17. Atlanta Falcons (17)
A 7-9 record is the last thing the Atlanta Falcons expected in 2018. It wasn’t too long ago they were within minutes of winning the Super Bowl as they had it all in front of them following a superb 2016 season that saw Matt Ryan win the NFL MVP Award. Then in 2017, they were the lone NFC team to make the playoffs as a returning team from the prior campaign.
Feeling as though they were still contenders, Atlanta got to work but things just kept going wrong. Devonta Freeman was hurt for a big chunk of the season as were a couple of key defenders such as Deion Jones and Keanu Neal. The injuries were too much to overcome and they missed out on the playoffs.
Instead of chalking it up to bad luck and saying they were dealt a bad hand, general manager Thomas Dimitroff and head coach Dan Quinn looked at where they needed to improve most. To them, that happened to be up front as they selected guard Chris Lindstrom with the 14th overall pick. They then traded back into Round 1 to grab right tackle Kaleb McGary.
While the price for both was high, it was proof that they believe they can remain competitive on offense with better protection. We’ll see if they’re right, but at least for now we can say their logic does make sense.