The Atlanta Falcons are “open to moving” in election no. 4 of this month’s NFL draft, said a source for ESPN’s Adam Schefter, as the first three draft picks appear to be blocked.
The quarters are expected to be taken with the first three selections.
Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence is expected to be picked up by the Jacksonville Jaguars in 1st place, while the New York Jets have signaled that they will draft a 2nd-ranked quarterback when they traded Sam Darnold to the Carolina Panthers on Monday. . Meanwhile, the San Francisco 49ers traded from number 12 to number 3 and said they did so with the intention of creating a defender.
Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot said in February that he believes the No. 1 spot. 4 is “a primordial place.”
“There are so many different scenarios,” Fontenot told a news conference at the time. “There will be some very good players there at number 4. We can move up, we can move down and get more options.
“There are just a lot of different scenarios to really go through.”
In February, Fontenot said that falcons always have conversations with teams, but that no matter what they do, there will be “good value.”
One of these scenarios could be a quarterback – from anyone who stays on the board after the first three selections. The Falcons could also look at Florida offensive player Kyle Pitts or the best lineman in the Oregon draft Feather Sewell. Less likely would be the overflow of their reception room with Ja’Marr Chase from LSU or Jaylen Waddle from Alabama or DeVonta Smith.
Up to five defenders are expected to be selected in the first round this year: Lawrence, Zach Wilson from BYU, Mac Jones from Alabama, Trey Lance from North Dakota and Justin Fields from Ohio.
The Falcons do not immediately need a defender with Ryan Ryan in charge, although he will be 36 when the 202 season begins. A decision already made by Atlanta is to restructure Ryan’s contract, turning $ 21 million from his base salary into this one. year in a signing bonus spread over three seasons, increasing the number of the salary cap to $ 48,662,500 for 2022.
Of course, at this time of year, almost every team listens to calls about possible transactions – some serious, some not – as teams try to determine the best possible outcome for their franchise.
“We don’t want to be with this team very often,” Fontenot said. “But we will take advantage of this and be open to all possibilities.”