With ‘The Impact Draft,’ Falcons changed their ways and walked away with contributors from each day

A different approach when it came to the consensus looks like it will prove fruitful for Atlanta.

In Terry Fontenot’s final pre-draft presser, he selected his buzzword for this year’s draft: “Impact.”

The Atlanta Falcons general manager delivered that impact.

Is this a premature statement? Undoubtedly, but this class projects to be Fontenont’s most instantly gratifying yet. The team brass took a different approach than in years past; they did not reach for prospects they fell in love with and picked the best players from schools with brand recognition.

In years past, Fontenot seemingly couldn’t help himself when the team got outside of the first round. Project after project, reach after reach, and Atlanta still hopes that most of these come to fruition multiple years into their rookie deals. The team made a legitimate effort to curb this trend, and the results can be seen by comparing this class against the all-mighty consensus board (curated by the illustrious Arif Hassan).

Per the board, Atlanta did not reach for a single prospect and walked away with multiple “steals.” Jalon Walker, Xavier Watts, Billy Bowman, and Jack Nelson were all ranked higher as prospects than their eventual selections. James Pearce Jr. was 26th on the board, meaning Atlanta’s timing to trade up couldn’t have been better, and that applies to Watts in a greater capacity. This is the first time in Fontenot’s career that he did not reach on a single player based on consensus board value.

Most have joked that Eagles Howie Roseman trademarked the process of following the consensus board and allowing other teams to overthink prospects, and he just did it again this cycle. This was Terry Fontenot’s “Roseman moment,” and if his staff is able to capitalize on it, he may survive a bumpy start to his Falcons tenure the same way Roseman did in Philadelphia.

Unsurprisingly, the team injected some speed into the defense for new Defensive Coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, but these are more than raw athletes. The latest crop of Falcons are seasoned players with heavy snap counts under their belts. Each of them fills a need and will have an opportunity to compete for a starting or critical rotation role.

Following the consensus board doesn’t guarantee anything, but this draft illustrates a culture shift in the team’s process. Based on the results from the last few drafts, a tweak like this was necessary. The Falcons got out of their comfort zone and did some more self-scouting, and we saw the result this weekend. Another notable trend the team broke was only selecting one player from the Senior Bowl (Billy Bowman), an event Fontenot has heavily poached from.

We won’t know anything until the pads come on, and the Falcons took a high-leverage swing with their trades. Still, after years of playing it safe and saying “ahh shucks” at the consistent strikeouts in free agency, something had to be done, and I applaud the effort.

This is the best attempt at setting the team up for success via the draft in Fontenot’s career, and now it will be on Raheem and his staff to make the most of it.