ATLANTA FALCONS
Round 1 (No. 8 overall) – Drake London, WR, Southern Cal: The 2021 trade of Julio Jones, 2022 suspension of Calvin Ridley and departure of Russell Gage evidently moved wideout to the top of GM Terry Fontenot’s wish list. A 6-4, 219-pounder, London reminds many of Tampa Bay’s Mike Evans, partially due to their basketball backgrounds. London and 2021 first-round TE Kyle Pitts should provide Marcus Mariota quite a pair of capable rebounders.
Round 2 (38, from Panthers through Jets and Giants) – Arnold Ebiketie, DE/ LB, Penn State: After transferring from Temple last season, he posted 91⁄2 sacks and 18 TFLs. He’s not the stoutest guy (6-2, 250), but his specialty – hunting quarterbacks – immediately improves a team that finished with 18 total sacks.
Round 2 (58, from Titans) – Troy Andersen, LB, Montana State: Good athlete (6-4, 243 pounds, 4.4 speed) could take the starting gig left behind by departed Foyesade Oluokun.
Round 3 (74) – Desmond Ridder, QB, Cincinnati: He’s a leader, winner and worker – plus a very good athlete to boot. He’ll need to work on his accuracy.
Round 3 (82, from Colts) – DeAngelo Malone, LB, Western Kentucky : Another candidate to bolster Atlanta’s pass rush, Malone has 25 sacks and 481⁄2 TFLs over the past three seasons.
Round 5 (151) – Tyler Allgeier, RB, BYU
Round 6 (190) – Justin Shaffer, OG,
Georgia
Round 6 (213, compensatory) – John FitzPatrick, TE, Georgia
Grade: C
Considering how important this draft likely is to their anticipated resurrection – including less-than-face-value picks they got for Jones (2nd) and QB Matt Ryan (3rd) – the results feel a little ... meh? London at No. 8 might be the next Mike Evans, moving the chains and terrorizing the red zone. But he’s unlikely to be a game breaker. And there simply appear to be a lot of bets on upside here with a one-year wonder like Penn State DE Arnold Ebiketie and mid-rounders lacking Power Five bona fides. One was QB Desmond Ridder.