T3 Mock Draft: Atlanta Falcons

The Atlanta Falcons face a crucial moment as they prepare for the draft with numerous team needs and limited cap space. The latest mock draft explores potential players to transform the team and likely decisions to make.

• Discussion of Kirk Cousins’ unexpected backup role in Atlanta 
• Overview of team needs, including defense and depth positions 
• Key picks analyzed: Jalon Walker, Xavier Watts, and Travion Henderson 
• Emphasis on draft strategy to address both immediate and future needs 
• Call for listener engagement and feedback on draft predictions 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Intro to Mock Draft Season
• 25:00 Analyzing the Atlanta Falcons’ Team Needs
• 50:00 Key Picks and Predictions for the Draft

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:19

welcome back to t3. I'm your host, mr you. We in mock draft season and we're excited about it. Thanks for joining us. However, you're listening to this podcast. We thank you again for listening and also subscribing. If you jump onto our YouTube channel youtubecom as they call me, mr U please hit the subscribe button. It helps us put out more great content like this and keep you guys informed, keep you getting all the sports and inspiration that you desire. So we thank you for your support. Thank you for your support. Thank you for continuing to help us on this mission. We're really excited about it. You know we've been doing several mock drafts so far. We're going to continue to keep doing that. We're hoping to get all 32 teams in before the first night of the draft mammoth task, but we're up for it. So we'll see how it goes. But please jump on to our youtube channel. Give me some draft grades for the teams already out there already, and we got several more on your way, hopefully very, very soon. But today we're going to be doing a mock draft for the Atlanta Falcons A lot going on with this franchise.

Speaker 1: 1:14

I try to be as brief as possible, but there's a lot happening here If you haven't already heard the news. Kirk Cousins apparently is going to be staying as backup in Atlanta, which is something that everybody probably didn't expect. Most folks thought he was going to a team like the Titans or somewhere else. Nobody expected him to stay in Atlanta, especially after the draft pick of Michael Penix last year at eight. Nobody really expected him to not be the starter, but nobody expected Kirk Cousins to be the backup either either. So we're kind of surprised by some of that a lot of backlash toward the franchise because of this long story there. But they perhaps have four picks in the nfl draft this year. They have a first, a second, a fourth and a seventh. Uh, it's an uphill climb to do a mock draft. We're going to try to get four rounds and maybe perhaps capitalize on some trades to get them some help.

Speaker 1: 2:10

Despite their team needs that have been listed edge cornerback, wide receiver, interior and exterior, o-line linebacker, safety they need a lot of different things, perhaps not quarterback, but several things they're going to need. We're going to try to help stack those for them. I'm going to focus a lot on defense, turning it up front, because they have some real defensive issue. They ran 23rd in total defense last year and the passing run was kind of in the same ballpark in the same percentile. But the worst stat that I thought was the worst anyways was the third down defense 45.3. They were 30. Who first in the league? That's almost dead last, and I feel like that. Whenever you see a team that has a third round defense number like that, usually it implies that they lack a sufficient or efficient uh, efficient pass rush. So we're going to try to address that with some edge guys, some D-line help, and try to help turn this franchise around.

Speaker 1: 3:08

Now, the one thing on the downside is that they have several free agents. I think somewhere I counted informally between 40 and 45 free agents that are going to be probably leaving their team. A lot of them were camp bodies and just guys that were there as backups to spell the starters. But 40 to 45 is a lot to come back from. So they need a lot of help and they probably can't solve it in this draft alone. They probably have to dip into a free agency, which I think they will and UDFA. But where's the money coming from? They got $5 million in cap space. Right now they're probably 28th in the league in cap space, which is not great 28th highest, to be clear. So not great, but we're going to go ahead and jump in and try to find these guys some help. So bear with us.

Speaker 1: 3:52

We're going to do a mock draft for the Atlanta Falcon. Let's get it All right. We're going to go ahead and go for four rounds. See if we can try to help them out, because we're going to be looking for a good trade, and try to help them out because we're going to be looking for a good trade. If it's a bad trade, we're not going to take it. All right, they asked us to give the 15 in order to get a 29 and 61. I'm going to decline this because there's a guy I want at the 15 pick and if he's there he's going to turn this franchise around and at least offer them some much-needed help. So I'm going to go ahead and avoid this particular offer. This one is enticing. An 18 and an 80. Ooh, we're going to pass on this one as well. Hopefully our guy is going to still be here. He is All right. So the guy I was thinking about was Jalon Walker, hometown boy. We're going to go ahead and take him here.

Speaker 1: 4:46

Junior out of Georgia, powerful defender. He's compact, about 6'2", 245. Not really far away from Derrick Henry's height and weight, so you can kind of look at that as perspective. He has a pure speed power, explosive hands, explosive power, moves, counter moves I should say great hands. He's definitely a tone set on defense and atlanta needs one because they haven't had one in quite a few years.

Speaker 1: 5:10

I would say, uh, there's some issues about him being able to diagnose plays and kind of adjusting. That's something that can be solved, but for now I think this is a quality pick here. Let's see. I wish I could see the other one, 46. All right, that's awful, we're not doing that. This is 55.

Speaker 1: 5:39

I am going to reject this one too. I'm a real hard case on trades. They have to be really good. All right.

Speaker 1: 5:47

Now, this is surprising to me. I didn't think this guy would be here, but I'm going to double check him, because I'm pretty sure that they have issues not only at depth but also on their secondary. So let me just double check that, okay, yeah, so Jesse Bates is back there still. Justin Simmons is a free agent, so who knows if he's coming back. Yeah, I think they're going to need help here. Richie Grant is also a free agent, so he's one of their back up. He was Simmons' back up, but he's not coming back either properly. So we're going to need help here. Richie Grant is also a free agent, so he's one of their backups. He was Simmons' backup and he's not coming back either properly. So we're going to take Xavier Watts here. This is going to be really helpful for them.

Speaker 1: 6:26

Xavier Watts is a quality guy. He's got great size, great hands. He's a ball hawk. He really helped Notre Dame get to the place where they were to be in the national championship. He may not get all the credit, but he should get a good bit of it. He played fantastic for Notre Dame.

Speaker 1: 6:42

All right, so this is one offer 117 for 131 and 171. These offers are brutal, absolutely brutal. You know I'm going to decline this too. I think we can do better here. I'm very surprised.

Speaker 1: 7:04

One of the things that was not on the team's team needs was running back. B John Robinson is definitely the future there, but Algier is somebody who's kind of like a plug and play. He's not really the guy you want to start, which came to shove, and I love backups that can start and not lose anything kind of like what we had with Thunder and Lightning back in the New York Giants days in our Super Bowl years. But for me, I want to make sure I don't lose sight of the fact that these guys need help on defense. I can't ignore that they could use it. So I'm just kind of thinking about what should we do here? I think from a value perspective they probably will do a lot. We're going to take Travion Henderson here. I know that's not one of the needs, but they're going to feel a lot of needs of being a free agency and UDFA. So we got Jalon Walker with the 15th pick out of Georgia. Xavier Watt was a safety out of Notre Dame and Travion Henderson backup for Bijan and potentially his replacement. See how the contract goes after when Bijan comes up. But there's a lot of talent here.

Speaker 1: 8:18

Love to know what you guys think about this particular draft. I definitely had fun with it, just to kind of look at what the Falcons had available. They got to get more picks, so trading back is definitely ideal for them. They need a lot more bodies on the defensive and the offensive side. They actually need a lot. I haven't seen anybody in the franchise yet so far that needs as much as the Falcons does. So it's going to be exciting to see how it turns out. Hit me with your draft grades on our YouTube channel or wherever you simulcast this episode. Let me know what you think. I'm ready for it. Excited to hear your thoughts. But thanks again for listening to T3. And we're going to be on Thursday night at 7 pm EST. Love to have you jump in the chat 7 pm EST. Love to have you jump in the chat. Hit us with your questions and football comments. Love to hear from you guys. So have a great day. Thanks again for listening. Thanks.