Terry Fontenot has not been good in the NFL Draft since taking over as the Falcons ‘ general manager. It’s that simple, and his first draft class has almost completely dissipated with Richie Grant now signing with the 49ers, according to Jeremy Fowler.
Of the Falcons’ nine-man 2021 rookie class, only one remains on the team — Kyle Pitts. And if trends continue, we will likely watch the highest-drafted tight end in league history leave next offseason.
Richie Grant, Jalen Mayfield, Darren Hall, Drew Dalman, Ta’Quon Graham, Ade Ogundeji, Avery Williams, and Frank Darby are all gone. Some of those losses surely do benefit the team. Addition by subtraction is certainly the case for guys like Grant and Mayfield.
However, the one that hurts the most is Dalman. The Falcons haven’t had many successful draft “hits” during Fontenot’s tenure in Atlanta, but the fourth-round pick out of Stanford was one of the few, and the team watched him walk in free agency yesterday, inking a three-year deal to join the Bears.
While he has done some good work on the pro personnel side of things, Terry Fontenot has been awful in the draft. There’s no two ways around it. He just flat out hasn’t been good in that facet of the job. Sure, there are excuses that can be made, like recycling defensive coordinators or a head coach’s influence, but at the end of the day, Fontenot is the GM, and the buck has to stop somewhere.
