Are the Falcons a better football team after the 2020 NFL Draft?

The 2020 NFL Draft has come and gone. We spent months projecting and guessing. We pored over scouting reports featuring phrases like “high football IQ” and “relentless motor.” We lost sleeping wondering whether Thomas Dimitroff and company would mortgage the future of the franchise to save their jobs. But in the end, in spite of our worst expectations, the front office did their homework and executed well, turning in a solid draft haul. Hat tip to them.

The Falcons’ 2020 draft class is heavy on defense and light on low ceilings. If that was the framework the team had in mind headed into the draft, and I have to think it was, they certainly had the right idea.

The Falcons arguably landed their CB1 of the future, a DT/DE that will factor heavily as a rotational player from Week 1, a linebacker who will likely start from Week 1, and their center of the future. Add in a safety to back up Keanu Neal and a rookie punter we can affectionately call “The Hof” without getting strange looks. That’s ... not bad. Not bad at all.

Look, I’m just as shocked as the next guy that Dimitroff and his merry band of scouts didn’t figure out a way to screw this up. I thought for sure he’d get nervous and pull the trigger on some foolish trade in an effort to go “all in” in 2020. Instead, the Falcons were laser-focused and deliberate. And what’s more, they stayed true to some of the strategies they found success with in the past (i.e., draft your guy, even if it’s a slight reach).

Because this draft wasn’t flashy, it will have its critics. That’s fair, even if it’s short-sighted. At the end of the day, we won’t know the true value of this draft class for another 2-3 years.

What say you, Falcoholics? Are the Falcons a better football team than they were Thursday afternoon? Discuss!