I'd feel bad for Matty Ice if I wasn't doing a triumphant Irish jig in my living room right now. Sports Illustrated's Don Banks professes to be bewildered but says a reliable league source told him the Falcons will pass on Matt Ryan even if Glenn Dorsey is off the board:
No Ryan or Dorsey to the Falcons? Huh? Now I'm really confused. The Falcons don't need a running back (McFadden) with Michael Turner and Jerious Norwood around, and they don't need a defensive end (Chris Long or Vernon Gholston) with their recent heavy investments in John Abraham and Jamaal Anderson. Who or what does that leave them with? Either trading downward or taking USC defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis?
Listen up, draft pundits. Despite being paid exorbitant amounts of money to predict the draft, you are wrong with startling regularity. You also tend to overvalue certain players and place those same players on teams that clearly don't want them. While this is far from a definitive report, I'd just like to point out that I've been saying the team wouldn't draft Ryan since, I dunno, February.
Though Comrade Dimitroff did everything but bite the head off a Matt Ryan action figure (with intagible grip!), everyone kept trotting out the common knowledge that the Falcons needed and wanted a quarterback that high in the draft. Is it too much to ask that you might, I dunno, look at the team you're predicting a draft for?
Anyways, everyone can sleep a little easier tonight knowing this. This really ups the odds that the Falcons go with Brian Brohm, Joe Flacco, Josh Johnson, Matt Flynn, or notorious gunslinger Dave the Falconer. Given the amount of money it would take to sign Ryan at the #3 spot, this is a wise decision that will look a hell of a lot better if some desperate team trades up with the Falcons. With that, the team might get even more draft picks to use on restocking a depleted team.
God, I can't wait for this draft.