Earlier this week, the Falcons sent quarterbacks coach Charles London, wide receivers coach Dave Brock, and assistant director of college scouting Dwaune Jones to see Justin Fields’ second pro day. The team has sent six top coachs or front office personnel to take a closer look at one of the top quarterbacks in the class—Arthur Smith, Terry Fontenot and Dave Ragone went last time—and it sounds like they’re about to do the same thing with Trey Lance.
The consensus is that the Falcons are down to deciding whether to trade back, take a top non-quarterback prospect like Kyle Pitts or Penei Sewell, or select the best quarterback on their board. Given that one of Lance or Fields will be available—and possibly both, if Kyle Shanahan is truly making heart eyes at Mac Jones—it makes sense to ensure you know where you stand on both.
As they did with Justin Fields’ second pro day at Ohio State, the #Falcons will send three different coaches/scouts than the first pro day, putting six sets of eyes on each QB. Atlanta has gotten calls about the No. 4 pick, and is thoroughly evaluating options if it stays put.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) April 17, 2021
We’ve covered off on why Lance might be intriguing to Atlanta in the past, but the long and short of it is that he has perhaps the most impressive toolkit in this class in terms of arm strength, athleticism, savvy, speed and size. He’s not the most experienced option in this class and played just one game last year owing to COVID-19, but clearly has the talent on hand to be special, and given that Atlanta would likely sit a rookie quarterback for most of or the entire 2021 season, Lance would have the chance to learn and step into the starting job in 2022 or 2023. His ability and youth have to make him tempting for Atlanta if they have any intention of snagging their quarterback of the future this year, but the Falcons remain the biggest wildcard in the draft at the moment.
Expect the team to send a similar contingent to Monday’s pro day as they did with Fields, and unless we get any late leaks as to what this team is thinking, continue to be ready for anything on draft night.