Just finished my workout wit the Dirty Birds! Went HAM! #19!!!??

Let's take a look at the off-season moves by the Falcons so far this year...

Re-Signings
- Chris Redman, 2nd String QB
The 2nd String QB is the most popular guy in town for a lot of teams. I think Redman is a very capable back-up. He ended up throwing 119 passes last year and had a QB rating of 78.4. This put him above guys like Jay Cutler, Chad Pennington, Chad Henne, Matt Hasselback, Matt Cassel, Mark Sanchez, Matthew Stafford, and Josh Freeman. Not exactly upper echelon guys but a lot of those guys are expected to carry their franchises in the future and some have been very capable QBs in the NFL. He was 1-2 last year as a starter and lost by 3 points to the Super Bowl Champs. Another key to this re-signing is that it keeps JPW as the #3 quarterback instead of moving him to #2. 2 years for $5.6 million for a guy who knows the system and is a capable QB when needed is a solid signing in my book.

- Brian Williams, CB
Brian Williams was signed off the scrap heap from Jacksonville last year before the season started and ended up being a Day 1 starter for the Falcons. He ended up playing in 5 games and had 18 tackles and 1 interception. He will most likely be a nickel back this year but I like the signing because it gives us veteran depth in the secondary.

Free Agent Signing
- Dunta Robinson, CB
This was the biggest signing in the NFC South so far and a great signing for the Falcons. Every year GM Thomas Dimetroff (TD) makes 1 or 2 big moves in Free Agency although his goal is to build in the draft. In 2008 he signed Michael Turner, in 2009 he signed Mike Peterson and traded for Tony Gonzales. This year he shored up the secondary by signing a legit #1 CB. Robinson was clearly the #1 CB available on the market this year but it was questionable whether the Falcons would go after him or not. TD cleared that up very quickly and snatched Robinson up pretty quickly in Free Agency. This move and the re-signing of Brian Williams gives us a lot of flexibility in how we use our young DBs next year (Christopher Owens, Brent Grimes and Chevis Jackson). I would really like to see Owens step up and take the #2 spot next to Robinson. This move and the re-signing of Brian Williams also allowed us to cut bait with Tye Hill and trade Chris Houston for a very late draft pick. Houston was part of the 2007 Bobby Petrino draft that took bust Jamaal Anderson in the first round and Houston with the 41st pick. It's amazing Petrino somehow hit on Justin Blalock, Jason Snelling and Stephen Nicholas. Houston is not as good as Owens, Grimes or Jackson so he probably wasn't making it out of training camp anyway.

The Draft


This is where TD makes his money. In the 2008 draft TD picked up Matt Ryan, Sam Baker, Curtis Lofton, Chevis Jackson, Harry Douglas, Thomas DeCoud and Kroy Biermann. That's 6 guys (not counting Jackson) who have really worked out for us. Douglas got hurt last year but I think he will be a huge factor this year. In 2009 TD cooled off a little bit as his first two draft picks (Peria Jerry and William Moore) both got hurt and didn't play much. I have a huge amount of confidence that Jerry will be a solid pro for us and TD also picked up Christopher Owens in this draft. Lawrence Sidbury and Garrett Reynolds are players that could have an impact over the long run for us but overall it was a disappointing draft in 2009. This is the year that TD can redeem himself.

The biggest areas of need we are are DE (Abraham is getting long in the tooth, Jamaal Anderson is a bust, Chauncey Davis and Kroy Biermann are solid guys but not every down players), LB (Peterson probably won't be around after next year and the jury is still out on Stephen Nicholas), and OL (we don't have much depth along the OL and some of the guys are getting up there in years. Specifically Center Todd McClure who is on his 12th year). Those are the 3 big positions of need in my mind. Other positions of need are TE (Depending on how long Tony G is planning on hanging around. His back up Justin Peele is a good back-up but not a starter), CB (we can always get better at this position and there is a huge chance that a lot of the young talent we have may not work out for us), Playmaker (every team can use a play-maker whether it's at WR, Kick Returner or RB).

Looking at our three biggest areas of need and our draft position (#19 in the First Round) here are the guys I would like to see in a Falcons uniform:

- Sean Weatherspoon, LB, Missouri
"Just finished my workout wit the Dirty Birds! Went HAM! #19!!!??"- that's what his twitter feed said after his private workout with the Falcons. Apparently he killed it. This is the guy I want. He can rush the passer, he can drop back in coverage, he's just an all-around solid player. Put him next to Curtis Lofton and you have two-thirds of your linebacking crew for the next 5-6 years. And if Nicholas works out then you are set at all 3 positions and have the anchors of your defense for years to come.

- Brandon Graham, DE, Michigan
He has good size and speed, can break double teams, is a good tackler with big play ability, has good character and good work ethic. Seems like a good fit for the Falcons. I would not be disappointed with this pick.

- Maurkice Pouncey, OL, Florida
This would be a good pick but it would be a pick that would impact us more in the future and not necessarily for this year. I don't think we are in a position to make a pick like this in the first round. If both Spoon and Graham are gone then I wouldn't mind this pick but it won't make us better this year barring injury. As a UGA fan I'm not huge on picking a Gator but Al Horford has worked out pretty well for the Hawks so I'm willing to let one more Gator in as long as they are BOSS like Al.

Other guys I have seen the Birds taking here in mocks are: Kyle Wilson (CB/Boise State), Sergio Kindle (OLB/DE/Texas), Navorro Bowman (LB/Penn State), Carlos Dunlap (DE/Florida), Everson Griffen (DE, USC) and CJ Spiller (RB/Clemson). Best case scenario is we get Spoon but I have more confidence in TD making the right pick than I do in any other GM in Atlanta. The Falcons have 8 picks in this years draft but only 1 in the first two rounds. We need TD to pull out some of his magic from 2008 and nab some solid contributors with the 3rd, 4th and/or 5th round picks (we have 5 total picks in those 3 rounds).

Go Falcons!