Atlanta Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff took to the media this week, sharing his confidence in the team’s roster heading into the 2018 offseason.
Since Thomas Dimitroff came on the Atlanta Falcons staff just over ten years ago, the Dirty Birds have achieved success that this city had never seen before. Not only was he responsible for bringing Matt Ryan, Tony Gonzalez and Julio Jones to the Falcons, but he’s largely responsible for helping this franchise out of the Michael Vick and Bobby Petrino era.
If you happened to be a fan of the Falcons back in 2006-07, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
In terms of long-time Dirty Birds fans, I know you truly appreciate what this man has brought to Atlanta. We’ve seen Matt Ryan win the league MVP award, numerous playoff appearances and winning seasons, plus historic performances from players this organization got from the NFL Draft. It hasn’t been historically great to be a Falcons fan, but Dimitroff has done his best to make sure that’s never the case again.
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As it turns out, Atlanta is actually in great shape heading into the 2018 NFL offseason. Since Dan Quinn joined as the team’s head coach in 2015, he and Dimitroff have put together a solid roster of “fast and physical” players. Needless to say, it shouldn’t surprise you Dimitroff feels pretty good about his team heading into the 2018 NFL combine.
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Take a look at this quote from Dimitroff in Kelsey Conway’s article from the team’s official website:
"“We are in a very good spot with our roster,” Dimitroff said. “I think we have no real holes across our roster. I think we’ll continue to build our depth and continue to get youth in certain areas that I think will benefit us in years to come.”Although Dimitroff and Quinn consider all options in their plan to build the best team they can, the emphasis remains on re-signing their current players.“We like our roster a lot, we want to have our players be re-signed because we know what are players are and we know they stand for what Dan Quinn as a head coach and our staff stands for.”"
For the most part, I agree with what Dimitroff said above; however, I think the Falcons could have some problems on their defensive-line if they don’t resign some players or acquire a defensive lineman in the early rounds of the 2018 NFL Draft.
Atlanta drafted an extremely talented lineman in Grady Jarrett a few seasons ago, and they desperately need to pair him with another legit lineman if this franchise wants to have the best defense in football.
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As crazy as it may sound to Falcons fans, this defense isn’t far off; however, they need to address this defensive-line need fast.