2 Falcons draftees’ paths are what make the NFL draft irresistible

In the fall of 2022, no one could have guessed that Harold Perkins and Anterio Thompson’s paths would align in the way that they did Saturday.

Within a half hour, the Falcons selected Thompson and Perkins in the sixth round of the NFL draft, making teammates out of one player who four years ago was rocketing to the top of college football and another who was toiling in anonymity.

It is one of the things that makes the NFL draft irresistible. Every April, college football players with a myriad backgrounds converge into a moment where the doors open and dreams come true.

“I’m not going to lie,” Thompson said Saturday on a videoconference with media after the Falcons had used their first sixth-rounder on the defensive tackle from Washington. “I’m just speechless.”

“I ain’t going to lie,” said Perkins, issuing his own declaration of truthfulness after the Falcons spent their latter sixth-round pick on the former LSU linebacker. “I just know I’m excited for sure to get to work. I know that for a fact.”

In 2022, Thompson was a defensive tackle at Iowa Western Community College. In part because of his grades, he was practically nonexistent as a high school prospect for the 2021 class in Dubuque, Iowa. With his high school coach’s help, he found a spot at Iowa Western and redshirted his first year at the junior college before playing in his second season in 2022.

He acknowledged Saturday that the NFL was not on his radar at that remote point.

That he made it to any college team was something of an upset. In high school, he did not play with an edge, Thompson said. His coach, Jeff Hoerner, enlisted teammates to convince him not to quit going into his senior year.

“I wasn’t a violent guy,” he said. “When it came to tackling people, I’d hug them safely and put them on the ground.”

About 800 miles to the south that same fall of 2022, Perkins was lighting up college football as a freshman for LSU, a linebacker who could use his speed to pressure the passer and his power to crumple running backs. He was first-team All-SEC and a huge part of the Tigers’ SEC West title.

He seemed well on his way to accomplishing his plan to play three years, graduate and enter the draft.

“You see what he’s able to do all over the field early in his career playing off the edge and rushing the passer,” Falcons GM Ian Cunningham said Saturday. “You thought this was going to be the next one.”

At Iowa Western, Thompson began to get noticed. Before the 2023 season, he transferred to Iowa, where he played seven games and mostly distinguished himself on special teams, blocking two punts.

“He doesn’t even know how good he can become,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said in a Daily Iowan article from the 2023 season.

After the season, he transferred again, this time to Western Michigan for the 2024 season. He played 13 games at the Mid-American Conference school, starting 12 and making 34 tackles. His career was building steam.

In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the 2024 season was supposed to be Perkins’ final, crowning lap on his way to the NFL. But he tore his ACL in the fourth game of the season.

After that same season, Thompson entered the transfer portal again, this time landing at Washington for a second chance to play power-conference football.

At the same time, Perkins returned for his unanticipated 2025 season after rehabilitating his ligament tear, making 11 starts. (He did achieve his goal of graduating, earning his degree in interdisciplinary studies in the spring of 2025.)

Perkins was still an effective player, but he had fewer tackles, tackles for loss and sacks as a senior than he did as a freshman.

“I feel like it went how it was supposed to go,” Perkins said Saturday of his LSU career. “That’s something that I learned while I was there. Everybody wants the perfect Cinderella story, but it isn’t always like that. It isn’t always peaches and cream.”

And in Seattle, at his fourth school in four years, Thompson continued to progress. He was mostly a backup for the Huskies but made an impression with his explosive physical ability. At his pro day, he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.73 seconds, among the best for prospects at his position.

“He’s sawed off, powerful, explosive,” Cunningham said. “Really good hand strength, good instincts. He plays a brand of ball that our defensive staff looks for.”