Falcons listed among teams who could make a first-round trade

Every single year, Terry Fontenot answers one question the same way. That question revolves around him trading out of the Falcons’ first-round pick.

“We could move up, down, or stay put… blah-blah-blah.” This year might actually be the one where Fontenot does move out of the 15th pick for a few reasons.

The Falcons own the fewest picks they’ve ever had under Fontenot, just five, with only two in the first 100 selections. The entire landscape of the draft class this year makes it even more plausible as well. Albert Breer recently reported that a lot of teams in the top 10 would like to trade down, but that the difference between picks 5 and 15 or even 4 and 20 doesn’t warrant the move.

“One thing that’s real obvious—Gonna be very difficult to trade down for teams in the Top 10 this year. Lots of teams in that range would like to. But with a class where the difference between 5 and 15 or even 4 and 20 is negligible, tough to see what teams would come up for,” Breer tweeted.

This report from Breer comes after general managers and head coaches told Daniel Jeremiah that this cycle has been described as a “starter” draft.

“I’ve talked to several GM’s and HC’s over the last week & everyone seems to agree– this draft is a starter draft. Maybe not a ton of star power but your goal should be to come away with 3-4 solid starters. They are out there. Go find them,” DJ tweeted.

If the Falcons can trade down without losing much value while picking up a third-round pick, that would be tremendous for Terry Fontenot, which is why ESPN’s Field Yates included Atlanta among teams that could trade down in April’s NFL Draft.

“The Falcons have a substantial need at edge rusher that must be addressed, but it’s worth noting they have only three picks before Round 7 in this draft (plus two selections in the final round). They traded away their third- and sixth-rounders, and they forfeited their fifth-round pick for violating the league’s anti-tampering policy last offseason. And Atlanta is short on salary cap flexibility and could use as many cost-controlled players as possible.

One thing that could help: I still believe Atlanta will at least explore trading quarterback Kirk Cousins for 2025 draft capital, even if the return was modest.”