After winning one more game this season, Atlanta will pick outside the top ten for the first time in years.
The Atlanta Falcons last made a first round pick outside of the top ten all the way back in 2020, when they turned the 16th selection into the excellent A.J. Terrell. In the four years since then, they’ve picked fourth once (Kyle Pitts, 2021) and eighth three years in a row (Drake London, Bijan Robinson, and Michael Penix).
After the Falcons finished 8-9, they’re pretty well locked in to the 15th pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. In what’s viewed as a fairly weak class outside of a handful of positions, Atlanta will look to land a player who can help push them to their first winning record since 2017 (sorry, dead horse, but this beating will continue), whether it be on defense or along their offensive line with Drew Dalman hitting free agency and some uncertainty around whether the Falcons will return both Jake Matthews and Kaleb McGary.
With a limited selection of picks this year owing to trades and the NFL pulling a pick for the now-even-worse Kirk Cousins tampering case, Atlanta really needs to make that first round selection count. If it’s helpful, here’s who has gone at pick No. 15 over the past decade.
2024: EDGE Laiatu Latu
2023: EDGE Will McDonald
2022: OG Kenyon Green
2021: QB Mac Jones
2020: WR Jerry Jeudy
2019: QB Dwayne Haskins
2018: OT Kolton Miller
2017: S Malik Hooker
2016: WR Corey Coleman
We’re months away from finding out who the Falcons will land with that selection, or if they’ll elect to trade down and amass more picks if they’re not in love with who’s there. What we absolutely do know is that the Falcons can’t afford to miss on their first rounder in 2025, not with the roster still in need of a significant amount of help after yet another lost season.