This Is How We Got To Where We Are Now (In My Opinion)

[Clark Kent™]

Falcons 2012 Draft

(55) - Peter Konz - Center

(84) - Lamar Holmes - OT

Without a 1st and 4th round pick because of the Julio trade, it was imperative that we hit on the picks that we did have and we unfortunately did not. Konz and Holmes are both busts up to this point. Yea Holmes showed SOME improvement, but he did not leave me with the idea that he was the future at either RT/LT position.

Falcons 2012 Season

We went 13-3 and lost in the NFCCG 28-24. We were 10 yards away from a Super Bowl appearance. Some will point to the Julio trade as a set back, but without Julio we aren't anywhere close to winning that game. He had 11 receptions 182 yards and 2 TD's in that game. He was a HUGE reason we were in the position to win.

Falcons 2013 Offseason

So after being 10 yards away from a Super Bowl my thought process was that we would bringing in more quality free agents. Maybe trade up for an impact player early in the draft or even trade a future pick. I'm not saying sacrifice absolutely everything, but trading a future draft pick to get an impact player makes sense to me when your team is that close to being in the Super Bowl.

We released our best pass rusher which was already head scratching to me when we were among the bottom of the league in sacks that year. And we signed Osi Umenyiora. That move is pointless to me. Osi and Abe pretty much cancel each other out. Or maybe we even downgraded. Abe should have been on our roster paired up with Osi. We would have had 2 veteran DE's who can rush the passer. At the very worst it would give us the opportunity to keep both of them fresh throughout the season and insurance if one were to get injured. Like how Abe was injured in the playoffs that year.

Falcons 2013 Draft

I was right about the idea of us possibly trading up. And i don't really have a problem with the fact that we traded up for Trufant because he has been awesome. My problem is with taking Alford with our 2nd round pick as well. So we just tied up our first 3 picks on 2 CB's. Not only that, but everyone knew that Alford was not going to beat out Asante. So after trading a 3rd to move up for Trufant, we took Alford in the 2nd when we knew he would be no higher than 4th CB on our roster because he isn't a slot CB. McClain just came off a great season at this point.

And when Asante got hurt during the season, the first person to switch to LCB was Robert McClain in our base defense. And we went to nickel, THEN Alford played on the outside. That is why i was not happy about taking Alford after spending a 1st and 3rd for Trufant.

The players available at that 2nd round pick who i liked: Eddie Lacy, Travis Kelce, Tyran Mathieu, Larry Warford. I know hindsight is 20/20 but this stings a lot for me because i liked all of these guys. Especially Lacy and Kelce. I talked both of those guys up constantly on this board.

Drafting Kelce would have allowed another weapon to our offense. We could have ran 2 tight end sets with Gonzalez. And allow him to learn from Gonzo's final year in the NFL. You can not put a value on that. (Atleast we did choose Toilolo to learn from Gonzo but he isn't the player Kelce is)

Drafting Lacy would have given us another power back who can carry the load with the aging RB with tons of tread on his tires already. Lacy could have kept him fresh and been insurance incase of an injury (which happened)

Draft Larry Warford would have shored up our RG spot that was a HUGE liability for us.

Again i know hindsight is 20/20 but i was extremely disappointed that we didn't take one of these guys.

Now lets look at what other teams did when they were close to winning a Super Bowl

Broncos 2014 offseason

After losing to the Seahawks in the Super Bowl the Broncos went out and guy quality free agents:

WR Emmanuel Sanders

DE Demarcus Ware

S T.J. Ward

CB Aqib Talib

While all we did was add Osi and cut Abe which basically did nothing for our defense; the Broncos snagged 3 very good defensive players in FA and the season isn't over yet, but as of right now Denvers defense has looked much improved from last season.

Seahawks 2013 Offseason

After losing to us in the playoffs the Seahawks went out and got quality free agents:

DE Cliff Avril

DE Michael Bennet

WR Percy Harvin (traded 1st round pick to acquire)

As we all know the Seahawks had one of the best pass rushes in the entire league and Percy Harvin was a significant player for them as they went on to win the Super Bowl. I think almost everyone on this board would have wanted Cliff Avril or Michael Bennet over Osi. Especially Avril. That guy was awesome in Detroit.

I realize all of this is in the past and you can't do anything about it now, but to me this is where it all went wrong.

[zekeyboy1]

Yep 2012 draft was a HUGE setback. 2913 looks iffy too imo. I mean why draft Tru AND THEN Alford, just to run a fkn zone defense? You can find zone cb's in the later rounds. Wouldn't a pass rusher, olineman, or even Eddie Lacy(who was picked right after Alford. smh) make more sense with that 2nd rdr? Just dumb......

"2013"

[Peyton]

The 2013 off season never made any sense. He let so many core guys go, and then signed three guys who were more done than the guys he let go.

[Clark Kent™]

The 2013 off season never made any sense. He let so many core guys go, and then signed three guys who were more done than the guys he let go.

I wouldn't have had a problem bringing Osi in if we kept Abe. There are a ton of benefits to having both of them, but to just swap them made no sense. We had one of the worst pass rushes in the league that year. And we carried over $7m in cap space so money wasn't the issue.

And as for Sjax, i definitely thought he was an upgrade over Turner, but the fact is he had a ton of miles on his legs and we had zero insurance if he went down.

[Clark Kent™]

Yep 2012 draft was a HUGE setback. 2913 looks iffy too imo. I mean why draft Tru AND THEN Alford, just to run a fkn zone defense? You can find zone cb's in the later rounds. Wouldn't a pass rusher, olineman, or even Eddie Lacy(who was picked right after Alford. smh) make more sense with that 2nd rdr? Just dumb......

"2013"

Yeah the Alford pick is something that will forever bother me because its not like i just look backed at who was available on the draft sheet and said "oh hey he would have been better". We could do that for every draft, but those are some guys that I and many others really liked so it makes it that much worse when we pass on them and they are looking like studs.

[Clark Kent™]

Too long of a read i'm guessing

[Mega Flare]

Answer: responding to the Green Bay lack of pass rush by mortgaging the future for a WR.

[RS91]

Too long of a read i'm guessing

Probably. I agree with all of it though, so you have that going for you! People love blaming the Julio trade for all of our problems, but that is just an easy scapegoat (that I have a hunch wouldn't be harped on so much by our fanbase if Cincy had taken Julio and we ended up with AJ but that's a discussion for another day) and doesn't really address any of the totally unrelated issues that have contributed to what got us to where we are.

Failing to really make any significant moves in the 2013 offseason was easily the biggest mistake Dimitroff has made as our GM and is probably getting him and Smitty fired soon. We knew that we needed to address the passrush, run blocking, running back, and covering TEs. We then proceeded to swap Abe for Osi and sign a washed up Steven Jackson. It's like Dimitroff thought that the only problem with this team was Michael Turner's waistline.

[jidady]

Too long of a read i'm guessing

Nitpick: You compare Denver 2014 off-season to our 2013 off-season. It's a really good post, though.

Like you, I'm firmly in the "Thank God for Julio" camp, but our draft choices have been frustrating. Dimitroff has that same penchant as Dan Reeves. He swings for the fences too often, demonstrating too much confidence in his own opinions. Southward is only the latest example. Dimitroff is like a 200 strikeout hitter whose OPS fluctuates wildly. I guess what I'm saying is that he's Chris Johnson.

[Romfal]

And why did we draft Konz anyway? we had no faith in Hawley, obviously, even tho we drafted the guy to be the backup center, a guy we decided to start over Konz because he is such a bust.

2012 Draft

Take

Lavonte David, 2nd round(we had ******* Mike Peterson as our 3rd LB that year, its not ******* rocket science). Could have used another guy next to Spoon for sure, Dent wasnt the answer, we could all see it, but no.

3rd round

TY Hilton(stud)

Ladarius Green(yeah no need for a TG replacement yet)

Robert Turbin, Alfred Morris(yeah we knew Turner was gone after that season)

Ben Jones(Starting OC for the Texans)

overall, you guys shouldn't be mad we didn't have a 1st round pick that year, the Browns used our pick on Brandon Weeden, most of the people behind him are not super stars, David Decastro might still be solid.

but we could have made it work with a solid 2nd and 3rd rounder for sure...

[jidady]

Konz was actually considered the steal of the second round by some. It just goes to show how much projection (and luck) is involved in the draft process. Konz is one of the physically weakest centers I've ever seen. Don't get me wrong. He'd still whip my butt, but he's not an NFL-strong player at all.

[autigerfan]

Yeah the Alford pick is something that will forever bother me because its not like i just look backed at who was available on the draft sheet and said "oh hey he would have been better". We could do that for every draft, but those are some guys that I and many others really liked so it makes it that much worse when we pass on them and they are looking like studs.

Not sure why everyone is hating on Alford. He has taken his lumps but he has made some plays as well. Not easy being the number 2 to a shutdown guy in Tru.

[Clark Kent™]

Not sure why everyone is hating on Alford. He has taken his lumps but he has made some plays as well. Not easy being the number 2 to a shutdown guy in Tru.

I don't think he is a bad player at all. He gets penalized way too much, but he also is a play maker. I just didn't want to take him in the 2nd round when we tied up our 1st and 3rd for Trufant.

If Asante would have never gotten hurt last year than Alford would have only been a dime back. I wasn't a fan of that idea.

[Clark Kent™]

Konz was actually considered the steal of the second round by some. It just goes to show how much projection (and luck) is involved in the draft process. Konz is one of the physically weakest centers I've ever seen. Don't get me wrong. He'd still whip my butt, but he's not an NFL-strong player at all.

Yeah no upper body strength. I remember Mayock saying "this kid can squat the house". But if you watch him play he looks like a highschooler getting tossed around.

[toadfishtom]

Op it all makes sense to me.The question is how do we fix it?

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say fire Mike Smith and TD

[Clark Kent™]

Op it all makes sense to me.The question is how do we fix it?

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say fire Mike Smith and TD

Firing them is definitely an option. All this talk on Hard Knocks about "toughness is a mindset" and other garbage made me cringe and seemed very forced. You can not just start talking about how you are tough. you either have it or you don't.

And it may be easier to change the attitude around here with a new HC/GM. I don't know, but if we are firing 1 then i prefer it to be Smith before TD.

[takeitdown]

The 2013 offseason was just a disaster. There were obviously poor choices prior to that, but that offseason made no sense at the time, and didn't play out any better in the season. (You go young on D, so you're clearly going to rely on your offense to outscore people...so you bring back an aging TE, yet you go young and unproven on the OL...that just has no logical consistency).

Most people I knew were screaming for Warford in the 2nd (I was.)

The single largest thing, besides giving away picks, that has haunted Dimitroff is missing on so many OL players. He's actually invested fairly heavily in OL, but the misses have forced more resources to be dedicated to OL, instead of other areas. The other large failing seems to be relying on late round draft picks as primary backups or projected starters, instead of grabbing midtier FAs for stopgaps and vet min guys for backups.

[since68andcounting]

Falcons 2012 Draft

(55) - Peter Konz - Center

(84) - Lamar Holmes - OT

Without a 1st and 4th round pick because of the Julio trade, it was imperative that we hit on the picks that we did have and we unfortunately did not. Konz and Holmes are both busts up to this point. Yea Holmes showed SOME improvement, but he did not leave me with the idea that he was the future at either RT/LT position.

Falcons 2012 Season

We went 13-3 and lost in the NFCCG 28-24. We were 10 yards away from a Super Bowl appearance. Some will point to the Julio trade as a set back, but without Julio we aren't anywhere close to winning that game. He had 11 receptions 182 yards and 2 TD's in that game. He was a HUGE reason we were in the position to win.

Falcons 2013 Offseason

So after being 10 yards away from a Super Bowl my thought process was that we would bringing in more quality free agents. Maybe trade up for an impact player early in the draft or even trade a future pick. I'm not saying sacrifice absolutely everything, but trading a future draft pick to get an impact player makes sense to me when your team is that close to being in the Super Bowl.

We released our best pass rusher which was already head scratching to me when we were among the bottom of the league in sacks that year. And we signed Osi Umenyiora. That move is pointless to me. Osi and Abe pretty much cancel each other out. Or maybe we even downgraded. Abe should have been on our roster paired up with Osi. We would have had 2 veteran DE's who can rush the passer. At the very worst it would give us the opportunity to keep both of them fresh throughout the season and insurance if one were to get injured. Like how Abe was injured in the playoffs that year.

Falcons 2013 Draft

I was right about the idea of us possibly trading up. And i don't really have a problem with the fact that we traded up for Trufant because he has been awesome. My problem is with taking Alford with our 2nd round pick as well. So we just tied up our first 3 picks on 2 CB's. Not only that, but everyone knew that Alford was not going to beat out Asante. So after trading a 3rd to move up for Trufant, we took Alford in the 2nd when we knew he would be no higher than 4th CB on our roster because he isn't a slot CB. McClain just came off a great season at this point.

And when Asante got hurt during the season, the first person to switch to LCB was Robert McClain in our base defense. And we went to nickel, THEN Alford played on the outside. That is why i was not happy about taking Alford after spending a 1st and 3rd for Trufant.

The players available at that 2nd round pick who i liked: Eddie Lacy, Travis Kelce, Tyran Mathieu, Larry Warford. I know hindsight is 20/20 but this stings a lot for me because i liked all of these guys. Especially Lacy and Kelce. I talked both of those guys up constantly on this board.

Drafting Kelce would have allowed another weapon to our offense. We could have ran 2 tight end sets with Gonzalez. And allow him to learn from Gonzo's final year in the NFL. You can not put a value on that. (Atleast we did choose Toilolo to learn from Gonzo but he isn't the player Kelce is)

Drafting Lacy would have given us another power back who can carry the load with the aging RB with tons of tread on his tires already. Lacy could have kept him fresh and been insurance incase of an injury (which happened)

Draft Larry Warford would have shored up our RG spot that was a HUGE liability for us.

Again i know hindsight is 20/20 but i was extremely disappointed that we didn't take one of these guys.

Now lets look at what other teams did when they were close to winning a Super Bowl

Broncos 2014 offseason

After losing to the Seahawks in the Super Bowl the Broncos went out and guy quality free agents:

WR Emmanuel Sanders

DE Demarcus Ware

S T.J. Ward

CB Aqib Talib

While all we did was add Osi and cut Abe which basically did nothing for our defense; the Broncos snagged 3 very good defensive players in FA and the season isn't over yet, but as of right now Denvers defense has looked much improved from last season.

Seahawks 2013 Offseason

After losing to us in the playoffs the Seahawks went out and got quality free agents:

DE Cliff Avril

DE Michael Bennet

WR Percy Harvin (traded 1st round pick to acquire)

As we all know the Seahawks had one of the best pass rushes in the entire league and Percy Harvin was a significant player for them as they went on to win the Super Bowl. I think almost everyone on this board would have wanted Cliff Avril or Michael Bennet over Osi. Especially Avril. That guy was awesome in Detroit.

I realize all of this is in the past and you can't do anything about it now, but to me this is where it all went wrong.

Good post. To me the 2012-2013 off season was the worst in Falcon history. The very first mistake was not getting Matt signed immediately after the playoffs. This forced us to keep money in reserve because we didn't know how much it would take. Which had the effect of tying our hands in free agency. Other teams who were close got aggressive and filled multiple holes. We cut a bunch of savvy vets.

People didn't like Dunta but he was a physical presence. He had a well earned rep as a head hunter. He could've been moved to safety and with Moore would've been the hardest hitting safety pair in the league. Instead we resigned Decoud and we see how that worked out.

Letting Grimes go along with Dunta and Asante's release forced us to effectively burn an entire draft on CB. I like Trufant, but Grimes is STILL outplaying him. Once again the fear of Ryan's contract renewal cost us.

And don't get me started on the Abe - Osi story. So we didn't like Abe cause he drank and hung out at the strip clubs. Great, we can field a defense of Boy Scouts and give up 40 a game. You make your choices I guess.

If Dimi wasn't such a Mother flipping cheap a$$, we'd already have our trophy. What the he11 is wrong with TWO pass rushing DE's??? Osi wanted out of NY years ago. Would it have really been so difficult to sign Osi and Abe on the SAME roster???

Makes me wanna PUKE how close we were and how far we now are. After all these years screaming my guts out and putting my heart on the line for this team. Now it's looking like 2012 was 1980 all over again. I'm not sure I have the fortitude for much more of this.

[quotemokc]

Broncos did well with getting good FAs because lots of players probably want to play with Manning and the team is right on track for another superbowl

[Clark Kent™]

Broncos did well with getting good FAs because lots of players probably want to play with Manning and the team is right on track for another superbowl

Yes and the reason i used the Broncos offseason is because we were in that same position following the NFCCG loss to the 49ers. That is when we should have struck while the iron was hot. Signed some big name FA's, trade up in the draft, trade for players. Do something. But we didn't and now we are basically going to have to rebuild.

[Miller2Rison]

i would have loved to draft lacy and kept Jax in STL

[Knight of God]

2012...we took Konz over Osemele. Still could have had a great draft man.

[Clark Kent™]

i would have loved to draft lacy and kept Jax in STL

Could have had them both. Not that i love Sjax but i still think he can play. We have yet to see him behind an average O line. He isn't young like he used to be and be able to create as much on his own, but he can be effective.

That would have been a great duo for 2 years and then have Lacy take over. Two power backs who can also receive out of the backfield. Would have definitely made life easier having a solid running game.

[Clark Kent™]

2012...we took Konz over Osemele. Still could have had a great draft man.

Ya boy Ozzie Newsome.....

[Knight of God]

Ya boy Ozzie Newsome.....

Hey he can manage us too...

He was picked almost right after Konz.