What If?

Pudge · **Posted:** Fri May 04, 2012 7:54 pm

If the Falcons had stood pat last year and not traded up for Julio Jones, let's imagine that they would have taken Gabe Carimi in Round 1 (which according to Michael Holley in his book War Room is said to be the guy there were targeting at No. 27). Then in Round 2, they would have seen TOrrey Smith still on the board in the middle of the round, and traded up 5-10 spots to make sure they got him. In so doing, they would have only had to probably move the pair of their 5th round picks. That way they could still draft Dent in Round 3, and now wouldn't need to trade up to get Quizz in Round 5, they could have selected him in Round 4. So the 2011 draft would have been this:

1. Gabe Carimi, OT, Wisconsin
2. Torrey Smith, WR, Maryland
3. Akeem Dent, LB, Georgia
4. Jacquizz Rodgers, RB, ORegon State
6. Matt Bosher, P, Miami
7. Andrew Jackson, G, Fresno State
7. Cliff Matthews, DE, South Carolina
7. Darrin Walls, Cb, Notre Dame????

Then with all of their picks in 2012, our draft could have looked like this:

1. ???
Options: OG David DeCastro, OT Riley Reiff, DE Whitney Mercilus, LB Don'ta Hightower

2. ???
Options: OC Peter Konz, OT Mike Adams, LB Lavonte David, DE Vinny Curry

3. ???
Options: OT Lamar Holmes, WR TY Hilton, DT Brandon Thompson, CB Jayron Hosley

4. ???
Options: WR Jarius Wright, WR Keshawn Martin, WR Nick Toon, CB Brandon Boykin

Man, our O-line could consist of: LT Gabe Carimi, LG Justin Blalock/Harvey Dahl, OC Peter Konz, RG David DeCastro, RT Tyson Clabo if the Falcons had played their cards right. Maybe LT Riley Reiff, LG Justin Blalock, OC Peter Konz, RG Harvey Dahl, and RT Gabe Carimi?

Sure, you can say hindsight is 20/20. But you can also say that you are blind when you lack vision. :wink:

Had the Falcons addressed their OL and WR needs last year (by taking Carimi and whatever WR in Rounds 2 thru 5), then they could have turned around and addressed their need to get more playmakers in the front 7 this year, by drafting a combo of Mercilus/David or Hightower/Curry in the first 2 rounds.

RobertAP · **Joined:** Tue Jan 10, 2006 3:15 pm **Posts:** 3534

As great as Jones is, I believe that a scenario such as this would have been considerably better for our team.

takeitdown · **Joined:** Sun Sep 16, 2007 2:01 pm **Posts:** 925

I agree that would have overall been better. Not to make it 100% revisionist, here's a draft I did the day of knowing where guys went (instead of mocks where you choose a guy who went in the 4th in the 1st, you just take the best of who is available at your spot in the draft before you know anything about how they'll actually play).

I had:

1 Derrek Sherrod or Gabe Carimi
2 Randall Cobb or Greg Little
3 Alex Green or Kendall Hunter
4 Rashard Carmichael
5 Mike Mohamed
6 Virgil Green
7 Greg Romeus, Punter...

I didn't have Torrey Smith since he didn't fall all the way to us (and since I still don't know if he can catch a contested ball). You could easily sub our picks at any of the later rounds, obviously.

Had we done a draft like that last year, I would have likely gone DeCastro and then TE in the 2nd, RB/WR in the 3rd or so.