/r/falcons: Home of the Atlanta Falcons

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With the FO having cleared 5m in cap space, it seems pretty clear that the FO is back in the kitchen and looking to nab another player to come rise up with the falcons this season, so I've went ahead to do a writeup of some players in the three positions we're a little thin at - WR, Edge, and CB.

WR3 -

The falcons have a few options at WR, but to be honest, I don't see WR as a top priority for us. We've got a solid WR1/WR2 combo in London and Mooney, and with Pitts playing more of a WR/TE role, he's going to be in the conversation for a good amount of targets. Past that, Bijan is a solid receiving back as well. While McCloud isn't ideal at WR3, the current FA aren't inspiring either.

Michael Thomas - Washed. He's Ok, but is he really better than Mccloud? To me signing him is not worth it. Plus FTS.

Julio Jones - Washed. Love the guy, and he was a joy to watch, but he was just not good in PHI. Was the WR3 in Philly and I can't name a single game where he was significant.

Hunter Renfrow - Dogshit. Played 17 games with the raiders and did fuck all. 255 yards averaging 2 receptions a game.

Well, with WR looked at, it's either a minimal improvement over McCloud, or a player that is washed and decently likely to get injured at WR.

EDGE -

Well, EDGE is our next area of concern, and in all honesty, we can't pay em. EDGE's cost a pretty penny to get one that's actually good, and 5m is not enough to sign a good edge. We would need to do a lot of restructuring and that's going to be bad for the future. We all know how the aints fucked their cap by restructuring, and we've done a lot this offseason already. Besides, current FA's suck and aren't better than Zach Harrison.

Yannick Kgakoue - Washed. 40 PFF rating, and his sack numbers are going down.

Charles Harris - Washed. Was benched on the lions since he just can't produce. Only ever had one solid year in his career.

Good EDGE players don't stay on the market for long, and the scraps currently available aren't great. Zach Harrison has the advantage of being young, and right about the same caliber of DE.

CB -

This is the position I'm most partial too. Getting a good secondary player is not expensive, and there's still a decent amount of talent on the market. I'm going to go a little bit more in depth here since I see this as probably the best position to target.

Xavien Howard - Old and Washed, but willing to take a paycut to play for a contender. He's still a solid ballhawk, but averse to tackling. Character issues, possibly can't pay, and washed. But he does bring in vet cb experience, which could be positive for AJ Terrell. Personally, not my pick at CB.

Patrick Peterson and Adoree Jackson - Washed. Peterson was ok last year, but he's entering his age 35 season iirc. Too old.

Akhello Witherspoon - My favorite FA still on the board. He was by far the best piece of the Ram's secondary last year - and best of all - he's dirt cheap. Last year he played on a 1 year 1m dollar deal. 65 PFF rating as the Rams CB1 - facing off against WR1's. I think he's got some gas in the tank, and even though he certainly makes mistakes - we've got a hell of a safety net. He's talented, cheap, and put up a 65 PFF rating against WR1's. Could be our guy at CB2. Throw him something like 2-2.5m on a one-year prove-it deal for the falcons and see if he meshes with out defense/secondary.

Catch being that other teams haven't signed him yet. Could be them overlooking his season - could be them knowing something more then we know. But with the numbers I've got I like the guy a lot.

LB - Ernest Jones

Just Jones at LB since there's no one else good to take. I know that there's been a thread on the guy alone, but I figure he belongs on this list as well. I think the guy is perfect for a role on the falcons. 86.2 grade on run defense, and 83.1 grade on pass rush grade. The only major flaw is his coverage is poor - 57.5. Considering the weak spot is still the pass rush (Judon, Grady, and Onyemata are solid, but they're old and likely to slow down) I like him a lot as a potential blitzer. Troy Anderson still hasn't developed fully, and the way I see it is that Ernest Jones is a massive upgrade. 82 PFF Rating compared to Anderson's 50. Anderson is just not ready to be a starting LB, and especially not on such a make or break year for us.

What would I do if I were the FO?

1st Priority - Ernest Jones. Ernest Jones would bring in a young pass rusher for us that we desperately need. We have no idea what's going to happen to Judon next year (I'm currently leaning that we're not resigning him, or it's another 1y contract), and with Jarrett and Onyemata only getting older, Ernest Jones could very well be our solution to the anemic pass rush. He is a dawg at pass rush, and his holes at coverage can be offset a little by our safety duo. I'd trade a 6th and Troy Anderson. The way I see it - Anderson's gotten plenty of reps, and I just think he's somewhat of a bust. Physical Freak but can't put it together, and considering we've got Landman and our new rookie in Bertrand, I just don't see the need for Anderson. Jone's is carrying a 3.5m cap hit this year, and I'd likely go ahead and extend him to spread out his cap hit somewhat. Another Pro is he was a team captain at the rams, and I can see him being a leader for our LB's.

2nd Priority - Akhello Witherspoon. Yet another Rams player, but I choose to see it as the Rams letting a ton of talent walk. He's absolutely an upgrade over Mike Hughes at the CB2 slot, and I can see him plugging that hole at CB2. He's got talent, and I think that he's being undervalued currently. Throw him a 2.5m 1 year prove it deal to see if he can do what he did in LA.

This puts us at 1m over the cap if we get Akhello at 2.5. Obviously, some minor restructuring is in order, but 1m is not bad. We're getting a sizable upgrade and answer to our CB2 problem, as well as a top-tier pass rush and run defense lb. I can see Ernest Jones becoming a pretty big part of our pass rush if we pick him up, and can absolutely become a young leader for LB unit.

I'd love to talk to some of yall regarding my takes and discuss what yall would like to see the falcons do with our remaining cap, and as always FTS.