A new Falcons regime faces their first draft test
We’ll get clues as to the team’s priorities when they trade or make picks in the coming days.
ATLANTA, GA - JANUARY 15: The Atlanta Falcons run onto the field during pregame festivities against the Green Bay Packers during their 2011 NFC divisional playoff game at Georgia Dome on January 15, 2011 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) | Getty Images The initial draft class is a crucial one for a new regime, and that’s no less true for the Matt Ryan, Ian Cunningham, and Kevin Stefanski cerberus in Flowery Branch. When you nail a core set of picks, as Thomas Dimitroff did in 2008 despite an uneven class overall, it can set the team up for success for multiple seasons.
Getting Matt Ryan right defined an entire era of Falcons football and bought Dimitroff more than a decade in Atlanta, and useful players like Sam Baker, Curtis Lofton, and Kroy Biermann were key pieces of the initial five year run of success that saw the Falcons pull together five straight winning seasons and four playoff appearances. When you largely miss, as Terry Fontenot did in 2021, that can have knock-on effects that help to doom an entire era. Only Kyle Pitts and Drew Dalman really stood out from that class, and injuries and stretches of shaky play helped ensure Pitts wasn’t really successful in Atlanta after a promising rookie season until his fifth year.
Almost everyone else was a short-term starter, role player, or disappointment. The Falcons had persistent problems filling roster gaps throughout Fontenot’s tenure in no small part because those early picks didn’t prove to be plus additions, though that’s hardly the whole story. The Falcons of 2026 are in a very different situation than the Falcons of 2008 and 2021.
While both teams had tight cap situations, both also had more picks to work with. Dimitroff ended up making 11 picks and Fontenot nine, while Ian Cunningham will have five to work with initially unless he can flip players or picks for more. That puts a little less pressure on this class—especially since Atlanta’s without a first round pick for the first time since 2012—but I think Cunningham himself would tell you it still matters a great deal.