What Is The Most Memorable Draft Trade In Falcons History?

The Falcons have made a ton of draft day trades over the years, including a few famous ones under the current regime. That does assume you consider any trade involving Sam Baker famous and not infamous.

When this thought popped into my head, I went back through the history of this franchise to find all the draft trades of note over the years. There are many worth chronicling, but for the purposes of this exercise, I'm going to pick just the one that is most memorable. There's only one choice in my mind.

That would be the 2001 trade for Michael Vick. The Falcons had the 5th pick in the draft but coveted Vick, whose athleticism and fantastic arm made him deeply intriguing. Atlanta elected to trade their 1st and 3rd round picks, plus receiver and returner Tim Dwight, to the San Diego Chargers in exchange for the first overall pick, which they spent on Vick. The Chargers burned their 3rd on cornerback Tay Cody, but that fifth pick went to LaDanian Tomlinson, a likely future Hall of Famer at the running back position.

This trade is memorable for its repercussions. The Falcons were an exciting team with Michael Vick, a team that brought in a ton of new fans and made an NFC Championship Game run. On the other hand, Vick never realized his potential in Atlanta and the disastrous 2007 offseason where he was arrested and later jailed led to an equally disastrous 2007 season.

The franchise rebounded before cratering again in 2013, so it's clear that the trade for Vick did not cripple the Atlanta Falcons. Indeed, you can argue they were relevant for longer than they had been in a great many years, even if it ended poorly. The trade remains deeply memorable because of how it affected the franchise in the early to mid 2000's and how readily we can still debate Vick's impact and whether the Falcons should have made the swap in the first place.

Weigh in down in the comments on the most memorable trade. Let's not go crazy with the Vick hate, either.