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In Baker and Jerry, 2 of Dimitroff's 5 1st round picks are looking like busts... I'm not sure I've ever seen another GM who drafted as strongly based on need as Dimitroff does. Sometimes it's worked out, and sometimes it hasn't.

Something tells me Mike Nolan would have found a way to make use of Clay Matthews, had we taken him instead of Jerry... Maybe having Nolan around will also lead to some better use of our draft picks on the defensive side of the ball.

Dimitroff needs to get away from needs based drafting.

Bust is a strong and over used word. Ryan Leaf was a bust. Jamarcus Russell was a bust. Baker has played and started the better part of 4 years. He has played well in spurts...he hasn't played up to a first round pick, but that hardly makes him a "bust".

Jerry is hard to call a bust too. He suffered a major knee injury and has struggled since. Injuries happen in the NFL and it ends careers. Labeling him a bust because of this is wrong.

I agree for the most part. Bust isn't much of a relative term and these guys have had a bit of success but they are "busts" as to the value expected, I guess. Was Aundray Bruce a bust? He played 11 years in the NFL. But you are right. Bust is way over used. That means complete and abject failure as the cases you point to. As to drafting for need, that has always made sense to me esp in the upper rounds because you expect those guys on the field pretty quickly. In truth though, most teams need help everywhere because with FA and injury--not to mention the shortness of the average career--just because you don't think you need a player now doesn't mean you won't prety soon.

Jerry is a bust. And injuries have NOTHING to do with it. He is the 4th best DT on this team today, with a 2nd-year 3rd rounder and 3rd year 7th rounder outperforming him. He had a nice run at the beginning of the season, but fell back into obscurity shortly after that. And the fact is that Peters and Walker aren't really that good. Peters could start on a handful of NFL teams, and Walker is just your average No. 4 DT in most rotations, effective, but far from good.

I agree that bust is an overused term, and really shouldn't apply to Baker. He definitely was disappointing. But he was an effective to good starter for half of his rookie season, all of 2009, and roughly half of 2010. And for maybe about 4 games this year you could call him that. So out of the four possible years in which he could have played for us, he was an effective to good starter for 2.25 of them. So for 56% of the time here in Atlanta, he could be considered decent to solid, 12% of the time he was injured, and the remaining 32% of the time, he stunk.

Can the same be said for Jerry, who has maybe had 6 good games here in Atlanta? He missed 29% due to injury, played well in 12% of them, and the remaining 59% of the time he was a non-entity or stunk.

Peria Jerry at this point in his career is in the same boat as Jamaal Anderson. In that if the Falcons opt to keep him next year, he might finally show signs that he's a capable contributor. But he'll never be good, and you'll just be paying a guy $2M to be a rotation guy, when you can probably get a guy with similar ability a third of the price (see Walker, Vance).

Barring the biggest turnaround we've seen in Atlanta in like forever, the Falcons might as well move on. I'm not saying they should cut him, but they should definitely see the DT position as an important need.

He blew out his knee a few games in to his rookie year. He's never recovered from it. How can you say injuries had nothing to do with it?

Injuries are merely an excuse. Yes, you can write off the 2009 season due to injuries. But what about last year? They say he wasn't 100% healthy, which is why he was underachieving. But I don't really buy it. Why was he underachieving this year? He's had 2 whole years to recover from any knee problems before going into this year. If he's not performing, then it's ability, not durability.

At least with Baker, he can say he was decent to good in probably half of the games he started. Jerry isn't even a starter. He's a marginal backup, and now that he's been healthy for 2 years, injuries are no longer an excuse.

The bottom line is that when Jerry has been on the field for the past two seasons, he is not good. Harry Douglas hurt his knee and plays a position where speed is much more important, and at least from time to time when he gets on the field, he is actually good.

The only way you could excuse his play is if he was a 6th or 7th round pick like Vance Walker. And he's not as good as Walker is. And Walker is J.A.G.

It's simply abject failure, it's failure period. There's really only 3 things you can be in the NFL and be considered OK: 1) A good role player (e.g. Chauncey Davis), 2) an effective starter (e.g. Stephen Nicholas) or a 3) good starter (e.g. Sean Weatherspoon). Jerry is none of the above. And if you're not any of those three, then what are you? A guy that is just collecting a check for doing essentially nothing. At least Jamaal Anderson was an effective role player his last year in Atlanta. The same has yet to be said of Jerry.

Wha???? Did you really just write that? Knee injuries can be devastating and have ended THOUSANDS of careers in the NFL.



I'm so dumfounded by that statement, especially from you, I had to paste it again. I'm guessing you're not an athlete and never had played sports. Even the most nagging injury can affect a players results.

See the difference AJ51, is that you believe his ineffectiveness was caused by the knee injury. And I believe his ineffectiveness has little to nothing to do with the knee injury, just that he is just not that good a player.

Now the Falcons have never fully disclosed the severity of Peria Jerry's knee injury. The implications are that he tore multiple ligaments, but among them were not the ACL.

I'm not saying knee injuries don't affect players. But the way medicine and orthopedics are that it except in the very rare cases, they shouldn't prevent people from being effective.

But the way I see it, is that Peria Jerry is a fairly marginal NFL football player. If you were to look at DTs that suited up for the Falcons over the past decade, to me he would be in that same group of guys with Chad Lavalais, Antwan Lake, Trey Lewis, and Montavious Stanley as far as journeyman guys that don't really merit sticking around for more than 1-2 years.

The knee injury is not the cause of that! Hundreds of NFL football players get hurt and have comparable knee injuries to Jerry, and they don't suddenly become marginal. Dunta Robinson, Harry Douglas being two prominent examples of this currently on the team. Players often come back diminished, but they don't come back non-existent.

I'll give him a pass for 2010 because of him coming back from the knee injury. But he showed little to no improvement this season, which to me I cannot blame on the knee injury. Am I really that crazy for thinking that's no longer an excuse?

If Harry Douglas was just a non-entity for the entire year instead of the 4-5 good games he did actually have this year, no one would be blaming his knee injury for his lack of production. They'd simply say that he just isn't that good to begin with.

The exact same applies to Jerry. Now I expect Jerry to be back given the Falcons M.O. And if/when he shows significant improvement, and goes from a marginal No. 4 DT to a good No. 3 DT, then I'll give him credit and remove the bust label from beside his name.

But I'll reiterate, if Peria Jerry was any good, knee withstanding, we would have seen more of it by now. But other than his forced fumble on Vick in Week 2, the dude has been a non-entity and for like 6-8 weeks in the middle of this season, I would have had no qualms calling him the worst defensive player on the team out of the 20-21 guys that are active every Sunday this year.

An unprovable supposition from either sid eof the argument. He played far too little before the injury to know anythign about how he would do in the NFL and there is no way of knowing how it has effected him afterward. End result is that he has been a marginal player and not worth what he cost..

You're right bnb, I can't prove it one way or the other. But if I was to suppose that your typical/average NFL player was 67%-80% of the player after a season-ending knee injury compared to what he was prior to the injury. If that was the case with Jerry, then the guy he would have been sans injury is still J.A.G.

I got to agree..... Someone might not have liked the pick, but I watched this guy limping the whole second season all year..... That shows
to me he wouldn't recover; I don't think you can compare; Remember Bryon Hanspard ? Only difference was we saw him one year!!

It doesn't really matter, Coach Smith has shown with the younger players he'll hang in longer than I think he should; but we've agreed he's
conservative. Probably the only guy that could say is Robert Orr of the Ravens if they were on the field together last year. I think in college
he'd know how Jerry stacked up to the guys he plays with now.....(maybe)

as far as 'injuries' go, wasn't Peria in college as well? maybe THAT is what we need to be looking at...Maybe this was a situation where TD made a mistake in needs based drafting by getting a guy who was injured at Miss State and came here and injured himself on Arthur's dime.

If were going to make the argument that injuries can turn a first round pick into a J A G there are too many others who have overcome said injuries and regained form, and other lower picks who have overcome injuries as well.

That being said, Baker is most definitely a BUST. The LT position is the most critical on the line, and a first round pick should play better then he has. But, we knew alot about him before he was drafted. We knew he had short arms, had trouble with lateral blocking and leverage. The last 2 can be improved upon, but he never improved. If it was any other position, I would be more forgiving, but LT is the one position you dont mess around with. If Will Svitek is beating you out, and you are a first round pick, you are officially a bust IMO.

And Peria needs to have a telethon, because he just plain sucks.

I do think Walker is better then a 4th down DT, though.

Exactly. Not to mention Jerry was already 25 years old as a rookie. He was a risky pick, and it backfired.