Grading Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff: the 2010 draft class

With two draft classes under his belt, the 2010 class should have been a “more comfortable” draft for Thomas Dimitroff and team. He had gone through his rookie class (a good one) and the sophomore class (decent) and picked up an Executive of the Year award in the meantime. The Falcons had posted two straight winning seasons, and this class was needed to continue to build the team into a potential Super Bowl contender. You can see below how the Falcons fared below.

For more information about our grading system, you can read our introductory article here: Overview of grading Thomas Dimitroff as GM.

Falcons 2010 Draft Class

Seahawks 2010 Draft Class

Browns 2010 Draft Class

Giants 2010 Draft Class

Quick Thoughts

Sean Weatherspoon (2): All the potential in the world means nothing if you can’t get on the field. Spoon always seemed to be on the cusp, but would ultimately find himself injured.

Corey Peters (3): A good rotational DT, he was also similarly struck with the injury bug. However, when he played, he was one of the better DTs the Falcons have had.

Joe Hawley (4): It took some time, but Hawley would develop into a decent starter at Center. It’s still surprising the team let go of him in 2015.

Final Tally

Falcons (Total - 18, Average - 2.57): This draft class was pretty bad as the total of 18 is well below average (21) and the team missed in the early rounds. The story of this class was injuries, as Weatherspoon, Peters, Johnson and Meier all saw their potential undone by injuries.

Seahawks (Total - 33, Average - 3.66): Talk about a stark contrast. In fact, this may be one of the greatest draft classes by a single team in the modern era. Getting 5 future starters out of one class - and top-caliber ones in Okung, Thomas, Thurmond and Chancellor - is simply stunning. People will talk about this draft class for a long time to come.

Browns (Total: 24, Average - 3): It’s important to do well with your early picks, and the Browns did just that in this class with Haden and Ward. Though Colt McCoy wouldn’t be a long-time starter, getting a decent backup QB in the third is ok value - hence the 3. It wasn’t a fantastic class, but it is a big improvement over what we’ve seen from them normally.

Giants (Total: 18, Average - 3): The Giants did well with JPP and Joseph was a great find in the second round. The remainder of the class was forgettable, but the team got two quality starters early on.