FLOWERY BRANCH -- Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot and coach Arthur Smith spoke to the Atlanta media following the completion of the first round of the NFL draft late Thursday night.
Here is some of what they had to say after drafting former USC wide receiver Drake London with the eighth overall pick:
Opening statement
Fontenot: “We always start with the makeup. We love the way the young man is wired. He’s a tough, smart, competitive football player. The way he works, the way he competes, we are very excited to bring him. He fits our ethos. He fits the culture. Everything that we want to be as a football team here, he fits it. He checks all those boxes. And as a player, he’s big, he’s athletic, the versatility, things he can do on the field, the catch radius. We are very excited to make him a Falcon.”
On Drake London’s speed
Smith: “It’s great, we worked him out, and we felt pretty comfortable with his speed and everything, on tape. We are not going to discuss internal measurements we had on guys. But you just watch the tape, he’s plenty fast enough.”
On whether his 40-yard time is top secret
Smith: “It’s not top secret, but it’s our intellectual property. Watch him in the slot? The guy is a dynamic player. Plays a lot of positions. He’s everything you want in the middle makeup. Like Terry said, he’s wired the right way. We’re excited that he’s a part of the Falcons.”
On how much work the Falcons did on London in the draft process
Smith: “Very extensive. (We) mentioned the other day, part of the process, we were able to get back out on the road, so we felt very confident in exactly the kind of player we were bringing in here.”
Fontenot: “It means a lot to spend time with those guys and get around them and go to work them out in their place and really get your hands on them. That’s really important, and we are very impressed with everything we did with him.”
On taking a receiver versus other positions of need
Smith: “Well, every position is a need. We trusted our board and where it fell, so we are very excited about the player. And obviously, if you’re paying attention after our pick, you saw the run on wideouts, which is something we predicted was going to happen. All the factors led into it, but we also trusted our process and we were not going to reach. We talked about the other day about need. (If) things are even, sure. Things aren’t, that’s why you do all this work. You don’t all of a sudden get on the clock and start dismissing all the work the scouts have put in, the whole process. We talk about being collaborative, and then you go away from strategies just because you’re on the clock.”
On whether they went into the draft thinking a specific position or waited to see how the board fell
Fontenot: “(We) stack the board, and he’s the best player on board, and we’re excited to take him off. Obviously, if a defensive player would have been there that was best player we would have took him. Drake was the best player, and we’re excited about him.”
On their reaction to the number of trades
Fontenot: “I mean, we always answer our phone, and obviously people call and want to know if you want to get back in. But we felt like -- we weigh everything and we talk about how much things would cost, and we’ll do the same thing tomorrow. We had those discussions, but we felt comfortable to be patient and get rolling tomorrow.”
On whether they got offers to trade back
Fontenot: “We discussed some offers. It’s just a weighing process, though, because sometimes, like what happens is people will call and throw something out there that might not make sense. It’s all a weighing process, comparing the player to what you can get. And so we did have some discussions.”
On how much they considered taking a quarterback with the No. 8 pick
Fontenot: “Same way we consider all the other positions. We took the best player off the board.”
On the offers they received for the No. 8 pick
Fontenot: “We talked to teams in the middle and the bottom. We talked to basically everybody. We talked to enough teams. And it obviously wasn’t enough, wasn’t something that made sense to us as we weighed the pros and cons to actually move out of that pick.”
On whether the trade talks were serious
Fontenot: “No.”
On how much London’s size played into their evaluation
Smith: “It’s a factor, but it’s not -- I know the popular narrative is it has to be this height or we want the bigger receiver. It’d certainly help, but that’s not -- there’s some really good players that got taken. Well, we’ll play with anybody that can help this team. We just liked what the player brought to this team, how he will be used for us and how he complements some of the other pieces we have. We were ecstatic. Obviously, some really good players taken the way the board was stacked, and when he was still sitting there, and to Terry’s point, there was no offer that made any sense, and not to get into the details in his job, so we are really, really happy that Drake is a Falcon.”
On what his production told them about him
Smith: “Well, here is what you’re looking at. He played two different spots. In (2020), he’s inside. And then they moved him outside. So that shows us a lot. You see a lot of the different route tree with him. You see the stuff outside you saw from the ‘21 season. And go back to 2020 season and watch him inside, he’s hard to bring down. He’s a catch-and-run guy, and he’s also very contested, super competitive. The mental makeup, we’re ecstatic about. He’s a very versatile player, even at his size. Some of those guys get pigeonholed, oh, he’s only an X or he’s only outside. That’s kind of nonsense. The way we play and the way the guys move around, you have to be able to do both.”
Fontenot: “The competitor sticks out so much. When you watch the tape, try to find some plays of him going out of bounds. When he’s near that sideline, he’s a physical player, and he’s going to lower his head, even if it’s for another inch, but he’s not running out of bounds. He’s fighting for every (yard) -- and he’s one of those guys that we enjoyed our meetings with him, but you don’t even have to meet him and know that he loves ball and he’s passionate and all those things when you put on the tape and see the way he plays the game. That’s why we are so excited.”
On how London can complement Kyle Pitts
Smith “It’s really all over the field. We need more trips to the red zone, too, and we have to be more efficient. He’s a good player. We’re obviously excited. We have a good vision for him. He has to go out there and earn it, but they are different players, too. Again, look right out there and look at the numbers and say, oh, they are both tall, yeah, but they are different players. They complement each other well. We are excited. He’ll come in here, and he’ll add a lot to this offense and help us be more efficient. Obviously, we need to get more explosive, too. He brings that to the table as well.”
On London’s versatility
Smith: “It’s just that, if you’re going to be a team that motions or you’re going to play in certain condensed splits, especially on early downs, you’ve seen him go inside the numbers. A lot of guys, they only play one position, some of these offenses, they only stay on the same side. It does give you a lot of confidence, as much as when you like to move different formations, different personnel groups. You see him run the routes that we would ask him to run inside. You see him make those contested ‘got to have it’ catches one-on-one outside. You’re very confident in the player and what you’re getting. Obviously, it’s our job to keep developing and enhancing those skills. like I said, it’s a really valuable offensive weapon for us.”
On whether London can be a contributor in year one
Smith: “That’s the intent, you take a guy that high, but again, we’ll bring him on at his speed. Certainly, when you put a pick that high on a player, there’s an expectation that this guy needs to contribute. No different than Kyle (Pitts) last year. But we have all been around it, and we are not going to expedite it. He is coming off of an injury last season, he’s good to go, which we still have to be smart as we bring him along and get to camp.”
On whether they expect him to have any restrictions during rookie minicamp
Smith: “The way it’s set up now, some of the rookie camps, the old days, D. Led, used to be Full Metal Jacket when they started. You have to be smart. Some of these guys, they have been on the banquet circuit, they have been taking a million visits, trying to work out in hotel gyms. You have to be smart when these guys get here and build them up. That’s for all of our players.”
On how much they worked out and/or met with London
Fontenot: “Personal workout and a couple meetings.”
On whether they were sold right away that London was their guy
Fontenot: “The entire process, we liked him the entire process from the meetings, the February meetings with the scouts, everybody loved him, and then we met him at the combine, and spent time with him there and went out and had a personal workout, spent time with him, talked to him a lot. He checked all the boxes.”
