FLOWERY BRANCH – The Falcons, with an toward adding an enforcer to their defense, selected Florida safety Kenau Neal with the 17th overall the NFL draft on Thursday.
Neal was one of the fast-climbers during the pre-draft process. The buzz around Neal and the Atlanta Falcons grew loudest in the final days preceding the draft.
Neal was partially recruited by Falcons head coach Dan Quinn, before he left Florida to return to Seattle. Neal played special teams as a freshmen in 2013.
Neal said that teams had told him he was a late first-round or second round pick. The Falcons are in need of a strong safety after releasing William Moore.
The Falcons are trying to get in front of Pittsburgh and Carolina, who also covet Neal.
With the selection of Neal, the Falcons will likely pick a linebacker in the second round of the draft on Saturday.
The draft world had Neal, a 6-foot, 211-pound strong safety, who was the Gators third-leading tackler with 96 tackles and he had an interception, rated differently.
Neal decision to pass on his senior season and enter the draft paid off.
NFL.com had him rated as a second round pick.
NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock had Neal rated as the third best safety in the draft behind Ohio State’s Vonn Bell and West Virginia’s Karl Joseph.
Nolan Nawrocki, a former scout, had Neal with a “second-to-third round” grade. “His cover skills are average,” Nawrocki wrote in the highly-respected NFL Draf 2016 preview. “He is a big hitter, and that is what’s going to excite (scouts), but I don’t think he is a great tackler. He has size, but I don’t see him matching athletic ability. I’m not sure he can run.”
The Falcons had a campus visit and a private workout with Neal, who tested well in the scouting combine.
Neal sat out the first two games of the 2015 season with a hamstring injury.
Joseph was the first safety taken in the draft when the Oakland Raiders selected him with the 14th overall pick.
The Falcons also heavily scouted Georgia outside linebacker Leonard Floyd, who went to the Chicago Bears with the ninth overall pick. Floyd, who worked out for the Falcons last Saturday in Athens, the first player taken from the SEC.
The Falcons also were interested in Clemson defensive end Shaq Lawson and Alabama linebacker Reggie Ragland.
Ragland has been flagged by some teams because of a medical issue, according NFL Media.
Ragland reportedly has an enlarged aorta.
The condition requires monitory and could lead to aneurysms. Surgery could be required in the future.
Some teams have pushed Ragland down their draft board and seven other teams don’t believe the condition will impact is football career, according to the report.
Falcons linebacker coach Jeff Ulbrich and area scout Anthony Robinson scouted Ragland at Alabama’s Pro Day in March.
Lawson, a former Clemson standout, had been in regular contact with Falcons defensive line coach Bryan Cox.
But some thought Lawson was “just a guy?”
In NFL scouting terms, being called “just a guy” is a derogatory term.
Former Atlanta Falcons defensive back Louis Riddick, ESPN’s front office insider, was concerned that Lawson is a major slacker. Riddick played six seasons in the NFL, including 1992 with the Falcons.
He went on to become a scout for Washington and was their director or personnel (2005-2007). He’s also worked in Philadelphia’s front office.
“As many good splash plays as he has had, he has had too many, for me, plays where Shaq looks slow, sluggish and not very competitive,” Riddick said. “Quite honestly, in scouting terms, he looks like just a guy. That concerns me.”
The Falcons have drafted three Clemson defensive linemen in recent drafts: Malliciah Goodman, Grady Jarrett and Vic Beasley.
The Falcons have the 50th pick in the second round and the 81st pick in the third round.
The Falcons also have the 115th pick in the fourth round and the 238th pick in the seventh round.
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