/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/63668629/usa_today_11591893.0.jpg)
We’re getting closer and closer to the Falcons making another first-round pick to bolster their roster, and the team’s top beat reporter has made his final guess as to where that goes.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s D. Orlando Ledbetter has sent LSU CB Greedy Williams to the Falcons in his last 2019 mock draft.
Here’s his reasoning for the move.
This is the move for the Falcons. Don’t trust them taking an offensive lineman here in Oklahoma’s Cody Ford. It’s too high to take Dexter Lawrence, who’s a two-down player at 342 pounds and can’t really take Montez Sweat, who has a heart issue and is dropping. It would be the third defensive end over the past five drafts. Williams is the safest pick and fills a big need.
Williams told me Tuesday that “I had a great conversation with [the Falcons],” he said. “I feel like, if I’m there, they’ve got me.”
If he’s indeed the pick, it signals that the Falcons wish to either emulate the shutdown 2016 Broncos secondary, which hoisted Aqib Talib, Chris Harris Jr. and 2014 first-round pick Bradley Roby, or that they wish to move on from 2013 first-round corner Desmond Trufant sooner than later.
One thought comes to mind that, if Williams falls a bit in the first round into the twenties, the Falcons could hop up and use their mid-round picks to get back in the first and secure him, but he could also go much earlier than that. It’s just hard to tell since this class of cornerbacks isn’t top-heavy.
D-Led also lists Williams as one of his five players on the Falcons’ radar. That list also includes Houston DT Ed Oliver, Clemson DTs Christian Wilkins and Dexter Lawrence and Oklahoma OL Cody Ford.
We’ll see how this all plays out Thursday night, and if the Falcons really add to their secondary with a tantalizing, Dan Quinn-friendly corner.