The Falcons continue to experience the downside of GM Thomas Dimitroff’s draft-day trades to select players with injury histories.
But first let’s acknowledge the human side of what happened to Sam Baker at Houston on Saturday. Baker worked diligently to return from injuries in each of the past two years and now he’s out for this season after suffering a torn patella tendon.
It’s tough break for Baker but, unfortunately, his body just hasn’t been able to hold up since his days at USC. In 2008 Dimitroff sent Washington two second-round draft picks and a fourth to move up to select Baker, whose issues with injuries have continued in the pros.
Julio Jones had a screw in his right foot when Dimitroff traded away five picks (two firsts, a second, and two fourths) to move up to select him. Jones had a second surgery on the foot last October--an experimental procedure that leading orthopaedic surgeons are watching as a "test case" for elite athletes.
Peria Jerry had injury issues at Ole Miss. The Falcons selected him 24th overall in the 2009 draft, Jerry suffered a knee injury that fall that diminished his ability and he recently retired without ever living up to his promise as a player.
Every team takes on certain levels of risk when drafting players with injury histories and there’s some luck involved in whether it works out or not. For the Falcons, though, the injury risks with Baker and Jones were compounded by all those draft picks they traded to select them (and also the contract extension they gave Baker last year). Those picks potentially could have been parlayed into the NFL’s most coveted assets: cheap(er), young, and productive players.
Between the Baker and Jones trades, the Falcons lost a net of six draft picks: one first-round pick, two seconds, and three fourths. That’s a lot of potential quality depth gone, but it wouldn't matter so much if the Falcons hit home runs with Baker and Jones. Baker certainly wasn't a home run pick and the jury still is out on Jones for the long term.
It turned out the Falcons could have used all of those picks because the absence of Baker and Jones as well as several injuries on defense exposed the their lack of depth in 2013. That's why it doesn't make sense that some Falcons fans complained about not trading up for Jadaveon Clowney. If anything, the Falcons probably could have used more draft picks but they also needed a bona fide tackle (see Baker and 2012 third-round pick Lamar Holmes, also a miss so far) so they stayed put and selected Jake Matthews.
Before this year’s draft, I asked Dimitroff if the experiences with Baker, Jerry and Jones changed the way he assessed injury risks when evaluating draft prospects. His answer:
"We are very cognizant with that goes on with the injury side of things. It's one of the things as a team-builder you are more concerned about than even the character issue. With the character issue you have a really firm grasp of what the character situation is a lot of times; the injury stuff, you can't really project. You may have background stuff on a player's injury but you never really know how it's going to be when they get into the National Football League. Some have very little (injury) background when they get in the league, and it takes one major injury for that player to not be the player he was. We think about it often and it's a concern of ours and we have one of the best doctor situations here with the Emory Group as well as with Marty Lauzon (director of sports medicine and performance). We do a lot of detailed work on where we are with individuals and we continue to do more and more every year because we learn more about how we are going to do our injury evaluations."
All the Falcons can do now is hope that Jones' foot holds up, Matthews can be the left tackle and Holmes can hold up on the right side.
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