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  • 6 weeks ago
The Falcons are going to be in the wide receiver and tight end market during the upcoming NFL Draft. Who should take the priority atop their wish list? The Morning Shift discussed.
Transcript
00:00And we've been breaking down the wish list for the Falcons as the draft is looming.
00:05We covered linebacker earlier, offensive and defensive tackles.
00:08Now we've got wide receivers.
00:10Which direction did you go when it comes to a wide receiver, Mike?
00:14All right, stick with me here because I've tried to do this the correct way
00:20and I've tried to not be overzealous about,
00:25oh, well, you know, I'll just take this guy is a first-round draft pick.
00:30You know what I mean?
00:31Like we have to understand where we're at.
00:33I have to stay in our lane.
00:35And I went down pretty deep into this.
00:37And it really is me kind of covering my bases
00:41because I made the statement yesterday or the day before
00:43that if we're going to get past the second or third round,
00:45I don't know if I see us taking a wide receiver.
00:48Right.
00:48Do you remember that?
00:49Yes.
00:49Okay, so I had to like, I had to bring it home.
00:52You had to make sure.
00:52I had to make sure that I wasn't crossing back over myself a little bit.
00:56I went down and there's a reason that I took a wide receiver
01:01past the second and third round.
01:03All right, I'm just going to throw that out there.
01:04I looked at Malik Benson, who's from Oregon.
01:07Malik Benson's been around.
01:09He did play at Bama a few years ago, played at Florida State,
01:11and is now at Oregon.
01:13All right.
01:13He is a 4-3-8-40, 4-3-7-40.
01:17Now, in and of itself, I would be against saying,
01:20okay, let's draft this guy in the fourth round, the fifth round,
01:24whatever it may be, and turn him into a wide receiver.
01:28I don't think he's good enough to be a number two,
01:29and that was my entire point of the day.
01:31If we're going to draft a number two, you better get him in the second round
01:34or you're not getting a number two.
01:36And at that point, I don't need another Devin Tompkins
01:38or some of these other players, you know.
01:42But then I started thinking about Malik Benson,
01:44and one of the things I do know about Malik Benson is he can return.
01:47He is a special teamer.
01:49Yeah.
01:50And Bo's laughing because I guarantee you he went on the same angle.
01:53He is a special teams guy and can return the football.
01:56And while he's not going to be your number two,
01:58he could definitely be a solid slot at a 4-3-7-40
02:02and be a guy that can return the football as well,
02:05much in the like a really athletic like Eric Weems.
02:10And so I just – I was like, you know what, I don't believe in –
02:14I've already gone second, third, fourth.
02:15We've talked about prospects at the top, but I went down and I was like,
02:18if you get a guy in the fifth, you better be a returner.
02:20Malik Benson kind of fits that bill.
02:25Yeah.
02:25I don't know what to say.
02:29I went with a guy that you can get in the fifth, sixth,
02:32maybe even seventh round as well.
02:34All right.
02:36He runs a 4-4-9-ish, 4-4-8, something like that.
02:40Okay.
02:40His name is Kevin Coleman.
02:42Yeah.
02:42Junior.
02:43He's 5'10", about 180, 185 from Missouri.
02:46Played for Missouri last year.
02:49He's – here's what I wrote down.
02:51Here's what I wrote about him like two weeks ago.
02:53Remember we talked about him like a week or two ago?
02:55Yeah, I do.
02:57He was – because they did a top 30 visit with him or something.
03:01Four score – four score.
03:03I sound like Abraham Lincoln.
03:05Four score, seven years ago.
03:06Four schools in four years can return.
03:10It's a good utility play.
03:11Like maybe like end-arounds, jet sweeps, right?
03:15Something like that.
03:15Sure.
03:16He's an average route runner with good yak.
03:19A lot of people see he's a slot-only type player,
03:21but he tracks the ball well downfield.
03:24His knock is he doesn't come back to the ball.
03:26He's not great when someone comes up and plays press covers.
03:31So you get him to get hands-on and try to disrupt your route,
03:34disrupt your timing, that kind of stuff.
03:36That's something he needs to work with.
03:37But to what Mike is saying, the fact that he fills two voids, right?
03:44He's a guy that can come in.
03:46You can get him late, slowly work him in, put him out there in returns,
03:51at least on kickoffs to begin with, and maybe get to trust him on punts.
03:55But he's a guy that does more than one thing.
03:58And when you get drafted late, I've always felt like you need to show that you –
04:03when you're a mid- to late-round draft pick, you have to play special teams.
04:08I mean, right?
04:09Sure.
04:10I mean, there's no doubt.
04:11And this guy can come in and be a –
04:14kind of go to the top of the class, right,
04:16as far as returners and that kind of stuff.
04:19I like him.
04:20I think he's really good with his yak running.
04:22You know, he's a guy that can get the ball in space and make people miss
04:27and end up putting – you know, turning a five-yard little short route
04:33into maybe 15.
04:34That's, you know, moving the chains.
04:35So, to me, if you do what they say you do,
04:40which is build trenches with the early picks –
04:42and I believe – I've gotten to the point where I believe inside linebackers
04:48are really an extension of the trenches because of how they help in the run game
04:54and what their job is there.
04:56But I think he makes you better.
04:57And I think that's the right way to use picking a wide receiver.
05:00Well, I know you guys put these wish lists together,
05:02but we've got to figure out the order of operations on them.
05:05So, 48.
05:07Yeah.
05:08Who would you go with?
05:09Okay, so here's what I did.
05:11I did Lee Hunter at 48.
05:12Okay.
05:13And I think we're all on the same page.
05:15I don't know that we'll stay at 48.
05:16But I did Lee Hunter as my second rounder.
05:19And then – because I picked Kyle Lewis as a linebacker earlier in the show.
05:23He's my third rounder.
05:25He's the linebacker out of Pitt.
05:27Kind of a slot-style linebacker, will linebacker in a four-down thing.
05:30He runs a 4-5-3-40.
05:31I went Demetrius Crownover, the right tackle from Texas A&M,
05:34as my fourth rounder.
05:36Six-foot-seven, 319 pounds.
05:38And then I put Malik Benson in there after that as my –
05:42what would it be, sixth, I guess.
05:43Yeah, my problem is I got a couple of second rounders there.
05:47But if I was going to limit it to one position, I'm going defensive tackle
05:52with the first pick, with the second round pick, with the first pick you have.
05:56I agree.
05:59I go back to what Ulbricht said.
06:01I go back to some of the weaknesses last year with the run defense
06:04and the interior.
06:05I absolutely think that you need that.
06:08And I would probably go with a linebacker there with the third-round pick,
06:11and then you could get Austin Barber and Kevin Coleman in later rounds.
06:16I think they both might be there.
06:17Austin Barber's a wild carcass.
06:19He's either going to go mid-third round with someone who thinks that they like
06:26what they see, or he's going to fall just because of some of the question marks
06:32about speed off the edge.
06:33And I think it also depends on if teams see him as a guy that can flip sides.
06:40I'll be interested to see what they do with guys like that because I do think
06:44that there is this – I think if Terry was still here, you'd be having the
06:48conversation with yourself about an Austin Barber or a Kevin Coleman,
06:51do we have that guy in the building already?
06:54Because I think – look, Jack Nelson is not great.
06:57That's kind of where your next option is.
06:59But he has a lot of the same profile that you're talking about for Austin Barber
07:03and Demetrius Crownover as well.
07:05I want to throw one more wrench into this entire scenario because as I started –
07:09as I continued to work through this, there's one name that kept popping up
07:13that doesn't play any of these positions, and you've talked about him
07:15and I've talked about him.
07:16Once you get past the second-round defensive tackle,
07:21I'm taking a really hard look at Oscar Delp.
07:24Taking a really hard look at Oscar Delp, third, fourth, fifth,
07:27wherever you think you can get him, Austin Hooper's on a one-year deal,
07:31Kyle Pitts is in a contract year.
07:34And you keep hearing – you keep hearing stuff out there about
07:39that they're willing to move with Pitts,
07:42and you keep hearing the GM's comments get recirculated about –
07:48and I'm almost tired of hearing about how he doesn't like –
07:50he's not happy with the five draft picks.
07:52I get it, but I'm almost tired of like, okay,
07:54can we circulate another talking point that we've already heard?
07:58And I don't think he – I don't – that's not me like saying something nasty
08:05or not being nasty about Ian Cunningham.
08:06I know where he's coming from.
08:07I know what his point is.
08:10I sometimes wonder if the wide receiver talk is on a smokescreen
08:14for an Oscar Delp type player because whether Kyle Pitts is here
08:21for another week or another seven years,
08:28you have to get another tight end that can do both.
08:31You have to.
08:32Not only do you need that, but you need it because you're –
08:36if he's here another seven years, it means he's going to be doing
08:38a lot of things other than just being tight end.
08:40Correct me if I'm wrong because I just said this.
08:42Kyle Pitts is on a tag, right?
08:45Don't know.
08:46Austin Hooper, one-year deal.
08:47Charlie Warner's in a contract year, if I'm not mistaken.
08:49Your wide receiver room pass this year – I mean, I'm sorry,
08:52your tight end room pass this year is empty.
08:54You're going to have to do something to address it at some point.
08:57I'm just telling you, once I get past that second rounder or 48,
09:00whatever I come up next, I'm taking a really hard look at some of those guys
09:04in that tight end.
09:05That's great.
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