Never should “surprise” be the outcome when the Atlanta Falcons and trading up in the NFL Draft is mentioned. General manager Thomas Dimitroff has practiced this draft day strategy many times—more than most.
Still, when a personnel-decision maker blurts it out in the press, it's worthy despite any specific situation. It exactly what Mr. Dimitroff said recently at his pre-draft presser, as cited by D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“The player that we are going to acquire has driven that most of the time,” Dimitroff said. “Of course, we are always thinking about cost. Where our team is. Where our team’s roster is.
“What we did in ‘11 [for Jones], was not only the player, but where we were as an organization. Even last year, moving up for Takk [McKinley], we had a lot of discussions about where we were with our pass rush.”
As previously mentioned, the Falcons—under Dimitroff—are extremely familiar with trading up in the draft. When they want a guy, they go get a guy.
Of course, Julio Jones was one of the first examples of the Falcons “go get 'em” attitude. Per usual, though, they'll never look to relent too much value while attempting to move up.
“Of course, we have to look at the compensation and be realistic about it,” Dimitroff said. “We pretty well know when we are looking to move up five, six, eight, 10 or 21 [spots], what it is going to cost us. We get our heads around that a lot sooner than on draft day.”
Atlanta owns the 26th overall selection in the 2018 NFL Draft which comes your way on Thursday, April 26. The team owns one pick per round aside from the seventh in which two picks are slated to go by way of the Falcons.
Whether or not Thomas Dimitroff makes that aggressive move remains to be seen.
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