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How Would You Grade Thomas Dimitroff And The Falcons Front Office?

We've got a mark in mind.

By Dave Choate
Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

Today's sponsored question from Marshall Faulk is one that should bring in a torrent of responses. I'm not expecting most of them to be positive.

Injuries aren't something you can readily predict, so the fact that the Falcons are now down to their third-string center can't be held against the front office. Devin Hester was a good signing and Jon Asamoah had been the picture of stability and serviceable right guard play until his injury last week, so both of those signings work in the team's favor. Jake Matthews hasn't been great but has loads of promise, and the rookie class in general has some nice pieces. Dwight Lowery was a nice, low-cost signing that has paid significant dividends.

For all that, it's tough to argue against the notion that Thomas Dimitroff, Scott Pioli and the scouting department dropped the ball. Paul Soliai has been improving, but he and Tyson Jackson were signed to good-sized deals to stop the run, and they largely haven't been able to do so. The team failed to acquire a pass rusher, they spent multiple draft picks (Ra'Shede Hageman, Dezmen Southward, Ricardo Allen, Tyler Starr, etc.) on players who we all knew wouldn't be immediate contributors, and they elected to sail into 2014 without a ton of depth at a couple of key positions like tight end and linebacker. These are the kinds of moves you make when you expect to be around a while, and when you expect that a handful of key acquisitions and a return to health will lead to a greatly increased win total, which is something I think many of us were cautiously optimistic about. With the advantage of hindsight, this all now looks misguided, even if I believe this draft class will eventually prove to be one of the best in the last decade. Given the front office's uncertain future, it might be a new regime reaping those rewards.

Given everything, I'll give the Falcons a C- for the last offseason. How about you?

Join the #GMCPlaybook discussion at sbnation.com/sponsored-gmc-playbook and on Twitter by following @thisisgmc & @marshallfaulk.

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