of the football operation.

Yeah. And that's why I yeah, it's it's got to be a cohesive unit. I don't think I don't think he will get that same situation that he had in New England. You can't you can't control. unit i don't think he will i don't think he will get that same situation that he had in new england it's not going to be full control so he's going to have to work with somebody no matter what whether it's working with arthur blank and terry fontenot in atlanta or working with jerry jones and in in dallas i think he's got to work with somebody no matter what but let's go into this draft let's pull the pff mock draft simulator right now. Let's go into this draft thinking that Bill Belichick's the head coach. Okay? I think that that's what we should do here.

I think that's most realistic. That's also how I would go about, I think, fixing this team. The division, yes, I think is winnable for them if they do some things right, if they get quarterback fixed. And I think we could run through a couple of scenarios where, all right, this is what they would do if they don't have a quarterback. This is what they do. This is what they would do in the draft if they do.

I will say for everybody out there, if you are watching or listening to this podcast and you don't have a PFF subscription, so you don't have the fully unlocked mock draft simulator, you can use promo code 30MDS right now over at pff.com. You get 30% off an annual subscription, which gives you the fully unlocked simulator, all seven rounds, the trades, all the good stuff.

So just wanted to say, if you don't have a PFF subscription, now's a pretty good time to do it. You can save 30% on a year of subscription using 30MDS as the promo code there. So, all right, let's open it up. We're on the clock with the Atlanta Falcons. They're picking eight. I will say that I think this team could get pretty aggressive here.

I think they could be a pre-draft aggressive. Right? And I definitely agree with you there. Because when you look back at the Atlanta Falcons, they have made two massive draft trades that have both paid off for them in the biggest ways. Now, one of them was in 2001, which was the year before Arthur Blank bought the team. But he saw what getting Michael Vick for this team did. In those five years that Michael Vick was still there from 2002 to 2007. Arthur Blank saw what Michael Vick could do for this team. And the Falcons traded number five overall.

This was back in 2001. Number five overall and a second and third rounder that season and then a second rounder in 2022 plus wide receiver Tim Dwight to San Diego for that number one overall pick. And then the other selection is one that Arthur Blank was involved in and that was when the Falcons traded up with the Browns to go select Julio Jones they ended up giving a first a second and a fourth in 2012 in 2011 and then a first and a fourth in 2012 uh to go all the way up to pick six to uh to go get Julio Jones so those are two massive trades dealing with a ton of draft

value that ended up paying off for them and i think after missing out on deshaun watson after missing out on the lamar jackson opportunity and watching him have the the year that he did with baltimore regardless of how much they were in it. I love just hearing that. I think they're sick of this shit. Yeah. I think they're sick of it and they're going to do whatever they can to go up and get a quarterback. I think that's probably going to be a veteran because it kind of sounds like that's that angle.

But if it's not Connor, when you look at this draft before we, before we hit start on this draft, do you think, I don't think the Falcons could trade up to number one no because because that means that care that means the bears wouldn't be taking one and we think that the bears are going to take one i don't think the falcons can go up to number two zero percent chance that pick is moved correct because washington ain't getting out of this

draft without drake mayor caleb they are selling the job opening they have right now. Correct. That pick being a quarterback. So I don't know. We talk about the Falcons wanting to be aggressive, but one and two aren't really as available as we think they are. Well, Bill might have to call his old friends if he's there. And that's where it gets tricky.

Because Robert Kraft ain't helping Bill Belichick. And why would they move? They have, dude, the way they talked about Mac Jones this year, their quarterback is not on the roster. And then are they really going to just, is that a spot that Kirk Cousins wants to go to? They could trade for Justin Fields. But at the end of the day, it feels like,

and I got sucked into this a little bit last year. And I guess at the end of the day, it feels like, and I got sucked into this a little bit last year. And I guess at the end of the day, it was actually true. Because at the end of the day, three quarterbacks did go in the top five. But I thought Levis would go earlier than he did. Yeah, I thought Levis was at least going to go like top 12. Top 12, we kept saying. Yeah, because what the Titans picked. No, wait, who picked 12?

Yeah, the Titans picked 11th, I thought. Yeah, that's what we kind of thought. Either way, the more times I go through these exercises, I'm like, man, it feels like three quarterbacks are locked in there almost. New England's weird because they need Marvin Harrison Jr. I don't know if the league thinks that highly of Jaden. I think they do. I think, I don't know if the league thinks that highly of Jaden. I think they do.

I think that they think highly of him, but when I say that highly, I mean over Marvin. Right. That's, and that to me is insane. I wouldn't do it. Let me just be very front and center.

So I would never take Jaden Daniels over Marvin Harrison Jr. No matter the state of my roster. Damn, it's harsh. No, it's just being, it's crazy. Damn, it's just being. It's crazy.

Damn, Connor's out here hating. Yeah, it came out very hater-ish. All right, so let's. By the way, still no Senior Bowl news on Jaden. I don't think we're seeing him there. So we've logicked our way into. You can't trade up to number one. You can't trade up to number two. Three's a long shot. Three is a long shot.

Three is a long shot. If Jaden Daniels is still on the board at four, you know the Cardinals are picking up the phone. They should. You know the Cardinals, Monty Austin for what he did last year, how he was able to move up and back, whatever. He's only got to move down from four to eight.

Marvin Harrison Jr. is already off the board. That's the ideal scenario for the Atlanta Falcons. If you are looking to get an ace quarterback in this draft, you want this draft to go Caleb Williams or Drake May, Caleb Williams or Drake Way, Marvin Harrison Jr., because then the Falcons are going to be open for business, and you're going to be able to give up what you need to give up to go up and get your quarterback. That's, I think, the ideal scenario if you want to land an impact quarterback within

the top 10. Right. That's the move. So do you want to do that? Or do you want to go with the scenario and do this mock draft operating as if they got a veteran well i think we need to do it both ways even if it's you know obviously a little quick i think there i think there's one where oh doing three mocks for the bears we spoiled people i know we spoiled people all right we let it out that we can't get back it's dangerous okay so it's like when you let your dog do something once

and then the next day they're staring at you expecting it again and you're like oh shit all right to get from to jump from eight to four i don't know what it is with the draft value chart off the top of my head i feel like you're giving another one somewhere yeah just give next year's one and then make that happen yeah Yeah, that's that's it to me. I don't I don't think we need to get too out of control. This is going to be absolutely hilarious. If it goes quarterback, quarterback, quarterback. Oh, no. The Patriots have the chance to do the funniest thing. Let's see how it goes. What do we do now? What the hell? Oh, you didn't do the trade. I thought I hit. OK, so just let's do the it goes what do we do now what the hell oh you didn't do the trade i thought i hit

okay so just let's do the one that they got the quarterback then that's okay all right all right all right all right you're right you're right you're right you're right you're right all right so in this scenario they either signed kirk cousins or traded a day to pick for justin fields correct yes or traded for gino or okay gino absolutely one of the two i love that idea for me one of one of the two okay so at eight dallas always take dallas turner jared either one i'm fine with uh i mean like it's funny that jane daniels is still on the board of course i know i know i know let's just ignore that you don't see it i don't know that's gonna ignore that. You don't see it. I don't know if that's going to happen. I pretend I do not see it. We went Dallas Turner first. Let's just go Jared Verse.

Yeah, sure. Because we went Dallas Turner every time when we were doing it before, and that was insulting to Verse because I think he's right there with Dallas Turner. 100, which is very different. Okay. Let's go with Jared Verse. So, I'm literally an idiot. I'm the biggest moron of all time.

Oh, no. We could say they traded the second rounder for four. I'm the biggest moron of all time. This show is falling apart at the seams. All right. Jared Verse at number eight. For those who are audio only, I only selected a one round. One round.

So we're going Jared. The mock draft's ruined. Okay. So the interesting thing here, and there's not a pick. I guess we could, yeah, we can manually trade it if we want. There's a stipulation for Calvin Ridley where if the Jacksonville Jaguars re-sign Calvin Ridley, the Falcons get the Jags second round pick this year.

Which is pretty wild. If they don't, they get their third round pick because I believe Calvin Ridley hit the incentives that he needed to, which were like, it was like 75 catches or over a thousand yards.

He did both of those things. So whether it was one or the other or both, he did both of those things. And if those are correct, if those public numbers are correct, he hit hit it so it's either a second or a third round pick i i kind of feel like the jags are going to resign calvin ridley because without ridley they don't they don't have any other receivers i don't know what are you going to go

in here with christian kirk no i think i think they're going to draft one in the first round okay what are you going to go into next year with Christian Kirk and then some rookie? Yeah, Brian Thomas Jr. is awesome. All right, so fine, whatever. Whatever. He's furious. I'm furious because Trevor Lawrence is just going to get wasted.

All right, so we'll go. Then that means that Ridley is not getting signed, so we'll go pick 79 and I don't care. Yeah. Seventh rounder. Just over it now. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. So. All right. So now we have that extra third round pick. Yeah. So we took, so we took Jared verse for them at eight, eight.

And we have a veteran quarterback on the roster, which is good. Do we want to say fields? Cause if we say fields and we have to give up this bit no let's not because i want to do this exercise where we get to use this pick okay i think they need a wide receiver here i think so too but which one our options are not bad yeah they're not're not, they're really not. I mean, I, I think Mitchell and Leggett both fit. Those guys can run. Dude. I would love Xavier Leggett. Right.

I think it's just a rocked up yak machine. They have two monster receivers. And Kyle pits and pits. Who are, who are, yeah, we can do this. What were you going to ask?

I was just curious who was down the board a little bit. I saw Jermaine Burton there. Chris Jenkins would be good for this team. Chris Jenkins would be good for this team. That's eating your vegetables. Oh, man, you know I love Polk so much. I'm not drafting Polk over Worthy, though, or Leggett. Okay.

Rob Moore went back. I got out. They did. Yeah. And Donovan Edwards. Yeah. And Donnie Edwards. Also,

the running back class is just, it's all gone. So you own Vicky. Okay. I, I, Oh, we,

we got to pick him in the third round. I was going to say, you don't, have you watched him yet? We're all right. I've seen a little bit of him play both brother. He's in the third round. I was going to say. Have you watched him yet? All right. I've seen a little bit of him play both ways. Brother, he's out of his mind. I know.

He is every bit just football guy. Is he here? I think he got drafted. Son of a bitch. He went like four or five picks earlier to the Chargers. Okay, so I like Oro Oro as a interior defensive lineman they need interior defensive line oh i like to win carter have you watched him i have not seen him he's going to the senior bowl okay and he's a really nice like six foot three 305 pound like your classic pass rushing three

technique oh little kobe turner in them yeah Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Basically. Cool. I would, I would actually love Carter here for this team. Let's do it. Jared's not going to be there for a long time. You know, whether he gets cut this year or not. So, okay. We're going to Wayne Carter and then last pick, which is this Jags pick. Do they, do they need somebody that could play the slot? Uh, or no, I know they got really beat up at corner this year. I remember Clark Phillips Do they need somebody that could play the slot? Or no. I know they got really beat up at corner this year. Remember Clark Phillips had to play.

Oh, you're saying slot corner? They have Mike Hughes there. Terrell's obviously great. They have some depth at corner, even though they had injuries there. They kind of need an off-ball linebacker a little bit. Nate Landman was good for them this year think he was good for them this i think lamin and ellis are going to be their off-ball dudes okay i think akuta could be gone i could honestly talk myself into no because they have abby katie and malone there who they're still developing what another

edge rusher yeah but i think i oh man they're we're a weird team if you wanted to go slot corner i'd go tykee smith that's who i was looking at when you scrolled by him that's why it came up in my head man colson's still there colson is really good. I'm bringing him up. Yeah. Maybe now, I guess Tykee Smith. That's where I was kind of leaning when you first opened up this list. All right, let's go Tykee Smith. All right. So for the, you traded for a veteran quarterback route. We got not Justin Fields, either Kirk Cousins or Geno Smith.

I don't care. Pick one. Or you say with Fields, but take out one of the day two picks. Probably a Luget pick. Yeah, but I like both of them, so I don't want to do that. I know. Jared versus Xavier Luget, Dwayne Carter, Tykee Smith. That draft is sick.

PFF gave it a B. Piss off. Jared versus Xavier Leggett, Dwayne Carter, Tykee Smith. That draft is sick. Yeah. PFF gave it a B. Piss off. You're grading yourself. I know. I know. I can say that, folks, because it's me. All right.

So that's what it would look like. God, I love that. I love that all. Versus Leggett, Carter, Tykee Smith. Well, they're a fun team because you're not chasing so many needs so we got really good players at those spots all right so for this one we're going to trade up with the cardinals if you please patriots don't do it please don't do it they didn't do it patriots picked romo dunzey over marvin harrison jr okay so we're gonna

pretend that that didn't happen we don't think that that happens um and we're going jayden daniels we'll go jayden daniels here okay for the quarterback spot all right so we're going jayden four uh we we do have to give them the Jags pick. So we'll do the second rounder this time to say that, because we did the third rounder the other time. We showed to the Jags not signing him. Oh, okay. Sure, I see what you're saying.

Now we can go the other way. Okay, I see what you're saying. Just to show both scenarios. Yay. Scenarios. All right. So 43. Could use Jonah Ellis.

Jonah Ellis. Yeah, I like I think you take Jonah Ellis. I don't think I have to look anywhere else. No. Yeah, he's just a technician of a pass rusher. He was awesome this past year for for Utah. And wait, does his brother play on the Falcons? Is that where he is now?

Yes, Caden Ellis is their other inside linebacker. Caden Ellis is there. I was thinking of the 360-pound Ellis. Noah? Not Noah. Yeah, Noah. Noah, I think. He's been hanging around the Eagles practice squad for a while.

Okay. For as much as I think that Chop Robbins is kind of limited. He's just not going be there trevor i know you don't like him but he's not gonna be there at 48 yeah but he should he's gonna test like an alien i know and he's 20 so he can't even drink right It doesn't look like it either. It was literally just made of pure protein. Fine. You can't do it. Adiza Isaac's here. That you could do.

I like him. He's a really steady edge rusher, though. I do like Adiza Isaac. I'd be okay with him. They still need receiver help. Oh, yeah, they do. Right. Badly.

Oh, your boy's here. Your boy Polk is here. I don't need receiver help. Oh yeah, they do. Right. Badly. Oh, your boy's here. Your boy Polk is here. Let's do that then. Yeah. Good job. And Polk. Nice.

I, this is, this is my draft right here. All right, cool. Guess I'm not here. Um, you get this fake,

uh, 74. Wow. Thank you. Appreciate it. 74 for the Falconscons we haven't gone interior defensive line or no we did yeah we went joe nellis right right right i think i'm taking a row a row here okay i mean they can use some depth on the defensive line.

Absolutely. They can play as Campbell's still good, but he's like, uh, Braden Fisk from Florida state. He had a really good year of tape. He ended the year really strong. I think I'm still going to go a row a row.

Okay. Yeah. Let's do, I think he'll be at the senior bowl. Right. I thought so. You see, maybe I just made that up in my head.

I could have swore. He did a lot. No. He had an accepted invite. My internet connection's bad, so it's just going to grade my draft forever. He's there, by the way. Okay, cool. Rook.

Rook Aroberbro. Okay, so doing a little wheeling, dealing, kiss stealing, limousine riding, jet flying. There it is. Jaden Daniels at number four. We traded up from number eight to number four. Got Jaden Daniels. Then we got Jonah Ellis in the second round. In this scenario, we also had the second round pick from the Jacksonville Jaguars

because Calvin Ridley resigned with him. That got us Jalen Polk, the wide receiver. And then the third round, we got Aurore Rowe. And if you don't think that he's going to be there, Braden Fisk from Florida State, you can throw him in there as well. All right. So we have this class right here with no veteran quarterback or a veteran quarterback and Jared Verse, Xavier Leggett. And who are the other two?

Man. Tykee Smith, right? Tykee Smith. There was one other one. Who was the fourth pick the duke d line yeah yeah uh duane carter duane carter man i like both of these bill belichick's the head coach not bad that's gonna be just good enough to lose to tampa yet again next year let us know what you guys thought of us fixing the atlanta falcons here um our discussion on arthur blank the head coaches

arthur smith terry font now what atlanta has done in years past the lamar jackson and deshaun watson situations whether you think they have been aggressive enough and not or not for a quarterback how they got into this situation and obviously like how we fixed it as well best way to do that youtube.com backslash at NFL Stock Exchange. If you're listening to audio only, we still love you. You can hit us up at Tampa Bay Trey at Connor J. Rogers on both Instagram and Twitter. That's where you can find us.

Big shout out to everybody who watched and commented on the Chicago Bears Fix Your Franchise episode. We've had a lot of new subscribers since that one came out. We figured that that one would probably do some numbers because bears fans are awesome they're very passionate about the draft and have been over the last couple of years for good reasons so that episode was a ton of fun it was a ton of fun to do it was a ton of fun to see all the comments go back and forth with a lot of you guys see some of your ideas for how you would fix that franchise we would love to see the same kind of stuff with the atlantacons and every team that we do because this is not just a draft podcast.

It is a draft community. Connor, you got anything else before we get out of here? Definitely a fun one for how the different road we kind of got to go with this roster because it's just simply a competitive roster. That's what it comes down to for the Falcons. It's nice when you go into the offseason and your checklist is kind of concise where it's like, hey, we need a good experienced head coach and we need to be really aggressive to figure out this quarterback situation that we've kind of,

you know, tiptoed around for way too long. You can't waste this roster. You can't waste the young talent that's on this roster. And I think honestly, what we did today is, is a very real scenario of what's going to happen. I don't think the Atlanta Falcons are going to ignore the pro market

and then sit there and hope. I don't think that's going to be a strategy for them. It'll be fun to see how aggressive they get and to see if they ultimately close on landing Bill Belichick, which would be one of the better storylines of the NFL next year. You know, from our luck that we've had here on this podcast, the second I hit stop recording, it'll become official and he'll become the head coach.

We operated that way anyway, so we're saved. That's just how it works. That's true. That's true. We don't have to fully redo the episode, although you sickos out there would probably love it because we just do more mock drafts out there, which you can do. Obviously, if you go to pff.com, use the promo code 30 MBS,

get 30% off on a PFF subscription later in the week and by that we mean just in two days because we're sticking with a thursday publish we are getting back to position rankings we hear you we see you we're doing cornerbacks this time a lot of good cornerbacks to go over a lot of big shapes and sizes outside corners inside corners there's a lot of good dudes in this class i'm only about halfway through the players that I'm going to get to and talk about on Thursday. But, man, this is a very fun one. I'm excited to get back to the positional rankings. Hope you guys are as well.

I'm Trevor Sikama. That is Connor Rogers. Thank you guys so much for watching and listening to the NFL Stock Exchange podcast. We'll see you guys on Thursday. Thank you.