Draft season is upon us ladies and gentlemen! With the NFL Draft less than a month away, I thought it would be a good time to drop a full 7 round mock; with trades! But this year, I wanted to do it a bit differently. Instead of your basic 7 round mock where you scroll through pages of picks and find your team’s selections with relatively no commentary, I decided to break the mock-up and do an article on each individual team’s haul! Giving you a breakdown of what each team brought in and how I think it could help. So without further adieu, let’s kick things off!
With the 8th pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, the Atlanta Falcons select…
- Ja’Marr Chase, WR, LSU- TRADE with Carolina(1st round)
- Joseph Ossai, EDGE, Texas(2nd round)
- Elijah Molden, CB, Washington(3rd round)
- Trey Sermon, RB, Ohio St- TRADE with Carolina(3rd round)
- Pete Werner, LB, Ohio St(4th round)
- James Wiggins, S, Cincinnati(5th round)
- Cole Van Lanen, OT, Wisconsin(5th round)
- John Bates, TE, Boise St(5th round)
- Sadarius Hutcherson, OG, South Carolina(6th round)
- Elijah Mitchell, RB, Louisiana(6th round)
TRADE ALERT!!! The Falcons made a trade to move back with the Panthers. I go over the details of the trade in the Panthers article so go check that out! As for the Falcons and their draft day “needs”, I feel I am a little higher on them as a team than most. I don’t think they need to pay a premium for OL talent when they did that in 2019 with their 2 firsts. I think their main focus should be defense and BPA.
With 5 QBs in the first 7 picks, the Falcons benefit by having a talented player fall into their laps. While WR is certainly not a need, it will be hard to pass on Ja’Marr Chase at that spot. Chase is a dynamic WR that has the potential to be top 5 in this league, so why not add him to the team and let him eventually take over for Julio? This offense could prove to be unstoppable with Chase alongside Julio and Ridley. On top of that? They added one of my favorite RBs in Trey Sermon. We saw what Sermon was capable of the last few games of the season. With Gurley gone, Sermon could see himself as the feature back very quickly and add a dynamic threat to their run game.
From there, the Falcons focus mostly on defense as they snag Joseph Ossai in the 2nd round. Ossai is an edge rusher, but I believe he has the ability to play a traditional LB role as well. Either way, having an athletic and versatile player like him will elevate the defense. They also grab a fast-rising corner, Elijah Molden, and an athletic LB, Pete Werner.
Along with all their depth, the Falcons are able to load up on a ton of talent. This team is ready to win now, in my opinion, so getting players that can contribute right away is huge. The Falcons could contend for the division once again!
