Clay’s Court: Have your cake and eat it, too

Now that the dust has officially settled on the Atlanta Falcons 2024 draft class, I thought I’d give my take on it.

This column comes with a disclaimer, however. I am by no means an expert on all 27,396 players eligible for the NFL draft, and outside of my own team (who I won’t disclose out of shame) I didn’t watch too much college football this year.

That being said, my opinion will come almost strictly from a roster construction standpoint.

I’ll start with the first, and most controversial, pick the Falcons made: Michael Penix Jr.

To be totally honest this was just about the farthest thing from what I thought Atlanta would do.

What I wanted them to do was draft one of the EDGE guys (Dallas Turner, Laiatu Latu or Jared Verse) in the first round, and grab a receiver in the second round. Or if they chose, draft one of the high-profile receivers with #8 and get some EDGE help in the rest of the draft.

But, drafts in any sport rarely go the way fans want them to, and so we have Penix.

I’ll admit outside of halfway watching the national championship I don’t know much about him except for what I’ve read. The people say he’s got the best deep ball in the draft (Kyle Pitts rejoice) and is always looking to give his receivers a chance to go up and get it.

Considering Drake London is our WR1 and we have a grossly underutilized Pitts the thought of that excites me.

His biggest issue in his draft profile was dealing with pressure, as well as some accuracy issues when it comes to anything but throwing absolute bombs.

As you read the last little bit I’m sure you probably scoffed and said, ‘Yeah all that’s great but we just gave an old QB 180 million dollars.’ To that I say, good point.

That’s the most controversial part of this pick. Kirk Cousins, who was unaware Penix was going to be the pick, just arrived in Atlanta with a juicy contract that will see him get 50 million per year the next two years.

So at a minimum Penix will sit for two years, potentially four. Instead of drafting someone that could have helped the team immediately, there are people saying we wasted the #8 pick.

I understand where those people are coming from. But I will try to offer a voice of reason and optimism.

Yes, Cousins will be our starting quarterback for a minimum of two years. He’s guaranteed 100 million through those. He has 10 million guaranteed in the third year, and if the Falcons want they can terminate the contract in the fourth year without paying any money.

So if Cousins has any issues with health or getting back to the level he was before, the Falcons can cut their losses in year three and only dish out 10 million and have Penix start after sitting (and hopefully learning) for two years.

After having Marcus Mariota and Desmond Ridder for the last handful of years, I think the front office refused to go any time soon without quality quarterback play. I also think they figure we won’t pick this high again with Cousins at the helm, which I’d say is a fair bet.

So while it isn’t ideal that we didn’t get a day one quality EDGE guy or receiver this year, I don’t think we’re winning the Super Bowl with Cousins anyway.

I think we’ll win 10-12 games the next couple of years, and maybe if we’re lucky have an exciting division championship appearance before we eventually move on from Cousins (or he retires).

The vision is for Cousins to be a building block, and for Penix to take us to the next level in two to three years.

Despite what Twitter and the rest of the internet will tell you, Atlanta made more than one draft pick last week.

The Falcons traded up to pick 35 to select defensive lineman Luke Orhorhoro from Clemson, who’s considered to be an insane athlete who can contribute against the run as is, but he’ll have to work on his pass rush.

With pick 74 Atlanta addressed the EDGE with Bralen Trice from Washington.

Evidently he led the NCAA in pressures over the last two seasons, and while he likely won’t become a star he’s projected to be a pretty good day one contributor in the Falcons’ new 3-4 scheme.

Pick 109 saw Atlanta take defensive lineman Brandon Dorlus from Oregon, who people are saying can run inside and outside the line as well as limited time at EDGE. He projects to be a utility player who has the tools to be a really promising addition.

Linebacker JD Bertrand from Notre Dame was the Falcons’ 143rd pick. He’ll join the likes of Kaden Elliss and Nate Landman in Atlanta’s inside linebacker core and is said to be a capable tackler who’ll probably end up as a backup and special teams guy.

The Falcons went for offense in their next two picks, who are also projected to be fighting for special teams spots.

Pick 186 and 187 were running back Jase McClellan (Alabama) and receiver Casey Washington (Illinois) respectively.

McClellan will probably be the third back, who’s evidently pretty solid at blocking and a physical runner. Washington is a speedy receiver who projects to be a pretty solid all-around guy but will probably see most of his run time on special teams.

The final pick of the draft for Atlanta was 197 and they took another defensive lineman, Zion Logue from Georgia.

Those reading this will know infinitely more about him than I will, considering I didn’t watch much Georgia this year (a hint to my allegiance for you), but he’s said to be big, strong and useful against the run pretty immediately.

Obviously I’ve got to do some more digging on our draft and we won’t know how good it is until we see some real snaps in the fall, but honestly I’m pretty excited about how we’re looking heading to the new season.