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Here’s something you haven’t heard in a while: The Falcons are set to get multiple compensatory picks in the 2019 NFL Draft. Things could still change, but that would mark the first time in a great many moons that Atlanta picked up extra draft selections via that method.
As the Falcons have lost Dontari Poe, Adrian Clayborn, and Taylor Gabriel and only signed Brandon Fusco, they are currently entitled to
Per Over The Cap and Twitter’s sleuths, Atlanta could be entitled to a fourth round draft choice for losing Dontari Poe and a fifth round draft choice for losing Adrian Clayborn. That would put the Falcons at nine selections heading into next year’s class, which would give them a chance to move around on the board and trade up for players at key positions of need in what figures to be another year of shoring up a small handful of critical holes. That’s only if they don’t go out and start signing free agents tomorrow, though, and there’s certainly no guarantee they won’t.
If the Falcons do continue to quietly push their way through March and early April, though, I wanted you to know there was some long-term upside to doing so. Hopefully Atlanta’s plan for the defensive line will see them adding cheap, high-upside talent that will enable success in 2018 without erasing those compensatory picks for 2019.