This will be Terry Fontenot’s fourth draft as Falcons general manager. That’s an accomplishment, seeing as how the Flowery Branch org chart is ever evolving. Raheem Morris was here for a while; now he’s back. Arthur Smith, who arrived in tandem with Fontenot, is here no longer. Rich McKay never leaves, though his relationship with actual football waxes and wanes.
In January, we wondered if the NFL’s most illustrious non-player would plop down in Hall County and serve not just as HC but as CEO, DC and GM. Bill Belichick landed none of those jobs. (And, we’re led to believe, was none too thrilled.) But Fontenot, mentioned only in passing when Smith was given the gate, keeps showing up for work. He’s the biggest reason to trust this process.
Say what you will of the past three years — that the Falcons were 7-10 three seasons running says a great deal — but the talent on hand today bears scant resemblance to the loose collection of players inherited by Fontenot/Smith. The first 7-10 was accomplished with the likes of Matt Ryan, since retired; Cordarrelle Patterson, now a Steeler, and Calvin Ridley, a Titan after briefly being a Jaguar.
That first 7-10 was a raging fluke. Those Falcons were outscored by 146 points and should have been 5-12 if not worse. Last year’s 7-10 was also curious. Had the Falcons won December games against 5-7 Tampa Bay and 1-12 Carolina, they’d have won the NFC South. The season turned on Desmond Ridder, with whom Smith apparently believed he could win until events proved otherwise.
Ridder is likewise an ex-Falcon, though his failure to stick as QB1 wasn’t a failure of drafting. He was the 74th player taken in 2021. He was the second quarterback drafted — Kenny Pickett, taken 54 picks earlier, also fizzled — and arrived not as a certainty but as someone who might fill the post-Ryan void.
The idea was to surround a quarterback of modest gifts with massively gifted skill players. It didn’t work, but it was worth a shot. The Falcons have moved on, signing Kirk Cousins with such alacrity that the NFL is investigating, but even if the league docks them a draft pick — if so, it won’t be in this draft — they can chalk that off as the cost of doing business. They had to have a real QB. Now they do.
They also have all of Fontenot’s lovingly assembled Round 1 skill players — Kyle Pitts, Drake London, Bijan Robinson. Their roster isn’t old and overpriced, though Cousins mightn’t seem such a sagacious purchase at 38, which he’ll be in 2026. (Ryan, a former MVP, just retired at 38.) At issue today is, um, today. These Falcons look good to go. Another clever draft and they’ll look even better.
Not that I’m Mel Kiper, but I’ve found no fault with any personnel move the Falcons have made under Fontenot. Job 1 of every GM is picking personnel. I’ve never bought the you-can’t-draft-a-skill-player-that-high blather, given that skill players score touchdowns. At last check, touchdowns were a big deal.
I also know the Falcons played 17 games last season and didn’t once seem overmatched, which couldn’t be said of the 2021 and 2022 Falcons. This GM has built well, and now his team has the quarterback to get the ball where it needs to go.
It has been a while since this franchise seemed in such a good place. Cousins is an upgrade over Ridder. Morris should be an upgrade over Smith, who couldn’t maximize the potential of Pitts/London/Robinson. (Not being able to trust Ridder surely had something to do with it.) No upgrade was necessary at GM. Fontenot was the keeper in this organization, and he’s still here.
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