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Monday, March 26, 2007
Falcons line up for draft windfall
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
They passed the first part. Now comes the difficult part of the brilliancy test for Falcons officials after they did exactly the right thing last week. They got a sucker to give them way too much for a career backup quarterback.
Next, Falcons officials must use all those nice draft picks in April on the definitive guys for their franchise. We’re talking about linemen. Offense, defense. It doesn’t matter. Just as long as they are the antithesis of what the Falcons have gotten lately. So these linemen should be larger than smurfs, and they shouldn’t spend much time in the trainer’s room.
Here’s the exception to everything I just said: If Falcons officials can move up from No. 8 overall in the draft to get the incomparable Calvin Johnson, they should do so. The Falcons need linemen more than they do another wide receiver, but when immortality is available, especially when it’s from Atlanta and starred at Georgia Tech, you snatch it.
Then, after the draft, Falcons officials must hope that the trading of that career backup doesn’t cause their starting quarterback to digress through complacency. We’re talking about on the field regarding the passing game and off the field moving through life as the clumsy face of the franchise.
Did Michael Vick really say that trick water bottle during his Miami International Airport controversy was just something for his jewelry and stuff?
Let’s move on. Hopefully, for the sake of the Falcons, Vick will do the same in a positive way. With Falcons officials trading The Great Matt Schaub to the Houston Texans, Vick doesn’t have to wonder every day if new coach Bobby Petrino prefers a career backup over somebody drafted No. 1 overall. As a result, Vick has a chance to spend his seventh NFL season gaining more fame by perfecting Petrino’s highly acclaimed playbook than by watching his name scrawled at the bottom of various cable news outlets.
No matter what happens in the future with Vick and those draft picks, Falcons officials won for the moment. I mean, what were the Texans thinking? Swapping first-round picks to move the Falcons from 10th to eighth in this year’s draft. Relinquishing two second-round picks over the next two years. Acquiring The Great Matt Schaub and giving the career backup $48 million after starting just two forgettable games during his three NFL seasons.
Then again, the Texans are the NFL’s most incompetent franchise east of Oakland, west of Detroit, north of Tampa and south of Cleveland. The Falcons aren’t incompetent, but they aren’t superior, either. All you need to know is that during the five years of the Arthur Blank regime, the Falcons are working on their third head coach.
Not good. Neither is the Falcons’ ugly slide toward mediocrity that began after they reached the NFC championship game three seasons ago. After a 6-2 start in 2005, they’ve dropped 15 of 24 games. They’ve also shown weaknesses throughout their roster. They’ve made about as many shaky moves (Ed Hartwell, Jimmy Williams, Roddy White, Chris Crocker and John Abraham) during the past three seasons as solid ones (Lawyer Milloy, Wayne Gandy, Michael Boley and Jerious Norwood).
In other words, the Falcons can’t afford to have general manager Rich McKay do anything less than great with this year’s draft picks. That’s great as in Calvin Johnson or a lineman, and that lineman should be somebody such as Jamaal Anderson. That’s not Anderson, as in “Jamal,” who used his legs to power the Falcons into the Super Bowl.
This “Jamaal” was a splendid pass rusher at Arkansas. With the potential to pack even more muscle around his bruising frame of 6 feet 5 and 288 pounds, he’d work well as a replacement at defensive end for the departed Patrick Kerney or as insurance for the oft-injured Abraham.
The point is, Falcons officials have options. They just can’t blow them.
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