The Falcons didn’t sign any big-money free agents, leading to the perception they didn’t sign any good ones. In response, new coach Dan Quinn and holdover GM Thomas Dimitroff have essentially said they know better than the critics.
"I'm not concerned about winning free agency," Quinn told AJC columnist Jeff Schultz.
“We spent a lot more time evaluating these players than people outside this building and we feel very confident about our approach,” Dimitroff said.
They are right. Hardly anyone offering an outside opinion about the players signed by the Falcons has as much data about those players as Quinn, Dimitroff and the rest of the team’s football people. Ultimately the games will be played, the results tallied and they will answer to their boss, team owner Arthur Blank, who must answer to his customers.
However, included among the group of people who know as much as Quinn and Dimitroff about the free agents they signed are the football personnel people for the 31 other teams in the league. Their collective opinions shape the market for free agents, and probably no NFL media type does a better job of gauging those opinions than Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (my former colleague).
McGinn does an annual free-agent ranking based on his conversations with scouts and executives, with players rated on "order of attractiveness based mainly on ability, production, age, health and off-field factors." Here's the free agents signed by the Falcons who appear in McGinn's rankings:
- Adrian Clayborn, No. 3 among 4-3 defensive ends. McGinn comment: "Clayborn (one year, $3M, $750,000 guaranteed) . . . is limited by not being able to straighten his right arm because of Erb's Palsy."
- O'Brien Schofield, No. 5 among 4-3 defensive ends. McGinn comment: "(Got) one year at $1.7M ($255,000 guaranteed)."
- Justin Durant, No. 3 among 4-3 outside linebackers. McGinn comment: "(O)ff to a great start in Dallas before suffering a season-ending pectoral injury in Game 6. Atlanta plucked him for $10.8M over three years ($3M guaranteed).
- Brooks Reed, No. 5 among 3-4 outside linebackers. McGinn comment: "Reed, another hard charger with limited rush skill, will try to improve Atlanta's 31st-ranked rush. His five-year, $22.5M deal contained $9M million guaranteed."
- Mike Person, listed among "others" outside of the top 10 tackles. McGinn comment: "A deep backup, Person's three-year deal was worth $3.35M ($500,000 guaranteed)."
The market says there's not an obvious impact player among this group (two departing Falcons rank higher: linebacker Sean Weatherspoon and defensive tackle Corey Peters). What Quinn and Dimitroff are saying is they have found value where others haven’t. The Falcons are going to take “the right group of guys” who have “competitiveness, toughness, passion” and play with a “style and attitude” so that signing the best talent on the market isn’t necessary to win.
Again, there's nothing wrong with this approach. A skeptic (hand raised) might say Quinn and Dimitroff are putting a positive spin on a situation in which the team really couldn't splurge on high-priced free agents because Dimitroff's front office spent money inefficiently in the past. But even if the Falcons had the wherewithal to splurge on the best players, they'd still have to fill in the edges with some undervalued assets.
Plus, as Quinn told Schultz: “It’s still March.” Let's wait until the Falcons draft some prospects so we can scrutinize those decisions, too.
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