The Falcons could have accepted this draft as it fell and been a really good team in 2017 and beyond. They were already stacked. But sitting still wouldn’t have been the DQ Way. In DQ’s mind, you travel at warp speed or you’re a sloth.
Said general manager Thomas Dimitroff, speaking the day after the Falcons traded three picks to draft pass rusher Takkarist McKinley with the 26th selection of Round 1: “That is so not the personality of this team. We’re always moving forward.”
Then, with a nod toward the Falcons’ coach of 27 months: “Even more so now.”
This we know: Dan Quinn is a man in a hurry. He talks fast. He begins media briefings by saying, “Getting started here …” He doesn’t do this in a gruff way. He just likes getting started. He has things to do and trophies to win.
His team won one in January — the George Halas Trophy for being NFC champ — and had both hands, figuratively speaking, on a more famous one in NRG Stadium on Feb. 5. Had the Falcons not been so “aggressive,” to invoke one of Quinn’s many watchwords, they might well have held enough of that 25-point lead to have staged a parade down Peachtree. Alas and alack.
From Round 1 of the first post-Super draft of DQ’s Falcons, we learned that DQ has in no way curbed his enthusiasm. The Falcons wanted McKinley enough to ship three picks — this Falcons’ No. 1, No. 3 and No. 7 — to Seattle so as to move up five spots, which equals 1.67 picks per slot, which is not nothing. But McKinley is a DQ Guy, to cite the in-house description, and for those the usual price tags don’t apply.
(In the attempt to balance the books, the Falcons reclaimed draft capital Friday. They traded down before taking LSU linebacker Duke Riley — another DQ Guy! — and netted two more picks.)
“We went through a lot of scenarios: ‘What’s the right valuation for this pick?’” Quinn said, speaking of moving up for McKinley. “We knew we probably weren’t going to get into the top 10, and we said, ‘What’s the ideal scenario at 31?’”
The ideal scenario wouldn’t have seen the Falcons holding at No. 31 and watching McKinley — already known to Falcons folks as “Takk” — take his talents elsewhere. Once again, DQ wanted this DQ Guy, who’s now on DQ’s Team. Getting started here …
Quinn on McKinley: “He fits the profile. He’s a competitor. He has that toughness.”
Same as Keanu Neal, the strong safety drafted 17th overall by the Falcons last April. Same as linebacker Deion Jones and De’Vondre Campbell, the team’s Round 2 and Round 4 picks back then. Same with Brian Poole, the nickel back who arrived as an undrafted free agent. All were major contributors in a Super Bowl defense. All fit into a scheme that Quinn essentially coached from Thanksgiving on. DQ got what he wanted and, until that fourth quarter in Houston, made it work.
“We do look for certain positions,” Quinn said, and Neal filled a need at safety, just as McKinley should at defensive end. “But top of the list is that we want guys who will really, really compete. We look for guys who will prove they have that in them. We ask our scouts ‘Did you see him in practice?’ If a guy competes in practice, he’ll probably make it — because he’s probably fought for something before.”
We stipulate the Falcons are no lone ranger. The 31 other NFL teams likewise seek speed and tenacity. No team in the history of sports has said, “Actually, we prefer players who are slow and lazy.”
There’s a part of me — the jaded part, I concede — that wonders about the shelf life of Quinn’s bromides and Brotherhood. The 2016 Falcons were supposed to go 8-8 or thereabouts, meaning outside expectations were tepid. The 2017 Falcons should be capable of defending their NFC championship, but what if they start 5-5? Will the Brotherhood splinter? Will fingers point across the locker room’s ping-pong table?
That said, there’s another part of me — the impressionable part — that must admit: DQ is really smart and really persuasive. Not many rookie head coaches get handed such power. He took his carte blanche and, naturally, ran with it. He has built a team in his hurry-up image, and his wants live in the eye of every Falcons scout. Said Quinn: “Guys call in and say, ‘Tell DQ we found somebody who might be one of his guys.”
McKinley and Riley fit the fast-and-furious profile. The former was so pumped after being drafted that he dropped a cuss word on TV. He brought the now-famous photo of his late grandmother to Hall County on Friday. Talk about getting started here.
Is DQ himself ever tempted to draft someone who’s not a DQ Guy — a big talent with, as football people say, a low motor?
“Sometimes I get to thinking, ‘This guy looks tempting.’ And then somebody else will say, ‘That’s not what we said.’”
Here DQ smiled. “I’m lucky to have Thomas for that.”
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