The Thursday Falcon News Wrap

by Dave the Falconer on Apr 17, 2008 12:09 PM EDT in Falcons News

We're jumping right in this morning with some wide-ranging Falcon type news.

1. Mark Bradley of the AJC is advocating the drafting of Matt Ryan, calling him the best pure college passer he's ever seen. Most Falcons fans in the comments disagree with him.

I don't blame Bradley for advocating for a guy he likes, and at least he's not going to throw a level-10 hissy if they go in a different direction. I'm just failing to understand why Ryan, a guy with not-stupendous arm strength and decision making, is worth the gigantic amount of money it'll take to get him at the #3 spot. Sign me up for Flacco or Brohm, please.

2. Jimmy Williams is being a huge question mark again. After walking away from minicamp, there were no sightings of our much-maligned safety over the next two days. My best guess is that he was told he'd be working as the #3 free safety in camp and decided to take off. Mike Smith is handling it more diplomatically than I would, but it's clear that Jimmy needs to shape up or get the hell out of Flowery Branch.

3. The Falcons (years ago, now) got Chauncey Davis and Michael Koenen to sign tenders. Davis likely should've gotten more run last year as Jamaal Anderson flailed around uselessly on the field, but Anderson should still get every chance to start this year. Davis makes a capable third end, if nothing else.

Koenen, of course, is a strong-legged, far-punting, ass-kicking machine who needs to be kept around. Not a difficult decision for the Falcons, I think.

4. I picked up DT Kentwan Balmer with my latest pick in the SBN Mock; you can check it out over at Mocking The Draft. While we've all seen that guy who explodes his senior year and turns out to be a total failure at the NFL level, I think Balmer can be a younger, less fragile Rod Coleman within two years. I can't pass that shit up.

5. Because I love all of my readers, I've secured both days of the NFL Draft for live-blogging. If you want lazy, half-assed analysis and rude comments on other teams' picks, you're going to want to listen to my drunken rantings on April 26 and 27. How's that for an ad pitch?

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by Saintsational on Apr 17, 2008 8:12 PM EDT 0 recs

VT

Just a thought, but Jimmy Williams is a VT alum, perhaps his absence has something to do with the anniversary of the tragic shootings.

At least, that's certainly what I'd like to believe.

Friends don't let Friends draft Matt Ryan.

by iRonin on Apr 18, 2008 1:47 AM EDT 0 recs

He said he had a personal reason

And if he says that, I'm willing to believe it until we hear otherwise. His attitude in the past just indicated to me that he might be skipping out, though.

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by Dave the Falconer on Apr 18, 2008 2:12 AM EDT up 0 recs

Balmer huh?

What was the deciding factor that made you pick him over Red Bryant? Just wondering.

by Jesse on Apr 18, 2008 7:28 AM EDT up 0 recs

Two reasons

I love Bryant as a run plugger, but I envision him as more of a late second to early third round pick and would likely consider him there. Ideally, I would make the selection of Balmer and pair him with Bryant a round later, since they offer completely different ends of the defensive tackle coin.

My other chief concern was that Bryant can disappear at times and fits the big n' slow mold of a DT a little too closely. I felt like Balmer was the better value where we were picking.

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by Dave the Falconer on Apr 18, 2008 12:02 PM EDT up 0 recs

Can't argue with that.

Especially seeing how Balmer, although projected as a first rounder, fell to us in the second. I guess the only thing I would then ask is why not go to a different position with that pick, and maybe pick Bryant up at the end of the second with the third pick of the round?

Ha, my own argument to that would be which position would I go? If say, I chose to go after another o-lineman, I surely would not get the same value as Balmer. In the SBN draft OL went quick and plenty during the first round leaving very few picks worthy of the second round. I suppose you could then look at the DE spot just to put a little pressure on Anderson and Abraham, but still, the second round would be a little high for me to pull that one given the value there. Then again, maybe we shouldn't press our luck and really should go DE for that pick.

Either way, it was an interesting pick.

by Jesse on Apr 18, 2008 3:00 PM EDT 0 recs