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VINNY CURRY

HT: 6-3

WT: 266

40-yard dash: 4.64 (at Pro Day Wednesday 3/14)

Vertical: 35.5 (3/14)

Bench Press: 28 repetitions (225 pounds) (3/14)

Hometown: Neptune, New Jersey

Key stats: 77 tackles; 22 tackles for losses, 11 sacks and seven forced fumbles.

Let’s move on to the draft.

There are only a few matters left in free agency. What’s going to happen to Curtis Lofton, John Abraham and Todd McClure?

The Falcons are still reportedly interested in defensive end Kendall Langford, but he’s in Cincinnati today talking to the Bengals.

We’ll do this little DRAFT SPOTLIGHT feature leading up to the April 26-28 draft. We’ll try to take a look a guys who’ll be available when the Falcons draft with the 55th pick in the second round.

I haven’t been in the mood to do a Mock Draft since the Falcons don’t have a first round pick. That kind of takes the fun out of it.

But here’s some information from Mr. Curry, who was a team captain for the Thundering Herd as a senior.

Q: How did you perform at the Senior Bowl?

A: My goal going into the Senior Bowl was just to prove to the world that I’m legit and I can play with the best of them. It definitely was a great experience, and I felt like I did a pretty good job for the most part. I just (want to) continue to build on that success.

Q: Do you have to keep proving yourself because you played at Marshall?

A: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. But I like stuff like that. I love being the underdog. I feel the underdog always works harder, always has something to prove. That’s my personality. I feel like I always have something to prove. I just love to work, I love to get better.

Q: Was your production consistent?

A: Oh yeah. That’s one thing about me. Our coaching staff preached competitive excellence. Basically, can you make a play when your number is called? For the most part, me being a team leader I had to always be at competitive excellence, no matter what it was. So I would definitely say yes.

Q: How did you get so many forced fumbles?

A: This year, coming into the season, everybody knew I was coming off a really hot junior year. Basically I knew what I was getting myself into this year as a senior with game planning and double teams and triple teams and chips and sometimes quadruple teams … So my defensive line coach, Fred Tate, he sat me down one day. He said, ‘What you going to do, man?’ I’m like, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘You got to do something else to separate yourself from the rest of the defensive linemen in the country.’ So I worked on stripping every day. If you look at my strips or forced fumbles, they’re not really from the quarterbacks. I only had one quarterback forced fumble. The rest came from running backs and chasing down screen plays. I worked hard at that.

Q: You had a lot of tackles for loss too. Do play honest in terms of playing against the run?

A: Oh yes sir. That’s another thing that I pride myself on, stopping the run and then getting after the quarterback.


http://blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-falcons-bl ... lcons_blog

Vinny Curry is a guy I've had my eye ever since the end of the season when people stopped mentioning him as a potential late 1st rounder. IMO, he's got first round talent, and after the top few guys is the only DE that I think has the potential to be an impact pass rusher.

Unfortunately, Curry looked strong at his pro day last week, which moved him up from a mid-to-late 2nd round pick into potentially a Top 40 pick.

Not to mention, that I don't think the Falcons plan on drafting a DE anymore. Because that would require that they made a mistake by committing money to Kroy, Abe, or Ray. Or it means that they will be forced to cut either SIdbury or Matthews this summer.

We've carried 5 DEs since '09 when we drafted Sidbury. It would be ridiculous to carry 6, and if the Falcons use a pick on a player in the first 3 rounds, he's a lock to make the roster.

With Abe under center, unless the Falcons like one of these LTs like Zebrie Sanders, I'm fairly confident at this point that TE will be their top pick.

Josh Robinson, CB, UCF

Book it, dude is gonna be a stud...

I only saw one UCF game this year, but in it, Robinson looked like a 7th round pick to me. Granted, I do tend to grade CBs lower upon initial viewing, and it really requires seeing a body of work in order to determine if a guy has what it takes to be a top pick. But rarely, have I ever graded a guy that low upon first viewing and then them turn into anything more than a 4th/5th round guy with subsequent viewings.

As far as I know, the chances a really good impact player falls to No. 55 for the Falcons I think is low based on current draft projections. And because the Falcons are such a needs-based drafting team, I would be surprised at this point if they drafted anything besides a TE with their top pick. The best two guys in this class are Allen & Fleener IMHO, and I don't see either falling out of the Top 45 or so picks.

Orson Charles would normally be the guy that the Falcons could/would target, but I"m not sure how much the Falcons will factor his DUI arrest into their grade. It shouldn't be that much of a factor, but you never know with the Falcons, they love "black dotting" guys.

The more I think about it, the less impressive this draft class is. It's not a weak class by any means, but typically every class is going to be strong/deep at one position, and I'm not sure this class is. I think it's solid at a number of positions, but there is nothing that really stands out IMO. It somewhat reminds me of the '07 class, which had a few standouts (Calvin Johnson, Adrian Peterson, Joe Thomas, Patrick Willis, Revis, Woodley), but for the most part it was a bunch of guys that have become solid pros.

And given where the Falcons are picking, I think we'll coup a draft class comparable to ours then, with us potentially getting a Justin Blalock & Chris Houston-type of player with our top 2 picks. One that will become a solid starter for 5-7 years here in Atlanta, and one that can be a competent starter, but probably won't be the type of guy that we'll bend over backwards to re-sign when his rookie contract is up.

Although in truth, that's pretty much what every TD draft class has entailed.