The Atlanta Falcons have a lot of holes to fill. Not only are they really thin on defense, they are reportedly trying to trade tight end Kyle Pitts and just about everyone knows Kirk Cousins will be shipped out sooner rather than later. In short, they need to add quite a bit.
Here’s a big problem: The Falcons only have three significant draft picks and five overall (two are seventh rounders). With many needs to fill, they could recoup some picks unloading Pitts and Cousins, but they could also dangle the No. 15 pick as trade bait. And, apparently that’s what they are doing.
Daniel Flick of Sports Illustrated says that Falcons have a “for-sale” sign hanging on the that fifteenth pick.
“The Atlanta Falcons have dropped subtle hints publicly about their interest in trading down in the 2025 NFL draft at various points this offseason — and evidently, they’re doing it privately, too,” Flick writes.
“Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot started the conversation during his end-of-season press conference Jan. 9 after being asked about Atlanta having just five selections in the draft, which starts Thursday.”
Fontenot sounds like he wants to move down
General manager Terry Fontenot is on the hot seat in Hotlanta. He’s been the general manager since 2021, is 29-39 during that time and has never even had a .500 season. Most industry experts would consider that to be poor.
The Falcons need a lot of help and Fontenot sounds like a guy that wants more picks to fill all of the roster holes.
“We can pick up some draft picks,” Fontenot said. “We’re picking at 15, so obviously we can move down and pick up more capital in the first or the second round, wherever that is. We’ll have those discussions and determine.”
Even owner Arthur “pardon me while I induct myself into my own team’s ring of honor” Blank thinks the team is moving down.
“We have five (picks) — could end up more than that,” Blank said. “You just never know.”
The problem with trading out of No. 15 has way to more to do with the strength of this draft than it does anything else. Adam Schefter remarked a couple months ago that the general belief in league circles is that this is not a strong first round, and that the strength of the draft is really in rounds three, four and five.
“The player you get at No. 10 in this draft is similar to the player that you get at 35,” Schefter said.
So, it’s not immediately known which teams would be willing to make a jump up to the middle of the round. It would probably have to be a player the team had a high grade on that somehow slid to striking distance at 15. It would be that or an opportunity for a quarterback. Otherwise, the smart money seems to be for other teams to stay put.
The Falcons draft situation
As mentioned before, the Falcons don’t have many picks in this draft. Yes, technically they have five, but when you get to the seventh round, you’re essentially dealing with undrafted free agents unless some serious problem child like Vontaze Burfict in 2012 slid all the way down.
The Falcons picks are as follows:
Round 1, Pick 15: This is their own pick.
Round 2, Pick 46: This is their own pick.
Round 4, Pick 118: This is their own pick.
Round 7, Pick 218: Acquired from the Browns via the Chargers.
Round 7, Pick 242: Acquired from the Rams.
It’s not known which teams – if any – would have any interest in moving up. How far would they move up? What are the Falcons’ demands? No one knows at this point, but it seems like if there is any chance the Falcons can acquire more picks in this draft, they’ll take that phone call with alacrity. It’s safe to assume many NFL general managers are going to see a (404) area code on their cell phones between now, the start of the draft, during the draft and the end of the draft. And then after that.
