| Carl Setterlund. 5th May, 2006 - 7:07 am
 Picks:
1st Round: none (John Abraham trade)
2nd Round: Jimmy Williams, CB, Virginia Tech (37)
3rd Round: Jerious Norwood, RB, Mississippi State (79)
4th Round: none
5th Round: Quinn Ojennaka, OG, Syracuse (139)
6th Round: Adam Jennings, WR, Fresno State (184)
7th Round: DJ Shockley, QB, Georgia (223)
You have to take into consideration what Atlanta got with their first round pick, which ended up being defensive end John Abraham from the Jets. I’m not sure what I think about the Abraham trade. When you consider that Abraham signed a 6 year, $45 million deal which is way more than what Atlanta would have paid the fifteenth selection, as well as that Abraham is almost 28, getting the Pro-Bowl defensive end seems more like split than anything else.
Trading up for Jimmy Williams in the second round was a shrewd move and ends up giving the Falcons a first round caliber player from this draft.
I like Shockley as a developmental quarterback especially since he’s seems like a winner, so that was a nice move at the end of the draft. However, I’m not high on the picks in between the aforementioned. Jerious Norwood is a burner in the true sense and it’s true that Warrick Dunn is getting old and TJ Duckett has underachieved, but I never like taking RBs late in the first day. It seems that that position ends up being such a crapshoot after the second round that if you want a running back, it’s not much difference picking one up in the sixth round instead of the third.
At first I thought the pickup of wide receiver Adam Jennings was a nice pickup, but I immediately realized they took the wrong Jennings. Although Greg Jennings (WR, Western Michigan) went before they could pick him, Derek Hagan would have been a better choice in the third round had Atlanta been decisive about getting another receiver.
This draft was decent at best. Jimmy Williams could end up being the only keeper out of the bunch, and I don’t feel the John Abraham trade deserves high praise. The Falcons aren’t in trouble, but could have set themselves up better for the future.
Grade: C +
During the entire month of May, RealGM's Carl Setterlund will be providing team-by-team analysis of the 2006 NFL Draft. |
